In a world before The Program…

Quinlan McKee is a closer. Since the age of seven, Quinn has held the responsibility of providing closure to grieving families with a special skill—she can “become” anyone.

Recommended by grief counselors, Quinn is hired by families to take on the short-term role of a deceased loved one between the ages of fifteen and twenty. She’s not an exact copy, of course, but she wears their clothes and changes her hair, studies them through pictures and videos, and soon, Quinn can act like them, smell like them, and be them for all intents and purposes. But to do her job successfully, she can’t get attached.

Now seventeen, Quinn is deft at recreating herself, sometimes confusing her own past with those of the people she’s portrayed. When she’s given her longest assignment, playing the role of Catalina Barnes, Quinn begins to bond with the deceased girl’s boyfriend. But that’s only the beginning of the complications, especially when Quinn finds out the truth about Catalina’s death. And the epidemic it could start.

This was a weird one to weird, though the premise is intriguing. This story takes place before The Program does, but you see how it starts the lead into that story, starting with the weird circumstance of Quinn’s latest assignment.

Quinn is an interesting character. She’s been a closer her entire life, so many of her memories are tied to her acting as someone else during her various assignments. Her friends, Aaron, Myra, and Deacon, are there to keep her in check in-between assignments so she doesn’t lose grip on her reality or get attached to the families she assigned to. So when she goes to her newest assignment, one that will last a couple of weeks, she gets in deep and starts finding herself becoming attached to them, and wondering if she can handle being a closer for much longer.

This story is weird in a way that’s kind of creepy. I mean, Quinn poses as deceased girls for a living to give the families she works for closure. So when she’s on an assignment, she calls the parents “Mom” and “Dad” as if she were actually their daughter, which for me, was a bit disconcerting. I couldn’t get used to it either, so when Quinn broke character and was herself with her assignment’s boyfriend and sister, it was a bit of a relief. Her connections with the family though show that she does genuinely care for the grieving families she works for, and this one gets to her more than others, and she doesn’t want to leave until she’s sure they’re going to be okay.

Of course, there’s a bit of romance thrown into the story because, duh. Deacon is a bit like James from The Program, in how he interacts with Quinn and acting arrogant about his looks. However, he does have a bit of himself that he holds back from Quinn, which was the opposite of James because he was open about his feelings. 

Overall, this story is pretty good. It took a while to get into it, but the cliffhanger we’re left with at the end makes it worth reading this book. 

Rating: 3.5/5 stars