The Adjustment

February 15, 2017
Tatum will risk everything for the sake of Weston's memories. Now, in this fifth series installment, the unexplained teen suicide epidemic has abated, and the Program to erase memories has been shuttered. The former patients, called returners, are being reintroduced to their normal lives and to high school with whatever remains of their recall. Tatum is heartbroken that her boyfriend, Weston, doesn't remember her or the love they shared before he was taken into the Program. He is desperate to remember his life, so Weston and Tatum, both white, decide to try an experimental procedure called the Adjustment. This will implant Tatum's recollections into Weston's brain patterns, which will, they hope, cause his own memories to grow. As a few reminiscences return to Weston, the trade-off seems high, as Tatum starts to have excruciating headaches, for which her grandmother gives her questionable treatment. Tatum's impassioned present-tense narration, especially during the implantation sessions, gives urgency to the story and to the details of the relationship she shared with Weston. Like the others of the series, this is a well-crafted page-turner that manifests surprise at every turn. Via the concepts of free will and memory manipulation, the storyline fancifully explores existential identity, with a bit of a paranoid edge. The fiction is further layered with the dubious appeal of romantic destiny. An intensely dark teen romance set within a tale of communal identity crisis. (Dystopian romance. 14-18)

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April 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 Tatum Masterson has survived the epidemic of teen suicides that started this series, but her boyfriend of two years, Weston Ambrose, was subjected to a harsh treatment that stripped him of his memories. When he returns to school, not knowing Tatum or remembering their relationship, she is devastatedand then hopeful when he is drawn to her yet again. Tatum and Wes decide to try a new treatment called the Adjustment, where memories from a donor are implanted, but those memories are corrupted, which causes havoc. It's an interesting premise, and fans of the first two titles will be happy to spend time in Young's dystopian near future, pondering the nature of memory and attraction. Interesting secondary characters and a satisfyingly happy ending round out an essentially formulaic plot. Note, too, that with so much backstory, this title won't stand alone, and the plentiful plot holes may vex some readers. Fans, though, can buckle in for another good ride.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2017
Tatum's great love, Wes, was released from The Program when the brutal, memory-altering regime was put to a stop. She wants to help Wes regain his memories, but another procedure might be just as dangerous. This is a fifth distinct, realistic story spun from Young's original dystopian premise introduced in The Program; fans still engaged with the rather drawn-out series won't be disappointed.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)