This is a dystopia set in the near future, arout 150 years from now. Humanity has virtually obliterated itself in a planet-engulfing war which involved chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The survivors have banded together and out of the ashes of the old world created a new civilisation.
The main protagonist of the book is Cia Vale, the genius daughter of one of the top genetic engineers who works to produce new, more enduring variations of plants that are able to survive in the irradiated and poisoned earth. On the day Cia becomes an adult and leaves school, she and a few other people from her colony are taken by an official to the capital where they face the testing. This is how the United Commonwealth (the new government) find their next great leaders, engineers and scientists. But all is not as it seems…
It turns out that getting an answer wrong is painful and often fatal. By the end of the book, of the 180 people who started the testing, only 20 remain. Cia manages to survive and gain admittance to university but at terrible cost. Although the Commonwealth wipe her memory, she is still haunted by the half-remembered visions of her dead friends.
One of the most action packed sections was the fourth test where Cia and the rest of her surviving classmates are dropped into irradiated wasteland and made to make their way to the university. Only the first few who get there will be accepted.
I thought this book was very good, though in places overshadowed simply because of how good its competitors (think The Hunger Games) are. There are a lot of similarities between The Testing and The Hunger Games, such as a female protagonist, a giant apocalyptic war in the background and a violent competition at its heart. I enjoyed the jeopardy that Cia faced at every corner, which sustained the book and a good pace.
I would recommend it to anyone who liked The Hunger Games.
7. 5 out 10 stars.
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