About the book
Format: Paperback
Publisher: HQ Stories
Published: 19th October 2017
Pages: 384 Pages
Genres: YA, Contemporary; Thriller.
The Blurb
All sixteen-year-old Drew Finch wants is to be left alone. She’s not interested in spending time with her mum and stepdad and when her disruptive fifteen-year-old brother Mason is expelled from school for the third time and sent to a residential reform academy she’s almost relieved.
Everything changes when she’s followed home from school by the mysterious Dr Cobey, who claims to have a message from Mason. There is something sinister about the ‘treatment’ he is undergoing. The school is changing people.
Determined to help her brother, Drew must infiltrate the Academy and unearth its deepest, darkest secrets. Before it’s too late.
Purchase the book: Amazon UK | Book depository
Review
You’re probably familiar with C.L Taylor’s The Missing, The Lie and The Accident. But, Taylor has set upon the Young Adult world with her new novel The Treatment.
Set in a Residential Reform Academy, sixteen-year-old Drew Finch needs to save herself and her brother. Her brother Mason is classed as an unruly teenager, but sending him away from home won’t help, surely? Drew needs to investigate the RRA and get her brother out – she’s not convinced it’s as innocent as people suggest. The academy is shrouded in secrecy and its residents know nothing of its treatments. In fact, neither do we, until Drew is subjected to how they are ‘reformed’. Let’s just say it doesn’t involve talking things through!
Prior to her admission, she researches the academy, but finds no evidence of its wrongdoings, or ‘bad nature’. She finds a lone SnapChat user (YA reference) that warns her about what can happen; they meet, Drew gets worried and is admitted into the RRA.
Given that Drew was admitted to the academy for being troublesome only once, she put herself through a lot for the sake of her brother. I understand she cared for him deeply, but believing the words of one woman who she barely knows seems strange. She’s a kick-ass character that takes no crap and makes unlikely friends in other residents that help her out.
The Treatment was incredibly fast-paced and action-packed, with points of apprehension that left you asking: why/what/who?! The YA nature pops out in the form of your ‘typical’ teenage lifestyle. Drew has a high school bully, she’s insecure and is a young girl unsure of her feelings. I say typical quite loosely because I’m sure not every teenage experience the above. As much as I am a YA advocate, some adults may think the nature of Drew and her friends is a little childish, but that’s all preference really.
After reading C.L. Taylor’s YA offering, I should probably put some of her other novels in my basket, too! I’m sure I won’t be disappointed.
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