Cover: I like the simplicity. And it also goes along with the story.
Author: Joelle Charbonneau
Genre: Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, Romance
Goodreads Blurb: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Isn’t that what they say? But how close is too close when they may be one in the same?
The Seven Stages War left much of the planet a charred wasteland. The future belongs to the next generation’s chosen few who must rebuild it. But to enter this elite group, candidates must first pass The Testing—their one chance at a college education and a rewarding career.
Cia Vale is honored to be chosen as a Testing candidate; eager to prove her worthiness as a University student and future leader of the United Commonwealth. But on the eve of her departure, her father’s advice hints at a darker side to her upcoming studies--trust no one.
But surely she can trust Tomas, her handsome childhood friend who offers an alliance? Tomas, who seems to care more about her with the passing of every grueling (and deadly) day of the Testing. To survive, Cia must choose: love without truth or life without trust.
Published/ing: June 4th 2013 Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Rating: 5/5
Review:
Overall, each aspect of the book was strong.
I liked how planned out and flowy the plot was. You knew how the book was broken up, but you didn't exactly know what was going to happen in those breaks. You knew she was going to be accepted for the Testing, and then go through the four stages and then hopefully make it to the end. But you didn't know how she would get through those stages. How it would affect the main character mentally, physically, or emotionally.
The main character, Cia (interesting name), is probably up there with one of my favorite characters. She is strong without knowing it. She is realistic and calculating. But she isn't that special. She doesn't just magically has special skills. The book tells you her experiences so it's not just poof! fire or poof! caught an animal.
I also found it interesting how she handled killing her fellow contestants. Now, throughout this review you'll probably compare a lot of things to the Hunger Games, because it is a good comparison. The Testing is like The Hunger Games on steroids.
In The Hunger Games, when Katniss starts killing people, and we don't exactly see how that affects her. We see how the death of other contestants affect her, but not her own killings.
With Cia, she is emotionally affected. She is scared to kill others, no matter how cruel they are. She is disgusted and afraid when she witnesses a fellow student die in front of her because of the test. While everyone else just casually brushes it off, she is genuinely freaking out. And I think that is awesome. She is not some perfect robot heroine. She is broken and scared.
Also, back to the gun thing. She doesn't just magically know how to use the gun. She doesn't have great aim. It once again shows that she isn't a perfect heroine. She is being shot at and she doesn't want to shoot at a contestant but since her life relies on it, so she just does. And misses. And shoots again. And misses. Then she clips him in the shoulder and runs.
I loved her throughout the book. That 'never-give-up' attitude she gives throughout the whole book, through everything that she goes through. She's the perfect heroine to look up to, because she isn't perfect. She doesn't have amazing skills. She learns from experience and is intelligent.
I also want to mention how the romance wasn't the main idea of the story. There wasn't a major love triangle. The guy isn't perfect. *slop claps for Joelle*
I liked Thomas, Cia's counterpart, from the beginning; intelligent and in my mind, was pretty hot. But I had a bad hunch about him.
He was so sweet and loving and had a cute crush on Cia the whole time and I thought they were just such a great couple. Like there's this one part when he confesses his love to her and finally says those three magic words, and her response was "I think I love you, too."
It made me happy because she wasn't sure of herself, and she didn't jump into it without being one hundred percent confident.
I'm not gonna mention anything else for fear of spoilers.
The only downside I found to this book, was, although there were many exceptional side characters, they didn't have very absolute personalities. I didn't feel as sad as I usually did when they died (or other) because they didn't capture me.
Other than that, I enjoyed the heck out of the book. And I think you would too.
Future News:
The next book in the series actually came out today! The next book in the series comes on June 3rd of this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment