The Remedy

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.