The Program
Contents:
An Irish sports journalist becomes convinced that Lance Armstrong's performances during the Tour de France victories are fueled by banned substances. With this conviction, he starts hunting for evidence that will expose Armstrong. Ben Foster, Chris O'Dowd, Guillaume Canet. The Program (working title Icon) is a biographical drama film about Lance Armstrong directed by Stephen Frears, starring Ben Foster as Armstrong and.
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There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. The Program is set in the not-so-distant future in a world where suicide has become an epidemic. Seventeen year old Sloan lost her older brother to suicide, which makes her high risk herself.
When Sloan ends up being sent in for treatment, she vows to fight every step of the way. I really loved The Program, and the concept when you think about it is incredibly sad for so many reasons. The thought that anyone under the age of 18 basically has no control or say over their own minds, memories, and thoughts is horrifying. They are expected not to grieve for losses because otherwise they might get flagged for being sick. They have to live their lives walking on eggshells and hiding their emotions. The topic of suicide hits really close to home for me, and in the beginning of the book, one suicide is retold through memories and another happens in real time.
I cried through both. I was diagnosed with depression in and started medication for it, and in when I was 17, I attempted suicide. I can relate to the feeling of complete and utter hopelessness that makes you feel like ending your life is the best option. I still struggle with depression and anxiety, but overall am doing well and am in a good place, so no worries there. Okay, so enough about me and back to the book.
Aside from the book being written really well and triggering a lot of emotions in me, I loved the characters. I adore Sloan and her boyfriend James. They had such a cute relationship and I loved how it felt like they were only completely comfortable and open around each other, and no one else. My heart broke with they both went thorough The Program and had their memories altered.
Overall, I adored the book and recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the YA genre. It was a 5 star book for me! This book was recommended to me by a friend, so I thought I'd check it out. I ended up reading the entire thing in one afternoon about 5 hours. Overall it is very energetic and gripping. The story progresses at a decent pace, and is filled with love, drama and suspense. The way it builds out the characters, their stories, then washes it all away, leaving us, the readers as the only ones who really know the full history is really unique and interesting.
Reading as the characters then struggle to understand and adapt to their new realities. The open discussion of suicide, depression, mental health and medications were particularly interesting, and I feel like it would resonate particularly well with teens. The Program is a dystopian idea but the way it is implemented in this story makes it very believable, as if it could become an actual future. I took off a single star only because the romance is a little cliche and because the book doesn't really stand up on it's own.
The ending leaves you hungry for the sequel and the epilogue really throws everything you thought you understood out of wack.
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I think a lot of the questions and uncertainty will be answered or at least addressed by the second book, which I've been told is the best of the series. I start on that one today: I had such high hopes for this book. I breezed through this in 2 days and while I enjoyed reading this, I kept wanting it to take a turn into a much deeper, complex world than it actually was.
I think I had such high hopes and if I were to write this novel, I would have taken it to a much different direction and here's why and how. In part 2 of the book, when Sloane was in The Program, Realm was introduced. I wished so much to get to know Realm. He was dark and kind of a jerk and we don't know why. But I wanted more from him. Secretly, I wanted him to be the main protagonist and we as a reader don't really know whether he's really on Sloane side or working for The Program. Especially after in Part 3 when it was revealed that he loved Sloane, it was just really hard to believe that he fell in love with her only from knowing her in the Program.
What I really wanted was for Realm to have had a past with Sloane and that later on revealed that both Realm and Sloane to have gone through the Program more than once. So both of their memories were wiped before and that the book began with Sloane and James but it was 2 years after she's gone through the Program which erased her memories of Realm.
The Program review: Stephen Frears’s Lance Armstrong film is dope, actually
I wanted Realm to have somehow found the purple pill, took it and his memories started to come back. Hence he's infiltrated the Program and wanted to help Sloane from the inside.
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I also wanted Sloane and Realm then to work together from the inside to find out why the Program exists and why teenagers are getting this "disease". I think what bothers me most if that there's actually no explanation as to why this world has become this way, which I feel is kind of just a cop out for the author.
It's like she didn't think about it so why write about it. But readers want to know!!! Anyway, I wanted a "big bad" and there wasn't one.
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It would have been nice to have them end this first book with Realm, James, and Sloane on the run just kind of like how it ended in the actual book and the next book will all be about how the three of them come to expose the people behind the program. I didn't like James as much as I thought I would. I wanted to like him but just couldn't feel for him as much. If this book went in the direction I wanted, I still thought there could have been a love triangle, but if done well, James could have still been a great person and had a happier ending in the end but have Realm and Sloane have a much deeper back story.
Also, what really didn't work for me was that most of the part 3 part of the book was us as readers going on a journey with Sloane to piece together her memory. Memory that we already know because we read about all of it in part 1. I think this approach is rather a waste of time and I wished for more mystery and intrigue rather than watching someone retrace their steps. Ugh I just had such high hopes for this book. I could have been so much better and just wanted it to work so badly! I have book 2 but I don't know if I'm looking forward to reading that at all!!!
One person found this helpful. See all reviews. Most recent customer reviews. Published 23 days ago. Published 1 month ago. Published 2 months ago. Published 3 months ago. Published 4 months ago. The world needs heroes and Lance Armstrong was the ultimate sporting hero. Following a gruelling battle with cancer, Lance returned to his cycling career in more determined than ever and with his sights set firmly on winning the Tour de France.
With the help of the infamous Italian physician Michele Ferrari and team director Johan Bruyneel, he developed the most sophisticated doping program in the history of the sport.
This program allowed Lance and his American teammates to dominate the world of cycling, winning the Tour an unprecedented seven times. However not everyone believed the fairytale Sunday Times journalist, David Walsh, at first charmed by Lance's charisma and talent, soon began to question whether the 'world's greatest athlete' was 'clean'. Walsh sought to unveil the truth, his ensuing battle with Armstrong risked his own career, ostracised him from the cycling community and cost his paper, The Sunday Times, hundreds of thousands in legal costs.
But the indefatigable Walsh eventually uncovered the truth when a select few prepared to talk came forward, exposing one of the greatest deceptions of our time. Ben Foster as Lance Armstrong. Jesse Plemons as Floyd Landis. Chris O'Dowd as David Walsh. Lee Pace as Bill Stapleton. Guillaume Canet as Dr. Laura Donnelly as Emma O'Reilly. Elaine Cassidy as Betsy Andreu. Evermore as Lead Tailwind Exec. Sam Hoare as Stephen Swart. Daniel Stewart as Times Lawyer. Ancuta Breaban as Sales Person. Barrie Martin as Diner. Todd Terry as Tailwind Exec. John Schwab as Floyd's Attorney. Nathan Wiley as Charles Pelkey.
JD Roth-round as Armstrong's Bodyguard.
The Program () - Rotten Tomatoes
Alex Dobrenko as Chris Hamman. Guy Potter as Journalist. Lasco Atkins as Journalist. Hugh O'brien as Journalist. Robinson as Orderly Jones. Lesa Thurman as Woman in Book Store. James Harkness as Wayne. Nicolas Robin as Christophe Bassons. Alexander Bracq as Wedding Guest.
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