The Best Book I Have Read Over the First Quarter

My favorite book from the 3rd quarter was The Testing, by Joelle Charbonneau. 5 out of 5 stars and a 10/10 recommend. This book takes place in a dystopian society and is a science-fiction novel. The major theme of the book is although you may succeed and stray away from your values you will ultimately succeed further if you follow your morals and values. I loved this book because although it was similar to other books that I have read, it had very different characters. It's similar to many popular science-fiction novels such as Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Divergent by Veronica Roth or The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. In most YA science fiction novels that I read the main character is a smart, beautiful, girl that thinks that she is worthless. This makes me want to shoot my brains out. Honestly, this character has appeared in so many YA novels.  This is driving me crazy because they are all perfect human beings who are "worthless" and "weak".

 Please, I'm glad that this book has many better characters.

The Testing, takes place in a dystopian society where students after high school have two choices: live with their family at home or move on and go through the testing where--if they pass-- they will move on to a university. The main character is a teenage girl named Malencia. Throughout the testing the main protagonist, Malencia (otherwise known as Cia), will battle both against her opponents and the forces of nature. The testing lasts for about a month, and this is no easy task to complete. She will come to the world, she will come to society, she will come to the testing. There is no guarantee she or anyone will come out alive, after all, the government is trying to select the future generation that will lead the society. The testing rules are simple, that is if your smart. You come, you survive, you leave. You will go in and take many paper written or applied tests. For example, you may have to sort plants from poisonous and safe. Then you may have to eat whatever plants you classified as "safe". (This happens in the book, sorry spoiler!)

Cia will begin to not only question her society, but also question the authorities and the morals of her government. She will not only ask what her society can do for her, but what she can do for her society.

Overall, I would recommend The Testing to anyone and everyone. I believe that this book reaches out to a variety of audiences because of the characteristics of the main characters. These many characteristics make the characters very easy to relate with. This not only keeps the audience drawn in, but also gives the audience some emotional connection with the characters.

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