Bookaholics book club: The testing

4 Sept 2013

The testing - Review

The testing by Joelle Charbonneau

The testing book one

Available now

www.templarco.co.uk

What's it about?

Sixteen-year-old Cia Vale is honoured to be chosen for The Testing – a series of exams set by the United Commonwealth that selects the brightest young adults to become leaders of their war- stricken world. But when candidates start disappearing and Cia witnesses unimaginable horrors done in the United Commonwealth’s name it becomes clear that these are no ordinary exams, and Cia is forced to realise the truth: this is no longer about winning, but surviving.

My review

The testing was another great YA dystopia in a sea of YA dystopias. While it had its moments where it reminded me a lot of The hunger games, it certainly had something of its own too, I don't think the similarities were intentional, both books have the same themes which make it easier for the reader to relate certain scenes from The testing to scenes from THG - unless it was just me!

But, like I said, The testing has a quality all its own and I really enjoyed it. It had a great shock value to it at some points, some adrenaline fuelled moments and a very clever leading lady. I really liked Cia although every time she came across a 'situation' during her Testing she always had a handy childhood memory of doing something similar, like using the tools she's faced with or having already tasted all the wild plants they come across, so she always knew what to do, by the end it all just seemed too coincidental, she never had to figure something out completely or take a risk, she never had even a slight failure because she seemed to know everything. But maybe I'm just being cynical, I don't know. Still, I did really like her, she certainly seems like a handy girl to have around lol Her relationship with Tomas was sweet and the book was written so well that I was always tapped into her emotions, I was tense when she was in tense situations and I felt her anger so much at the end that I was gripping the book.

I can't wait to get my hands on Independent study where I think we'll start getting more into the politics of the Commonwealth and hopefully Cia will start sticking it to the man, so to speak.