The Quick Cut: A teen girl living in a dystopian society is given an opportunity to be a leader by entering the Testing process. She uncovers the truth behind the system is much darker than it appears.
A Real Review:
Dystopian books are a dime a dozen and often feel the same reading one to the next. So what do you do in order to stand out from the rest? For this trilogy centered around Cia Vale, she finds a way to survive the chaos of reality while being smart enough not to get stuck in an impossible situation.
Cia has spent her entire life in the Great Lakes Colony, where no one has been selected for The Testing in a decade. She spent her entire life working hard and trying to excel as much as she could in her studies in order to break that cycle. When the opportunity arrives though, she finds that getting the opportunity to become a leader isn't as idyllic as she thought. The process is difficult and more than a little dangerous. Plus, she finds that she can't help but feel like there's a target on her back. What is the truth behind the Testing and how can she survive it?
The Testing trilogy is one of my favorites of the dystopian variety. Don't get me wrong, many other series do it well. However, the thing that makes this one stand out among the rest is that it takes the elements of the others that are successful and brings them together into a unique tale. It has the multiple trials element of Maze Runner, the categorization of people from Divergent, and the dark dangerous vibe of Hunger Games. With all those pieces, you would think that this would feel like a rip off. Instead, it comes off as a dynamic world that manages to take the successful pieces of others and turns it into a whole new world.
The first book is all about Cia going through the testing process. The second book centers mostly around her time in the University and the trials that come with the specialty area she is assigned. The final book is about the unexpected difficulties of unveiling the truth behind how the government works. The series closer feels more like a spy thriller than anything else with the way it is written. Not my preferred style of writing, but for anyone who enjoys that variety - it will be the most enjoyable.
A dystopian trilogy that will leave you wanting more.
My rating: 5 out of 5