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.

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UK vs THE WORLD (68)

UK vs. The world is a weekly meme I made up lol.

It's simlair to UK vs. US except the UK covers are battling it out with their foreign counterparts from all over the world, because who doesn't love judging books by their covers!

UK                            vs               Germany

The testing by Joelle Charbonneau

The testing book one.

('Die auslese' translates to 'The readout.' - According to Google translate.)

Mist: While the girl on the German cover does look badass, I like the grainy, textured look to the UK cover and the symbol is cool, there are lots of covers with girls on and this one doesn't particularly stand out amognst many so I think I'd choose UK as my fourite, it has more of a unique feel to it and I'm curious about the background.

Ninfa: I'm really torn between these two. There are a lot of covers similar to the UK one (Divergent and The Hunger Games spring to mind), but although it isn't the most original, it is a very cool cover. I like the symbol, and the cityscape as a background, and I also like the tag line. The whole feel is very Dystopian and I also like the colour scheme where the red of the symbol and title really stand out.
The German cover is also very interesting, I like the armband with the symbol on the model and her ragged t-shirt gives you the feeling that she's been through a lot. Unfortunately it looks more like an Action/Urban Fantasy cover and doesn't quite capture the blurb as the UK cover does. I do like that it is different from other Dystopian covers out there, but perhaps I still find the UK cover more apt.
UK wins.

Which do you prefer?