Boston : Houghton Mifflin, [2013]
344 p. ; 22 cm.
Ok, so my title for this post is a little cheeky, but it is hard to read The Testing and not hear many echoes of The Hunger Games. However, Charbonneau still manages to write a pretty exciting, lethally adventurous dystopian survival tale. In this series the young people are elites chosen for the "honor" of the annual testing that will decide who continues on to their society's only university where they will be groomed to be the future leaders of the United Commonwealth. Unfortunately for them, they have no idea just how final some of the testing will be, culminating in a grueling survival trek across hundreds of miles of apocalyptic-war ravaged territory starting at what was - before the catastrophic wars that nearly destroyed humanity - the city Chicago (echoes of Divergent).
I think what makes this novel work is that it is well paced and plotted, and the main character is an interesting, resourceful figure (and female hero). Like The Hunger Games, the element of trust vs. mistrust between characters keeps things exciting.
I don't think I'll read the next two installments in the series, but I did enjoy reading The Testing and would definitely recommend it to readers wanting to continue reading exciting dystopian fiction - especially fans of The Hunger Games.
No comments:
Post a Comment