The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau

Title: The Testing
Series: The Testing #1
Author: Joelle Charbonneau
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Published Date: January 6th 2015
Genre: Dystopia, YA,
Page Count: 325
Format: Paperback
My Rating: ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary:
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Isn’t that what they say? But how close is too close when they may be one and the same?

The Seven Stages War left much of the planet a charred wasteland. The future belongs to the next generation’s chosen few who must rebuild it. But to enter this elite group, candidates must first pass The Testing—their one chance at a college education and a rewarding career.

Cia Vale is honored to be chosen as a Testing candidate; eager to prove her worthiness as a University student and future leader of the United Commonwealth. But on the eve of her departure, her father’s advice hints at a darker side to her upcoming studies--trust no one.

But surely she can trust Tomas, her handsome childhood friend who offers an alliance? Tomas, who seems to care more about her with the passing of every grueling (and deadly) day of the Testing. To survive, Cia must choose: love without truth or life without trust.
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My Review:
"But I am no longer certain I want to be a leader. Not if my country values murder above compassion."

Overall while I did really enjoy this book I also had a lot of problems with it and didn't really get into it until the last 60 pages. I just kept seeing so many similarities to the divergent trilogy that it made me not enjoy this as much as I could have.




When Cia graduates from school at the age of 16 she has no idea what she is going to do with the rest of her life, Until she gets chosen along with four other students to be tested for the University and potential future leaders of the commonwealth. While she is thrilled with this her father (was a part of the testing and went to university and is now a part of revitalizing plants) is not and warns her to trust no one and to only eat the food from the cafeteria. While she does take her fathers advice for the most part she also decides to trust Tomas who, is from her colony.

Once we get to Tosu City, which is the capital and where the testing takes place. We start to learn more about Cia as a person and see what her values are and what she will and won't due to pass the tests to be able to go to University.

I loved Cia as a heroine she showed emotion, was extremely compassionate and wanted to do what was best for the world in her mind. Plus she was able to take charge when needed  and realized when she did something wrong and felt bad about it. She also really cared about her best friend back home and made sure she had someone around that we be her friend since Cia was leaving.

As for Tomas while I did enjoy his character I never fully trusted him as much as Cia did (and for good reason) and I found his character at times to be pretty annoying since Cia was the one capable of keeping them alive out in the testing field.
I didn't enjoy their romance at all and it felt a little like well were gonna be partners so we might as well date.

 For the rest of the characters in the book they were well thought and enough information was told about them so we knew who they were, but none of them really stuck out to me much.

While I did enjoy the setting of the final test I also found it such a big testing area that at times it was very confusing and slight unbelievable that these teenagers could make it across this devastated land in such a short amount of time with little to no sources of transportation.

I might continue on with this series at a later date, but as of right now it's not on my to read list.