3A Independent Reading discussion

Everyone is getting sick, when I say sick I mean they want to commit suicide or so the government thinks. When the men in white coats notice any sign of depression they take the person away and completely brainwash them then they go to a rehab school and may slowly work their way back to a regular school. The main characters had a friend, Lacey, she went through all of this, her parents were the ones who told the government they thought she might be "sick" and got her taken away. Salone, James, and Miller (old friends of Lacey) try to go to this rehab school which is forbidden and try to see if Lacey can remember them. I still don't understand why this is "forbidden", but they almost get caught and Miller is the only one who gets a chance to talk to her and she doesn't remember him at all, even though they used to date. How would brainwashing a person help with their depression and why on earth would your own parents be the ones to turn their own child in, just for that child to be brainwashed and for them to completely forget everything? That is just plain insane!! Why would a person's parents want to put a child through so much pain?! Salone is afraid to get caught by her parents when she is upset, thinking her parents might turn her in and that is not the kind of world a child should live in. Salone never cries in front of them ad after seeing Lacey not remembering her, James, or even Miller she loses it. She rushes into the kitchen before she starts to cry in front of them and intentionally burns her arm on the stove just so she can cry (43) . This world in this book is messed up and nobody knows what is causing this "suicide plague".

Are they making "depression" an excuse to take the kids away? I wonder if they are using them for something and brainwashing is part of it.

The parents are trying to "help" their kids by sending them to rehab and the separate school because they can see the signs of depression and they don't want to lose their child to suicide too. The other things will be answered in the other books and all of those factors are the things that make the idea of the program so controversial. The parents are seeing it as a good thing because it ca keep their kids from committing suicide, but the kids can see how it affects everyone that goes through it.

I feel if this was a real thing then people would be faking happiness all the time or just scared because they don't want to go there. Do you think this book will have a good twist at the end? Do you think the program will be shut down.