#TheTreatment #CLTaylor #Review #YAFiction

October 15, 2017

#TheTreatment #CLTaylor #Review #YAFiction

THE TREATMENT

by C L TAYLOR

*My thanks to the publisher from whom I received this book via NetGalley in return for an unbiased and honest review*

“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.

Well, it's no wonder I requested this as well as preordering it, and I will almost undoubtedly be buying it for every teenager I know this Christmas. It's C L Taylor. She's brilliant.

So it seems that not only can Taylor write the most compulsively page turning psychological thrillers for adults, she can also write the most compulsively page turning dystopian fiction for Young Adults. The Treatment has a great concept. There are a few other novels that explore similar ideas about sinister institutions and aggressive means of attempting to reform wayward teenagers, but it's always an idea that will enthral and fascinate any reader. Here Taylor brings a fresh twist and once again casts her spell, creating a truly engaging and exciting story that will have readers of all ages hooked to the last page.

I'm not going to say too much about the actually story in this review because I want you to discover the book for yourself and I think the blurb does a great job of establishing the premise of the story. The main characters are well crafted and there is a lot of action which keeps driving the story forward. There is a lot of dialogue which feels authentic and there are plenty of twists, turns, surprises and moments of drama. It is dark, it is chilling and unsettling. It provokes that delicious that 'what if' thought and that moment of drama and tension when you find out something more sinister is afoot. Everyone loves a story about families, schools, mysterious goings on and authoritative institutions. It's going to be a popular read.

Taylor does not patronise her Young Adult audience with a dumbing down or a simplified use of language; she respects them and gives them a novel that can be read by teenagers or adults, that delivers a gripping story with believable characters about issues that are relevant and emotive. Just as her adult fiction can be used as a case study in how to write the perfect psychological thriller, this novel also illustrates how to write the perfect dystopian novel for young adults. Taylor is a talented author with a gift for storytelling and accomplished understanding of pace, structure, tension and characterisation.

It's been a while since I read any Young Adult Fiction but it's a genre I used to be addicted to, particularly when I was a Secondary School Teacher. It's a genre where you often find some of the most exciting novels that challenge genre, break boundaries, explore complex ideas and use unusual or threatening situations to produce some of the most thought provoking and sophisticated stories. The Treatment does all of this.

Pacy, full of authentic dialogue, convincing characters, exciting storytelling and insight, this is a five star read.

The Treatment is published by HQ on 19th October 2017.