Title: The Epidemic
Author: Suzanne Young
Publisher/Year:  Simon Pulse 4/19/16
Length:   278 Pages
Series:  The Program #0.6

Overview

Can one girl help others find closure by slipping into the identities of their loved ones? Find out in this riveting sequel to The Remedy and companion to the New York Times bestselling The Treatment and The Program.

In a world before The Program…

Quinlan McKee has spent her life acting as other people. She was a closer—a person hired to play the role of the recently deceased in order to give their families closure. Through this process, Quinn learned to read people and situations, even losing a bit of herself to do so. But she couldn’t have guessed how her last case would bring down her entire world.

The only person Quinn trusts is Deacon, her best friend and the love of her life. Except Deacon’s been keeping secrets of his own, so Quinn must set out alone to find Arthur Pritchard, the doctor who’s been trying to control her life. The journey brings Quinn to Arthur’s daughter, Virginia, who tells Quinn the truth about Pritchard’s motives. The former closer will start to see that she is the first step in fighting an epidemic.

But Quinlan doesn’t want to be a cure. And with all the lies surrounding her, she realizes she has no one left to rely on but herself—even if she doesn’t know who that is anymore.

My Thoughts

We have grown very close to Quinn, Deacon and even Aaron throughout these companion books to The Program series, and i think that it’s really great to see how things all came into play since we know that there was an epidemic of suicides which spawned the creation of the Program and it’s not from a good place.

At the end of The Remedy, we learned that while Quinn has been living her life as a closer – pretending to be someone else, she’s actually a closer herself.  She learned at the very end of the book that she’s been living as Quinn and that’s not her true identity.

So we pick up when Aaron and his GF (a non closer) were running away to live a ‘normal’ life as best as they could, and Deacon and Quinn were running to Roseburg to find the dr who’s responsible for the grief department and all that the closers have been doing.

On this journey though it focuses a lot on trust – who you can trust, what everyone’s motivation is, and whether there’s going to be any resolution to the nonsense that’s been going on.  Quinn begins to feel like Deacon again isn’t being honest with her and actually feels that he’s against her given that he received a text that was looking for her – so she runs from him as well, and just when she thinks that she’s safe, she realizes that someone else is trying to harm her, and off she goes again.

It’s a roller coaster to be honest – emotions all over the place, new characters being introduced all the time and old ones coming back to make things even more complicated.  Marie – their adviser plays an interesting role in all of this, and i think that Virginia herself is something of an enigma.  She’s at the center of the suicides that started all this for Quinn and even back home where Virginia lives, so it’s just a matter of time before things really begin to get dicey.

Bits of the Treatment and Epidemic are coming out as we learn more – and we see that even closures aren’t immune.  Folks that we care for die, and folks that we want to have hope for lose it.  I still don’t know if at the end of this prequel, that we know who we can trust.  Tom – Quinn’s dad isn’t what he seems, and neither is Marie.  I feel like Deacon, Aaron and Quinn will continue to have their struggles too and it’s not going to be good.

The nice setup here though is that if you haven’t read the rest of the main series you get a glimpse into the set up of it all, and you’re not seeing it as a spoiler.  There’s also a hint into the characters that we really fell in love with from the other part of the series as well and i think that it’s really great to see how the evolution of it all happened. Suzanne Young is def becoming one of my favorite authors because of how she’s able to weave the stories together without making you feel like you’ve had to read the others to get it.  it’s impressive.

Anyway – have a great wednesday all and i’ll be back soon!