Title: The Adjustment
Author: Suzanne Young
Publisher/Year: Simon Pulse 4/18/17
Length:   416 Pages
Series:  The Program #3

Overview

How do you go back to a life you can’t remember? Find out in this follow up to the New York Times bestselling The Program and The Treatment.

Tatum Masterson never went through The Program. She never had her memory stripped, never had to fight to remain herself. But when Weston, her longtime boyfriend and love of her life, was taken by handlers, she hoped he’d remember her somehow—that their love would be strong enough.

It wasn’t.

Like all returners, Weston came back a blank canvas. The years he and Tatum spent together were forgotten, as well as the week when he mysteriously disappeared before The Program came for him.

Regardless of his memory loss, Tatum fights to get Weston to remember her. And just as they start to build a new love, they hear about the Adjustment—a new therapy that implants memories from a donor. Despite the risks, Tatum and Weston agree to go through the process. Tatum donates her memories from their time together.

But the problem with memories is that they are all a matter of perspective. So although Weston can now remember dating Tatum, his emotions don’t match the experiences. And this discrepancy is slowly starting to unravel him, worse than anything The Program could have done.

And as the truth of their life together becomes clear, Tatum will have to decide if she loves Weston enough to let him go, or to continue to live the lie they’d build together.

Prepare for your Adjustment.

My Thoughts

It’s been quite some time since i’ve been in this series and i have to say that it’s come back with vengeance.  I couldn’t be happier with where this story has taken us.  We’ve gone through The Program with several characters, we’ve read about their backstories.  We’ve spent time with those who are brought into the mix to help families adjust.  And still, there’s so much further that this story can be taken.

In this next installment, we are at a point of time in Portland where the Program has been closed down as we knew, but there are so many who have been treated and now have to find their way back into the world where people aren’t accepting really and no one knows what life will be like for those out of the program now.

Tatum is our lead – she’s been living through high school as the Program has taken it’s toll on all the kids around her.  her boyfriend was taken into the program and their love story was cut short. He’s now returned back to high school with no memory of Tatum, and that’s both heartbreaking but hopeful all the same.

The journey that we go on with Tatum and Wes is a complicated one.  They find their way back to each other but it’s not quite the same as before since Wes doesn’t remember anything.  It’s intense to see how their connection grows and extends even under these new conditions.  Of course, that’s all made more complicated when they learn of The Adjustment, which is supposed to be a treatment that brings back memories so that the returners can begin to live their best life.

Where the story goes from there is so complicated and dark that you get sucked in.  We see that secrets begin to unfold, both with Tatum keeping secrets from her grandparents about what she’s doing with Wes.  They adore him but with their background (gram being in medicine and Pops being a reporter), there’s so much fear and skepticism that Tate has no choice but to hide things.

While they see progress with The Adjustment, there are so many setbacks as well.  Even in the grand scheme of things in the school, there are issues arising.  So many of the returners are having issues and are killing themselves spawning a new epidemic.  Then we see one girl Vanessa who’s gone through The Adjustment start to have problems stemming from memories, paranoia etc.  She makes us start to think about things differently and it starts to make you think about what’s really going on again since all is definitely not how it seems.

Where we end this next installment is nuts.  Things that we thought we knew about people were completely false and backstories on others are beyond fabricated.  Friendships and relationships were not at all clear and when we see characters that we love and adore either die or lose themselves again, it makes you anxious to see what’s next.  I honestly cannot wait for what’s to come in this series since there’s so much that has not been resolved.  Enjoy!