So Bookalicious!: The Testing - Joelle Charbonneau

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

The Testing - Joelle Charbonneau

Synopsis

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 in 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.

My opinion

The short description reminded me a lot of The Hunger Games and in some points there were similarities, definitely in the middle of the book. But it didn’t bother me that much, the idea of the book was still great and so many books are already written so coming up with something entirely new is almost impossible. But the plotline of this book was very interesting. A group of teen that are elected to attend university, but only a few of them will make it through the testing rounds. Nobody know what happens to the other candidates, but while reading the book it gets pretty clear what happens to them. So the beginning of the book was refreshing and new, but then the middle part reminded me a lot of The Hunger Games. And there were also some characters that looked similar in this book, in THG you had Cinna who helped Katniss and in this book it looks like Michal Gallen is going to be that kind of helper to this book heroin, Cia. I’m not saying that this book is a copycat from THG, because it definitely isn’t and I’m pretty sure that the rest of the books will be totally different.
The characters of The Testing were also easy to love. Cia was a strong, self-reliable person, but she isn’t afraid to ask other peoples help and to trust them. But the problem was that she trust people to easily, she always sees the best in them and that what got her in trouble sometimes. Will was like Cia, but unlike her he did know when not to trust people. The end of the book kept me wondering what will happen, because everything is possible and it's impossible to know how the events of the previous book will turn out.
This book was a real page turner and it kept me hooked from the first to the last page. And I’m definitely going to read the other books in this series as well.

Towers