The Remedy

March 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-In this prequel to The Program (S. & S., 2013), Young tells the story of Quinlan McKee, a closer who helps families grieve the loss of their teenage daughters by temporarily posing as the deceased to provide families with closure. Families pay lots of money to get closers to dress up as their dead children, spend a few last days with them, and say to Quinlan what they wish they could have said to their daughters. Quinlan is one of the best, but being a closer has its drawbacks: she's a social pariah and often feels like she doesn't know who the real Quinlan McKee is. When she's given a long assignment to help the family of Catalina, a young girl who committed suicide, she sparks a forbidden romance with the dead girl's boyfriend and begins to lose sight of reality and forget who she really is. With the help of her ex boyfriend-turned-best friend, Deacon, she's able to snap back to reality with a renewed resolve to uncover the secrets of Catalina's death. This poignant and well-written novel does an exceptional job of providing fans of The Program with a vivid picture of how the suicide epidemic began. The end will leave readers thinking about the mysteries surrounding Quinlan and Catalina long after they've finished, and the loose ends leave the story open to the possibility of a sequel. VERDICT With three-dimensional characters and perfect pacing, this work won't disappoint fans of the first novel.-Candyce Pruitt-Goddard, Hartford Public Library, CT

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2015
Quinlan has an uncanny ability to become someone else, especially if that person is dead.Working for an elite government program, Quinlan is a "closer." She enters the lives of the bereaved and temporarily plays the role of the deceased in order to bring closure to the grief-stricken. Having had this job since she was a child, 17-year-old Quinlan is starting to feel hairline fissures in her psyche, finding it increasingly difficult to recall her own personality. Quinlan is driven both by compassion to help the despairing and pressure from her father, who is the head of the grief department. Her latest assignment requires deeper immersion than ever before, and her father is secretive about the details. She becomes Catalina, a beloved daughter who died of mysterious causes. Catalina's boyfriend, Isaac, is included in the assignment, and Quinlan, her own loneliness heightened by his need, finds herself drawn to Isaac's desperation and passion. As the melancholy and eerie story unfolds, Quinlan realizes that no one is telling her the truth, and her life has never been her own. Exploring the topic of memory manipulation as a cure for distress, this stand-alone prequel offers shadowy references to Young's previous novels, The Program (2013) and The Treatment (2014). A visceral exploration of the eternal and misguided search for pain-free happiness in an almost-now Brave New World. (Dystopian romance. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2015
Quinlan has always worked for her father's company as a Closer--an actor/counselor who helps grieving families recover from tragic losses by temporarily "becoming" lost loved ones. While on an unusually complicated assignment, Quinn begins to suspect a conspiracy. Set before The Program, this prequel adds layers of intrigue to the series, but it also stands alone as an engaging psychological mystery.

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

April 1, 2015
Grades 9-12 Seventeen-year-old Quinlan McKee has been a closer for 11 years, briefly moving into the lives of families who have a lost a child of her age to provide therapy for those left behind. She impersonates their dead child so the family can experience closure, with one more chance to say all they need to in order to move on. It's emotionally exhausting, but with her boyfriend, Deacon, a closer himself, and her father, a doctor who counsels grieving parents, it's the only life Quinn has ever known. She feels a strong commitment to helping her families, takes pride in her work, and handles the stress fairly well until she receives an assignment whose unusual circumstances hint at some sort of foul play. This companion novel to The Program (2013) and The Treatment (2014) will appeal to the same audience of romance readers and fans of psychological thrillers. There are plenty of plot holes that require suspension of disbelief, but the intriguing premise, swift pace, plentiful chapter hooks, and shocking ending (which demands a sequel) will have readers staying up late to finish it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)