Book: The Testing
By: Joelle Charbonneau
Published: June 4, 2013
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Genre: YA Dystopian
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About The Testing
The world’s a wasteland after the war. Now it’s up to a select few to rehabilitate things. Cia is one of those people. At least maybe. She has to go through the testing period, and then off to college she goes to become one of the few to save the world. But the day before she has to leave, her father tells her not to trust anyone. But she can trust Tomas, her childhood friend, right? With each passing day, they seem to care more and more about each other. But will they both survive?
What I thought
Looking at the reviews for this, I’m kind of surprised how many people rated it poorly. I guess this came out during the hype of dystopian books, and it does come across similar to other dystopian books. I guess that doesn’t bother all that much. Or maybe because I’m reading this one so late in the game, it’s just not a huge deal to me.
I can see where people find the similarities between this and The Hunger Games. They both kind of “revolve” around games to survive.
To me, that’s the only thing majorly similar, and even then, there are some key differences. I like the whole idea of this story and how there are only a few people who are selected for it. They are typically the brightest in order for things to succeed. I think the only thing that’s a bit of a turnoff for me when it comes to the story is that Cia is just a bit too perfect and a bit too smart for her own good. With these types of stories, I want someone imperfect and interesting. If they are a bit too smart, it kind of takes the fun out of things. Which was partly the case for this story. She was just a bit too smart for her own good, and I would have liked to see her fail just a bit more.
Overall, the story is really good, though, and I like a vast majority of the characters. I can’t wait to read the next book!
If you enjoy this review, then you might like my post on Dystopian novels like The Hunger Games.
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