Review: The Epidemic by Suzanne Young

Series: The Program Book #4

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 378

Rating: 4 Stars

How I Got It: Purchased or Gift (I can't remember)

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads

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 one, 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.

Review

***Trigger Warning for Suicide***

What do I say?

I enjoyed this and read it pretty fast. But The Program just set the bar so high that everything else feels kind of like a let down.

There was a lot of interesting mysteries. The stuff surrounding Virginia was the most compelling. But when it came to who to trust, Quinn was a little spastic for me. She would almost randomly decide to trust or distrust. I don't care if she's right or wrong, but I need some sort of reasoning.

One of the hardest things to wrap my head around is a spoiler. But if you've read The Program it wouldn't be a spoiler.

So, you've been warned.

The ending is hard to make satisfying because you know they won't be successful in stopping the suicide epidemic and the Program. It also makes it hard to be compelling enough to keep reading.

Now, I'm definitely a happy ending kind of person. I just think you should know that.

Ms. Young did a good job of building in hope to a depressing ending. But I'm still struggling with how I feel about this ending. There's just too many conflicting thoughts in my head.

Thanks for reading!

Holly