Tag: dystopia

Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau was the exciting conclusion to The Testing trilogy. I was completely and utterly unprepared for the twists and turns that the story took me down. I don’t know how Charbonneau does it, but as soon as you feel as if you know about something, you need to forget about everything you thought you knew.

In this exciting edition, we are working to dismantle an entire system with the help of friends we’ve made along the way against the enemies we’ve made along the way. I think this was the perfect ending. It answered questions while at the same time leaving things open-ended with all the possibilities that our protagonist could do. Also, leaving society to go either way at the end of the conflict is a theme that appears continuously in the story. It was a great way to close the loop. There is a prequel, but I will not be covering it here. As it was written, the trilogy was beautiful on its own, and I’m totally okay with not knowing what happened before.

Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau was an exciting continuation of The Testing trilogy. Instead of university entrance exams, there are program entrance exams. And of course, I’m using exams loosely. While there is a standardized test, there is more than passing classes to survive. There is the lovely ritual of messing with all the new kids. That thing that everyone just loves and in no way will go wrong.

This book does a fantastic job of flipping expectations. It was also interesting that you know more than our protagonist at many points during the book. It also fills in a hole that you were wondering about from the last book. The closure to the issue was well handled, and something that I have a feeling will come up again. Now, I need to prepare myself for the last book. Maybe this time, I will be ready for the twists and turns. (Probably not)

Apparently, I was on a dystopian kick because I am discussing another dystopian novel, but with characteristics that you are probably well versed with. A brunette teenage girl trying to find her way through society with some weird side romances that don’t make any sense and really don’t add anything to the story other than being really weird. I’m not talking about the Hunger Games, but it’s close enough.

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau is very reminiscent of The Hunger Games, but there is a slight twist to everything. Instead of a competition where the young kill each other, they see who gets to go to university, a privilege allowed by a select few across the war-torn United States. To get to university, you must take part in The Testing. The only difference is that it’s not the typical standardized testing that we are used to.

I really enjoyed the flip of expectations that was introduced in the story. As soon as you think you know what’s going on, something happens to twist your thoughts on everything. What is really chill becomes explosive in an instant. I would definitely recommend this book, even though I do not know where the rest of the series goes. I guess I’ll find out soon.