Armed with his dire warnings ('Cia, trust no one'), she bravely heads off to Tosu City, far away from friends and family, perhaps forever. Charbonneau puts her characters through not just tests of physical, ethical and emotional stamina, but also tests their loyalties to friends, family and to the. When Cia is chosen, her father finally tells her about his own nightmarish half-memories of The Testing.

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.

It's graduation day for sixteen-year-old Malencia Vale, and the entire Five Lakes Colony (the former Great Lakes) is celebrating. I glanced over a few reviews to make sure I wasn’t just hitting a slow spot… giggled over this review “If you like constantly being told where you are, who is saying what, and the internal conflict of being in love with a lifeless pillow while trying not to get killed for no apparent reason, than this is the book for you” and thought… yeah… I think I’ve had enough.In Cia's dystopian society it's an honor to be chosen for The Testing. Some books start bad, while others wait to turn on you halfway through… oh well. The society structure makes no sense – it doesn’t seem evil at all, in fact it seems to be benefiting most people… so the “Let’s gather the smartest kids together and kill off most of them” plotline defies reason. And this story apparently goes on through three more books. The Seven Stages War ravaged much of the United States and now the leaders have issued a challenge for choosing potential leaders - The Testing. This is her first time writing for the Young Adult market. They have zero personality… they don’t flirt, they don’t joke, they don’t ponder serious things (or anything) or have mental hysterics about being locked in metal boxes or having their legs nearly blown off at fake-watering holes. The Testing is the first book in a new Dystopian trilogy by Joelle Charbonneau.

I enjoyed the beginning… the farming colony, the family, and the first three tests (sort of SAT tests with violent shenanigans) but now that we are down to the two main characters out in the wild… ugh… they are so boring, I can barely stand it. I’m over halfway through The Testing They have finally gotten to the 4th Test (where they are thrown 700 miles outside of town and asked to find their way back) and suddenly I just couldn’t care less what happens. If I have to learn that lesson early, I won’t enjoy it, but I will do my best not to let you down.” “All leaders have to live with disappointment at some point or another. In the series debut The Testing, sixteen-year-old Cia Vale was chosen by the United Commonwealth government as one of the best and brightest graduates of all.

The testing charbonneau