The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau
Published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
For as long as she can remember, Cia has dreamed of being selected for The Testing and going to University. After all, her father is a University graduate, and if he had not been selected, he would never have met her mother and she wouldn’t even exist. Not to mention, Cia is a born engineer; she can fix or rig just about anything. However, nobody from the Great Lakes Colony has been selected for The Testing for years, and on the day of graduation it seems that the rumor of an official from Tosu City attending their graduation is just that, a rumor. When an official shows up the next day and selects four graduating students, nobody is more surprised or excited than Cia - at least until Cia’s father tells her the few horrific things he remembers about his own experience with The Testing. Now that Cia has exactly what she always wanted she must face the fact that it may not be what she thought it was.
The Testing will be compared to The Hunger Games, absolutely without question (I’m writing this in January, so if the comparisons start in April or May, my apologies for seeming behind the ball). There are definite similarities: selections, plus a brutal survival setting that, to some extent, pit young people against one another. That being said, The Testing is no The Hunger Games knockoff. Charbonneau has created an intriguing world, perhaps most intriguing because it is not clear just how dystopian it is. Clearly something is rotten in the United Commonwealth, but whether it is completely corrupt or whether this is simply a case of the road to hell being paved with good intentions isn’t clear.
Here are some of my favorite things about The Testing:
- Cia is a kick-ass, largely self-taught engineer.
- Cia being both a girl and an engineer is not a big deal, it just is.
- No love triangle!
- Cia is smart, strong, and the heroine of her own story.
The Testing is a really promising start to Charbonneau’s first YA trilogy. I can’t wait to read the second book. Highly recommended.
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This is on my agenda for this summer. Glad to hear that it was pretty darn good
Glad to see this is as good as I’d heard it was. I definitely need to pick this up soon! I was hoping there would be a audiobook of it, but I think I will bite the bullet and pick up the print version.
I’m alright with books being similar to the Hunger Games as long as they bring something new to the table as well and this sounds like it does. And Hooray for no love triangle!
Interesting - this book was in the LA Times Summer Reading section recommended list for YA. My 13yo daughter saw it and sniffed, “This is SUCH a Hunger Games ripoff!”. Sounds like we shouldn’t write it off as such…
Yeah, it sounds like it would be and the cover is sort of reminiscent of The Hunger Games, but really the world building is quite different and the story is not at all the same.
I REALLY liked this one. And I agree about it being compared to THG but that it definitely stands on its own. I’m excited for the rest of the series!
I swear I am going to read this soon.
doooo eeeet