The Testing

Title:
The Testing

Author:
Joelle Charbonneau

Series:
The Testing, Book 1

About the Author: (Amazon)

Joelle Charbonneau is a storyteller at heart. She has performed in a variety of operas, musical theatre and children's theatre productions across the Chicagoland area. In addition to her stage work, Joelle has also performed with several bands and worked as a solo performer.While Joelle is happy to perform for an audience, she is equally delighted to teach private voice lessons and use her experience from the stage to create compelling characters in her mysteries. She is the author of the Rebecca Robbins (Minotaur Books), the Glee Club Paige Marshall (Berkley) mysteries and the YA The Testing trilogy (The Testing, Independent Study and Graduation Day Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's).To learn more, visit Joelle at her website: www.joellecharbonneau.com

Summary: (Amazon)
It’s graduation day for sixteen-year-old Malencia Vale, and the entire Five Lakes Colony (the former Great Lakes) is celebrating. All Cia can think about—hope for—is whether she’ll be chosen for The Testing, a United Commonwealth program that selects the best and brightest new graduates to become possible leaders of the slowly revitalizing post-war civilization. When Cia is chosen, her father finally tells her about his own nightmarish half-memories of The Testing. Armed with his dire warnings (”Cia, trust no one”), she bravely heads off to Tosu City, far away from friends and family, perhaps forever. Danger, romance—and sheer terror—await.

I'd Recommend to:
Hunger Games Fans & 8-9th graders

My Rating:
4/5

My Thoughts:
As soon as I received this book, before even reading it, I had a suspicion it would be like the Hunger Games. I was right. However, although I did not read the Hunger Games books I have seen the movies and I liked The Testing better. I mainly went to see The Hunger Games because of all the hype that it had, but I feel like I would voluntarily go see The Testing. 
The world is caked and destroyed after 7 stages of severe war has ruined it. Now there are few colonies set up under a United Commonwealth. Cia is from Five Lakes Colony (previously the Great Lakes). Every year, the top graduating students get selected for The Testing - a way to see if they're suited for the University and to become the next leaders of the United Commonwealth. Five Lakes hasn't sent anyone for the testing in 10 years, until this year. Cia, Tomas, Malachi, and Zandri are all selected for the testing and must go or face the penalty of death. Little do they know, unless the make it to the University, they'll die anyway. Two out of the four from Five Lakes ends up dead. The other two complete all the challenging tests and over come many obstacles and finally succeed into becoming University students. They have no idea how though, since the United Commonwealth has erased all memory of the testing. Fortunately for one of them, the experiences were recorded, unknown to the officials. What happens next is a mystery, and we'll have to wait until the next book in the series comes out to find out!
This book is a pretty quick read. The action and suspense keeps you reading until you can't open your eyes any longer. It'd make a great gift to Hunger Games fans or readers in the last stages of middle school or first stages of high school. Or if you're looking for a quick but entertaining read, try it out for yourself!