Thursday 19 October 2017

Book Review - The Treatment by C.L. Taylor

Amazon UK
Title:  The Treatment
Author: C.L. Taylor
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: HQ Young Adult
Publication Date: 19th October 2017
Rating: 5 Stars


“You have to help me. We’re not being reformed. We’re being brainwashed.”

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.

I feel a bit dazed, I'm not completely sure what happened in real life for the past couple of hours, as I was completely absorbed in The Treatment. I suspect there is a chance I may have nightmares tonight, as a result of what Drew and Mason had to go through in this book. 

I'll admit I was a bit worried whether an author I absolutely love was able to write a Young Adult book that I would also enjoy, being quite a bit older than the YA audience, however other than the characters being a bit younger, the situations were gripping, the writing draws you in and hopefully my breathing my return to normal. 

I was hooked on The Treatment, absolutely none of it played out how I expected and I absolutely could not put this book down once I started reading it. You are warned - clear time in your busy day to sit and just read this book. 

It is so different to almost everything I have ever read, the only thing I can think of is I felt some similarities to The Demon Headmaster series, but given its been perhaps over 20 years since I read those I don't recall the specifics other than the same general feeling I had reading those.  The book is terrifying but not in a horror sort of way, just that its chilling what can happen to the human mind. 

I really can't say much about the plot, as it moves as a quick enough pace that I may accidentally give away spoilers. Suffice to say Drew is one special young woman, and I really liked her, whereas most of the other characters I wasn't sure on. It is the sort of book where you really aren't sure who you can trust. 

The Treatment is C.L. Taylor at her best, its been ages since I was this hooked on a book to the extent that I didn't even think about doing the many other things I should have been doing! i was only interested in the story and didn't even notice the time going past which is a good indication of how absorbed I was. 

Thank you to Netgalley and HQ Young Adult for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

1 comment:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...