The Programme: Book 1: The Programme Trilogy - the completely believable and gripping YA dystopian trilogy that will have you holding your breath in suspense

by I.S. Thorne

Alexis Valentine is a normal teenager with a normal life. Until now… Now, normal no longer exists. On turning sixteen, she learns of the plan to save a world decimated by a virulent strain of influenza – a plan that will save humanity but destroy its very essence. Embarking on her predetermined path, living an existence without choice or control, her life is no longer her own. It belongs to The Programme. Compliance is mandatory. Like it or not, she has to do her duty. They all do. Entering The Programme is just the beginning. And what do you do when everything starts to go wrong?

Genres: Fiction, Dystopia

370 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 14, 2018

Reviews

[Jadzia Smacks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great debut novel, had me gripped from the off. Can't wait for the next instalment...finished this one within 48 hours and am left on a cliff hanger of what possibly can happen next!

[Scott Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic

I could not put this book down!
Great characters, great plot, unexpected turns, and an easy fluid writing style.
Can’t wait to start the second book!

[Becky Lockyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not really sure how to review this to be honest. It wasn't bad, and I was interested throughout. But at the same time, I don't know that I liked it that much either. The concept was interesting - it reminded me of Black Mirror. But the main character/narrator was infuriating and I found myself irritated with a lot of the characters. I think I'm older than the target audience here so it didn't impact me like it was supposed to. I'm not sure I'll pick up the rest of the series but it was an okay read.

[Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally I only started this series because barely anything is ever set in scotland and that where I’m from. But omg I couldn’t put my kindle down while reading this trilogy. I was very pleasantly surprised and I’m glad I read it. Don’t get me wrong it’s pretty messed up but that’s what makes a good book sometimes. The story line was really good and even though it was YA. The descriptions of where the characters were and stuff was so real you could picture it and the whole story was gripping and kept me wanting to know what happens next.

[Matt Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Aye, mate I s'ppose" - Every page.

Quite an interesting premise actually.

Will I read the next one? Aye.
Is that because it's free? Aye.

[vale van der poel · Rating 2 out of 5]

an editor, please!!!! my life savings for just one fucking editor.
yes, i read this cause it was free, and i needed those easy-to-tear-through dystopian yas so i could get back on track with my reading goal.

WHAT was this?!?!! the amount of decapitalisations, lack of punctuation and somewhat atrocious spelling.... even the credits section had some sentences that were not even slightly grammatically correct. my YOUNGER SISTER would be ashamed. i understand it was free and all, so i'm not going to overly complain or judge the plot/etc, but surely a grammatically correct and accurately punctuated collection of 370 pages is the basic minimum one can expect.

nice that it was set in scotland, i guess?! do the scots even talk like this,.,, cause this feels so stereotypical and not an accurate portrayal of them. honestly i couldn't gaf about adam or cooper or cole or whoever the narrator was. only character i could even slightly care about was evie mainly because she was a homosexual character and i was expecting to read about the various tortures that the suuper evil institute had put that community through etcetera.

characters fell completely flat, like, i get that the fmc needs to stick to a roughly sameish mould for the book to pass publishing and whatnot but couldn't the side characters have been experimented with!? coulda had cooper have more traits that are generally considered feminine or have cole just express his demons and have more emotional depth.

also, the inconsistencies. i swear alexis said thomas was dead and she gets some goofy ahhh letter going "thomas sends love!!" or something. i dunno what i read. might read on just for evie idk

[Cat Furniss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I'm enjoying this book, but I have a creeping suspicion that maybe it had an AI helping hand. It certainly didn't have a practiced editor. The reason I say this is because nearly every line of dialogue- of which there is a lot- contains a character's name, and people just don't speak that way in real life, especially when talking one on one. It's so jarring at one point I had to put the book down and take a break. There's also a lot of different ways to say a character said a line of dialogue, they're said, whispered, shouted, growled, sobbed... reminds me of being told to not use 'said' repeatedly in GCSE English.

That being, ha, said...
I did stay up several hours past bedtime due to the book being engaging. I found some of the feelings and situations to be moving and relatable- sobbing along with the protagonist at one point. I will finish book 1, but I'm not sure if I'll continue due to the poorly written dialogue constantly using the character names- once you notice it, it's a constant irritation. Certainly a promising book, but could use a loving edit.

[Mia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of the only books I had downloaded in my kindle from ages ago and so I read it with no context.
I mean I read it in one day non-stop so it wasn’t that bad.
But also, it was.
It felt very cliche and domestic violence was being thrown at me alongside suicide and a lot of stuff which although was expressed as impactful, felt very surface level.
I honestly did not like the characters and I found the way that they were expressed as very unrealistic and unreasonable.
I think the overall concepts are good, it felt very influenced by the handmaiden almost. But the execution of each plot felt not drawn out enough and the dull parts with Adam were drawn out too long. Honestly it just felt like they were unnecessarily throwing knives at each other to no end. I also don’t like how it ended with the typical ‘welcome to the resistance’. I think I would have enjoyed this more when I decided to download it on my kindle in the first place.
But I must say, the book does well to have you hanging onto each page.

[Salli Maddalo · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like The Hunger Games and dystopian fiction, this book is a great one for adults and teenagers! It’s part 1 of a trilogy.

I was honoured to be a proof reader of this book in its draft format! But the final copy is exceptional. My teenage daughter also read this book cover to cover in a few days which is the first time I’ve ever seen her read a book so fast.

Definitely recommend. The author is a natural!

[Chloe Cottle-Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book! It has very an interesting plot and themes, and I do find myself wanting to read on constantly, so for me that’s a good sign. It’s definitely a YA book - I have struggled a bit from the perspective as I can tell it’s quite juvenile, and the main character isn’t my favourite, so it’s a bit more difficult to get through certain bits, but not difficult enough to stop reading! That’s the only thing stopping it from being a for me.

[Ava Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve read this books before, and I completely forgot two things
1. How bad some of the characters were
2. They were all Scottish
Not a bad book, cool concept (why does the kindle version have such a long title!) but I don’t really like the main two characters, I prefer Nina and Steve, Evie for example. Alex just kinda annoyed me, but I will give her some leniency due to the situation. Decent for a quick read that you’re not to fussed about

[Charlotte Bowman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Griping

A really good read, I believed in the characters and the story. Taken by surprise at times. Definitely have to read the next book.

[Naomi Burrage · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable

Found it to be a bit of a slow starter, I almost put it down but once you really get into the story it gets more enjoyable

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely addictive! I feel bad for Cole though I can’t even lie about that and the use of aye every 4 pages was slightly irritating

[Maddison Hagland · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good!

It’s taken me 3 tries to get into it but I really enjoyed this in the end.

[Emily Rutt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the worst I’ve read.

A classic example of boil the YA-dystopian down to its basics and remove any real personality :/.

[Emma F · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Alex (alexsbooksehlf_) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one didn’t really deliver for me sadly. I thought the concept was really interesting and the plot is pretty good. Any fans of popular dytopian fiction like the handmaids tale and the maze runner this might be one for you! I personally love both of those but this just fell a bit flat. I think one of the major things for me was that I found the main character Alexis soooooo incredibly irritating I couldn’t really empathise with her and the awful things that were happening to her. This is also marked as a YA book on Amazon but I’m not sure it’s appropriate for that audience because of the physical and sexual abuse content so please be mindful of that. I found how those sections were written felt really uncomfortable other than for obvious reasons, but that might be reflecting the characters feelings and thought processes rather than that of the author.

There is also a big focus on teen romance in this book and the emotional impact of the situation they find themselves in, so any fans of that genre may enjoy that aspect also! This is the first in a trilogy and I have a feeling that the action is about to ramp up so I think I might give the second one a go eventually. I have seen great reviews for this so don’t let my thoughts put you off! *It’s on Kindle Unlimited at the moment too*

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

New to reviews so I’m bullet pointing to make it easier for me …

It was just off 5 stars for me due to the incredibly slow start, very nearly turning into DNF. Also ‘Aye’ was hard to me to hear in my head and threw me off when I was on a roll with reading, I tried to tell my brain to hear ‘Yes’ instead 😅

Hunger Games, Divergent, the testing, maze runner fans will love this. ‘Radical but not impossible’ dystopian read.


- I really enjoyed the character progression for Alexis from young girl to incredibly strong woman. After all she went though.

- Cole gave me bad vibes from the start.

- I have mixed feelings about Cooper, I love how protective he is but I still feel like I want to know more of where his head is at. I loved loved loved his defiance at dispersal so I’m hoping to see more of this in ‘The Resistance’

- Adam 😭💔

Really enjoyed. Looking forward to the next!

[Valkyrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here are some quotes to help you decide weather or not to read this book:

The bus driver, resembling the child-catcher.

“What’s the point in being hot if you don’t show it off?”

The last thing I hear before I drift off to sleep is David Attenborough’s soothing voice and I can’t help but smile.

My dad says that a leopard doesn’t change its spots; but I didn’t know how true that was until this very moment.

“Life’s too short for grudges, Alex. He’s trying to fix his mistakes now.”

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's alright, a little sad and should have a trigger warning but I do think it is well written and I can't wait to read the next ones!