This timely high-concept SF thriller is sure to be a talked about title, making it a recommended purchase for most collections.

The premise of this book drew me in as I really enjoy dystopian, political books.
Overall it kept me engaged, however the characterisation sometimes let it down. Grace is supposedly a very intelligent psychologist but often made silly mistakes without thinking, and some of the characters around her felt a bit flat (Shannon and dan).
Parts of the book where the treatment was described was horrifying so the descriptions were good, but the pacing towards the third quarter lacked until we got to the action packed ending.
The twist at the end did surprise me and overall I enjoyed it.

Nothing sucks as much as when a novel you know could be truly good and entertaining ends up squandering its potential. Based on its description, blurbed by Stuart Turton, one of my favourite murder mystery/thriller authors, and citing a quote from Anthony Burgess’ “A Clockwork Orange”, I was expecting Sarah Moorhead’s speculative fiction debut novel “The Treatment” to sweep me away into an Orwellian nightmare of state-controlled prison society, presenting its readers with moral dilemmas and ethical conflicts to engage in and ponder over. Instead, the novel lost itself in its own set-up, too focused on the fickle emotional state of its characters rather than the greater overall implications of said characters' doings.

Set in a narratively relatively unexplored and underdeveloped futuristic London and in a society in which nothing seems to have changed except the fact that smartphone-like devices are now called shells and alcohol has been substituted with mood-changing drinks, the future of law enforcement has arrived in the form of the four-tiered “Offender Treatment Programme” in which offenders are classified into Tier One for low-risk crimes, Tier Two for crimes resulting from trauma and addiction, Tier Three where they are exposed to aversion therapy and cognitive punishment, and Tier Four which is simply called Siberia.

It is when Tier 2 working rehabilitation psychiatrist Psychologist Grace Gunnarsson is offered a job at the top-secret Tier 3, and the re-appearance of her oldest childhood friend the government is looking to admit to Tier 3 coincide, that things spiral out of control.

Putting too much on Grace’s repetitive and sometimes extremely boring inner monologue, the novel didn’t get across the supposedly horrifying treatment of the clinic’s tier three inmates as neatly as it might have thought it did. This is partly due to the writing, partly due to how unbothered and frankly, uninterested, the story seemed in building upon its initial premise. The writing was not nearly strong enough to convey the shock and terror the reader was probably supposed to feel when reading about the psychological warfare wrought on Tier 3’s patients. The whole set-up of using psychology to manipulate emotion coupled with drugging the re-offenders and forcing them to watch their crimes being played back at them, should be terrifying enough to equal 1984’s darkly dystopian setting of Big Brother and the Ministry of Love.
A pity then that the story chose to ignore its inherent potential and focus all its attention on a rather annoying character driven by nothing else than the desire to save her childhood friend, which, in an attempt to get readers to care, was reasoned as important due to their shared difficult upbringing.

As it turns out, with Grace’s childhood friend on the run and the constant danger of his Tier 3 procedure looming over him and weighing heavily on Grace’s consciousness, an attempt was made at engaging the audience on an emotional level, but when that doesn’t take place before the 80% mark, it is much too late to turn an emotionally distanced reader into a someone sweating blood and tears over the main characters’ fates.
Grace’s regurgitated exclamations of how “horrible”, “evil” and “nightmarish” Tiers 3 and 4 are, remain hollow, then. “Yeah, so??” I asked myself. “Get me emotionally invested in the fate of the people entering Tier 3, and then we’ll talk.”

It didn’t help either that so much of the novel’s secondary plot revolved around rape, attempted rape, and mentions of rape that resulted in me going back to check whether the author wasn’t a man as the casualness of how rape was talked about and consistently woven throughout the plot reminded me of male-authored 90’s gas station pulp fiction. Grace is sexually assaulted at least once, and so are two other female characters. Out of the group of three antagonists, one is a rapist who assaults at least two women on the page, and the other, whom we get POV chapters from, spends most of his time thinking about his deceased girlfriend who was raped and then murdered.

I am no Puritan demanding a ban of rape from literary fiction simply because, but I do feel strongly about only including on-page rape if it contributes to the story in a meaningful way and drives the narrative and/or character development forward in a way that is neither exploitative nor serves as mere embellishment. Given that this is not the case here, I fail to understand the reason for the constant threat of rape looming on every female character’s horizon.

Finally, the anticlimactic ending that came with several foreseeable plot twists did not satisfy me in any way. Given my general disinterest and lack of emotional engagement, I received it with mute acknowledgment and little to no excitement. A shame this novel proved to be such a let-down, but it would have needed much more work to convince me of its merit.

As always, thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for granting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In a dystopian future, Grace Gunnarsson works for Janus Justice, a private contractor that has taken control of the treatment of offenders. Their treatment has Tiers One through to Four, with the first two dedicated to the reforming of criminals & taking away their need to offend to survive, whilst the second two levels are more punitive. Grace works for Tier 2 as a psychiatrist but is asked to step in for a colleague on a Tier 3 treatment. Grace is reluctant as she disapproves of the treatment which involves the offender reliving their crime but as the victim or Aversion therapy. It may seem harsh but results seem to be encouraging, until Grace's reporter husband tells her that there are reports that those supposedly cured by Tier 3 & released are reoffending. Grace is, therefore, distraught to see the name of an old childhood friend on Janus's files, Remy went through Tier 3 but has reoffended & his fate is now to be taken to Tier 4 known as Siberia, where there is no hope of ever escaping. As she tries to help her old friend, Grace realises that a flaw in the system is allowing people to get away with murder.

First of all, the concept for this is brilliant - I really liked the whole tier-system of justice plot line & I thought it was well-written on the whole. I did think that one of the guilty parties was far too easy to spot though & can't believe that Grace didn't have a moment's doubt about them. Grace also made some rather silly decisions for a supposedly intelligent woman, where just thinking about things for a moment, would have perhaps made her realise that something wasn't right. She was also perhaps just a little too obsessed with her old friend, Remy. Overall, it was a great concept but the main character missed the mark at times. 3.5 stars (rounded up)

TWs: violence, murder, sexual assault, abortion.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Canelo, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

The Treatment – Sarah Moorhead

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

I do love a dark and speculative thriller and this did not disappoint. Set in the near-future, this book is focused on our justice system, and whether rehabilitation or punishment is the better tactic. A tier system is devised to tailor to the approach, with tier one being a supportive intervention for small offenders, up to tier four being a sort of living hell there’s no coming back from. Already ethical alarm bells are going off, right? Well, in addition, the efficacy of the treatment is being called into question as someone has found a way to get away with murder.

Wonderfully written with sufficient psychological, scientific and technological detail to make the premise terrifyingly real. Excellent characters with clear motivations, written in a way that keep you questioning your initial judgements. Grace, our protagonist, whilst she’s not without flaws is genuinely well-meaning, just trying to make the world a better place. Some of the others are less likeable, but I love a good villain or three!

As well as entertaining this book is a thinker, it touches on moral, societal and ethical issues that left me considering my own feelings. It’s a book I’ll be thinking about for a while.

TL;DR

It’s like Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange and M. J. Arlidge’s Eye For An Eye had a baby, then John Marrs raised it.

Thank you NetGalley and Canelo for the advanced copy of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This isn't the easiest book to review without giving away a lot of the plot.
In as simple a way as possible, it's set in the near future, and the justice system has been reformed as a tier system, with different levels of dealing with crime, focusing on reform, until you reach levels 3 and 4 which are a whole different ballgame.
It follows Grace Gunnarson, starting when she's a child, and her horrible life, in jail with her mother, and her friendship with Remy.
Grace is now married to Dan who is a journalist. She's a psychiatrist and working in level two of the Janus facility, but is offered a promotion to level 3.
She doesn't believe in what they are doing, but thinks she can make a difference. Then there is Diros, a vigilante group gone bad.
I liked Grace, at all times she wanted to do something to change despite knowing it could ruin her life. Some of the reading was uncomfortable and I was grateful I couldn't see the scenes being described.
The science was clearly well researched and any info dumps were small, succinct and necessary, and moved the story along.
This is a gripping read, scary, and makes you question your own feelings on justice, and the rights and wrongs of what they do. It also makes you wonder about the future of our own justice system.
Sarah has a wonderful way of writing characters, pulling you along thinking them one thing and completely changing your view in one sentence.
I loved Sharon and Mal, and thought Dan was a bit of an arse throughout. Never had any sympathy for him!
I will be greatly looking forward to any further books by this incredible author.

What a disturbing read. Set in the near future this dystopian novel centres around Janus Justice a private company that deals with criminals on behalf of the government. The book opens with a prologue set 27 years ago when Grace is just 5 years old and her best friend Remy a year older. They are in prison with their mothers. Grace is now a psychiatrist working for Janus, her husband Dan Gunnarsson is a news reporter and his reports are peppered throughout the book. Be aware this is quite graphic and upsetting in places.

Briefly, to obtain her job Grace has hidden her past from everyone. Currently working with Tier 2 criminals who are rehabilitating in pleasant conditions she is shocked when she is shown how Tier 3 criminals are treated and asked to accept promotion to that level. After initially declining, a voice from the past and her concerns over flaws in the current treatments, have her considering her options.

This is a very emotional read. The actions taken in Tier 3 and 4 are barbaric and those undertaking them must have no morals whatsoever. But just as immoral are the vigilantes known as Diros, evil personified. A dark and compelling thriller with the unanswerable question which is right punishment or rehabilitation. Spine tingling read. 4.5⭐️

Sometimes it happens that a blurb is so good, that a concept is so intriguing, that the expectations inevitably grow. Usually, when I'm the only one who is building hype, it doesn't affect my reading. Unfortunately, in the case of The Treatment, I had high expectations and they were not met. Thanks to Canelo and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Treatment has a fascinating premise with honourable ancestors in the Dystopia/Sci-Gi genre. The novel engages with questions of how justice can be meted out in an unfair society, where the line lies between justice and retaliation, and what the role of the public is in this. A clear predecessor to this novel is A Clockwork Orange, both in its premise and in the violent excess of some of its characters. Another, for me, clear inspiration is that one, horrifying episode of Black Mirror, White Bear. That Black Mirror episode has haunted me ever since I first saw it because of how ruthlessly it makes you question your own morality and your own desire for revenge. By watching it it made me feel complicit, which is intense. That is what I was expecting from The Treatment as well. I was expecting to walk away from this book having been challenged in my ideas about society, justice, and psychology. That's not what I got. The premise of the novel continues to hold a lot of potential. The way in which Janus Justice has revamped the justice system is very interesting, providing assistance for low-level crimes while the government provides resources to alleviate poverty and misery. Offenders get treated in a holistic way meant to remove the causes behind the crime. This was a great set-up and I was intrigued to find out how Tier Three, where Aversion Therapy takes place, would complicate this. Unfortunately for me the story was more focused on Grace's relationships and thoughts on psychopathy than on the moral implications of what's going on.

Grace has kept her past well-hidden. Neither her husband, Dan, nor her friend Shannon nor her employer, Janus Justice, know where she came from and that is how she wants it. Because this allows her to do the work she loves, helping offenders at Tier Two in the justice system, by providing them with therapy and resources so they can improve their lives for the better. When she gets drawn into Tier Three, however, her life is turned upside down. Justice is not being meted out as she expected, the system does not seem fair, and her past is suddenly breaking into her present. I don't really want to spoil anything and since the blurb makes 0 mention of Grace's backstory I feel like I would be no matter what I say. So let me just say that Grace's personal turmoil is what The Treatment is really about. The science, the ethics, the justice, it all felt like backstory to the personal drama. Around a third into the book I started to realise this and I had to battle forward from there till the last page.

It's been a while since I really struggled with a book in the way I did with The Treatment. I have some ideas about why this happened. This paragraph contains some spoilers so skip if necessary. Firstly, I had high expectations based on a blurb that didn't fully reflect the novel. That's partly on me, partly on the publisher. Secondly, I did not enjoy the characterisations in the novel. Grace started of interesting, thanks to a fascinating Prologue, but it quickly went downhill for me when I felt like her justifications of her own behaviour were insincere and inconsistent. For a someone who is supposedly an incredibly psychiatrist, she is not very insightful, in my opinion. The characters around her also felt two-dimensional, from Shannon who only appears when she's needed, to Dan who feels like a plot device (we're not meant to like him, and I didn't, but even then I'd like some depth), to Remy, a childhood friend who is a repository of fond memories but never feels fully fleshed-out. Worst is a trio of characters who form something of a shadowy crime syndicate. We learn about them through Mal's perspective. While Mal is given a tragic backstory, this actually did nothing to make him sympathetic in my eyes. In fact, it did the opposite as I was not impressed by how he used another's tragedy to try and consider himself better than the other two. These two, Bizzy and Sarge, are absolute caricatures and felt so flat and underdeveloped to me that it actually ruined the book for me. With their arrival, all nuance fled from the book for me as it became a mix between thriller and action novel in which any potential debate about justice and morality evaporated. Instead there is just a lot of violence and threatening. My third and final explanation as to why I don't think this book worked for me is how much of it is just us being told about things rather than witnessing them. It's the "don't tell, show" thing, which I usually hate but here it's true. Remy and Grace's relationship is only shown to us in one flashback and for the rest we have to rely on Grace's word that they were close. Her obsession with psychopathy also comes up again and again and Moorhead consistently tries to explain to us how it works, and it just didn't work for me. Maybe I've read too many non-fiction books about it to fully appreciate it in fiction, but every time Grace would go on about psychopathy I deflated. We're told so much and yet none of it resonated for me.

While I have the above reasons as to why this book didn't work for me, I'm still a little baffled that it went so wrong. While some of it had to do with Sarah Moorhead's writing, this was only really an issue because I had such different expectations. Had I known, going in, that this was more of a thriller/crime book the writing probably wouldn't have been as much of an issue for me. (Although even then I'd have had some issues with the characterisation.) Perhaps I misread the blurb and maybe I just had weirdly high expectations, and this book will potentially work really well for other readers. I wanted more depth, I wanted to actually be challenged in my own perceptions, and instead I was challenged in how much violence and exposition I could stomach.

I'm not quite sure how to end this review because it's been a while since I've had this reading experience. I've rated this 2 Universes because some of the novel's aspects do work. It just was not what I felt I was promised and as such I'm mainly disappointed.

Will update with links on publication day.

Thanks to NetGalley and Canelo for this ARC in return for a review.
This book was recommended by author John Marrs and I can see why. It does have a John Marrs type storyline setting.
Set sometime in the future (I think probably about 30ish years? The justice system has been revolutionised into a 4 tier system for convicts. Tier 1 for low crimes usually out of desperation - gets you therapy and a solution to your problems. Tier 2 for more serious crimes usually done from mental illness or drugs gets you time in rehab centre. Tier 3 for reoffending Tier 2 or big time crimes like murder - gets you an experimental Aversion Therapy which some describe to be like torture. Tier 4 reserved only for psychopaths, serial criminals - that's gets you? Well no one knows because those criminals disappear.
We follow Psychiatrist Grace as she works in the Tier system desperately trying to rehabilitate offenders whilst concealing her past, when the treatments start to fail she is left wondering why?Can she fix it and is there more to it all?
A clever concept which will have you talking about morality.
A solid debut for this author, however I did see the twist coming very early on and the book could have been a tad shorter in order to achieve a slightly faster pace which it would have benefitted from.
I look forward to what this author follows it up with.

It's an intriguing and thought provoking distopia/speculative fiction. A book about justice, about jail system and what can go wrong.
Quite dark and disturbing it kept me turning pages.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A great dystopian crime thriller with plenty of food for thought…
Grace works for justice system which is set in to tiers, the higher the
tier the more severe the punishment with teir 4 being exile.
When someone grace knows ends up in the system she is conflicted
And wonders if the justice system she is working for is set up to make
the punishments as severe as possible.
A great modern crime thriller.

The Treatment is set in a near-future, dystopian world where the justice system has been overhauled and the focus for dealing with offenders is now rehabilitation. We follow Janus System psychologist Grace who usually deals with lower level offenders as she is tasked with covering for a higher level temporarily and finds herself confronting a past she had hoped to forget.

I was very intrigued by the concept after reading the blurb and felt it was such an interesting take on a futuristic style of law and order, especially around aversion therapy. Grace is a great main character and her back-story really complemented where she is at in her life now. With some solid additional characters, this was a good cast all round.

Recommended if you are in the mood for a futuristic, dystopian, crime thriller!

This author's debut novel, Witness X has been on my 'to-read' list for some time and I must get around to reading it. When I got the opportunity to read a release of her second book I could not resist as I had heard lots of good things about it. What a great read, it definitely did not disappoint me. Great characters and a storyline that moves from factual educational information that helps to set out the storyline, right through to fast-paced action thrills.

A very emotional and thought provoking book that not only looks at the future of the world of medicine, but also law enforcement. Although this is science fiction with the wrong kind of people in powerful positions it could very easily become fact. I connected well with the book as it looks a lot at the mind and psychology and shows what acts people are willing to do in the name of science which I connected back to the work of Milgram, and also made me think about the recent case of the nurse found guilty of horrific crimes here in the UK, Thankfully the book is fiction!

It is clear that the author did a lot of research for this book and everything was explained well from the mindset of psychopaths, right through to how conspiracy theories start and people become brainwashed by what they hear.

I would recommend this book to anyone that wants something a little different. I think it would make a great read for a book club discussion.

Many thanks to Canelo, NetGalley and the author for providing me with an, electronic, advanced copy of the book in return for a honest and unbiased review.

The book is released on 31st August and will be available in e-book and paperback formats

Fraught Dystopian Suspense ..
The Offender Treatment Programme has arrived, hailed as the future of law enforcement and the most effective answer to crime, in this pacy and fraught dystopian suspense. What does it entail and how will it work? With a tense and chilling plot populated with a credible cast and an equally credible setting, the reader is pulled into a near future nightmare of great proportions, horrifying consequences and moral considerations. Edgy, clever and well crafted, this certainly provides food for thought.

Grace doesn't know what to do about her childhood friend Remy who is now in the cruel private justice system where she works as a psychiatrist. Can he be rehabilitated? Should he? Grace is conflicted not only about Remy but about the entire system because tier 3 involves aversion "therapy" and tier 4, for the worst offenders means exile - and she's about to be moved there. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, It's a different sort of dystopian novel that will appeal to fans of the genre,

Thank you to Canelo, the author and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I think this had a lot of promise but for me it fell flat it just lost my interest part way through. The writing is quite basic and fell apart.

I did not end up finishing this so for fairness I will give this a midway rating as I could not see it through. I really liked the premise and think lots of people will vibe with this one.

Set in the near future, The Treatment focusses on a justice system where offenders are placed into tiers. Though the premise was interesting, the characters were two dimensional especially the trio of antagonists. I like a good dystopian novel but this one did not stand out. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Many thanks for NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this dystopian thriller. I was really intrigued by the premise of the book and liked how this was solid all the way through and didn't become unbelievable and fantastical. It gave the book some integrity that some dystopian books lack. I loved the nods to two of my favourite dystopian novels, A Clockwork Orange and Brave New World.

The pacing of this book was excellent there were twists and turns but they came well spaced out and at the right time in the story so as not to make it too unbelievable and while I did guess who the mole was, I wasn't disappointed when this was revealed. I liked the characters. Grace was well developed and felt quite real. I did feel a lot of empathy for her as she was questioning her moral judgement throughout the book and this book does raise a lot of moral questions regarding our own criminal justice system. Which is a big feature of the book along side the main story.

I liked how this book made me think with regards to punishment and rehabilitation in our justice system as well as being a highly entertaining thriller.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF 20%-I was drawn to this book because it had a really interesting description of the story. In a near future, the justice system is now a four tier approach that for tiers three and four is shrouded in mystery and potential cruelty. I had a hard time following some of the threads of the story which I think were meant to set up the "mystery" element and the main character was difficult to root for. Overall, I don't think this one was for me.

Grace Gunnarson doesn’t talk about her childhood at all, not even her husband knows the truth.

Grace is a rehabilitation psychiatrist for Janus Justice. Tiers 1 & 2 are for reforming people who are low risk offenders - for example, burglars. Grace loves her job and gives her all to it.

When she is moved to Tier 3, Grace is very unhappy as she doesn’t agree with aversion therapy. It’s not long before Grace has to work in Tier 4 as well; Siberia, where all hope is lost. Grace is very much in an awkward situation as Tiers 3 & 4 are very much out of her comfort zone.

Dan is a journalist and also happens to be Grace’s husband. He doesn’t like the Janus Justice System and wants Grace to tell him what goes on, leaving Grace torn between her job and her husband.

I found this story made me sit and think about the justice system and what could happen in the future, especially with so much overcrowding in our prisons.

At times, it was difficult to read and some parts bothered me a lot. However, I found overall that this book was entertaining and thrilling. It was certainly a rollercoaster ride for my emotions at times.

How far will you go to do what you feel is the right thing?

My thanks to NetGalley and Canelo for a copy in exchange for my honest review.