graduation day | The Obsessive Bookseller

Title: Graduation Day

Author: Joelle Charbonneau

Series: The Testing #3

Genre: Teen Dystopian

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Overview: In a scarred and brutal future, The United Commonwealth teeters on the brink of all-out civil war. The rebel resistance plots against a government that rules with cruelty and cunning. Gifted student and Testing survivor Cia Vale vows to fight. But she can’t do it alone. This is the chance to lead that Cia has trained for – but who will follow? Plunging through layers of danger and deception, Cia must risk the lives of those she loves – and gamble on the loyalty of her lethal classmates.

The Mini Review:

Since it has been a really long time since I posted my reviews for the first two books in The Testing Trilogy, I’ll give a little recap:

The Testing: I loved the concept and the actual “testing” these teens were put through, but I found the deaths in the story oddly placed, as if for shock value alone rather than any real plot advancement. I was also not sure what I thought about unique voice and writing style. [3/5 stars]

Independent Study: WHERE HAS THIS BOOK BEEN ALL MY LIFE??! I LOVED Independent Study, and it was one of my favorite books of 2014. Scratch that, it’s one of my favorite books ever. I can’t say what flipped, but everything from story (the tests in particular), to setting, to characters, to voice came together for one hell of a book! Loves. [5/5 stars!]

Graduation Day: was somewhere in between. I enjoyed it immensely and appreciated it as a trilogy ender, but it didn’t have the same X-factor as the second book. Although I will say I liked the ending better than a lot of other dystopians on the market. There was a really nice escalation of events and I felt the resolution was fulfilling and complex, fitting in well with the story as a whole. I also think I appreciated the characters a lot more in Graduation Day than in the previous two books. Cia had to do a lot of peer evaluation as she tried to figure out who she could trust, and I enjoyed trying to psychoanalyze them along with her. The best thing I can say is, by the end of the book I was genuinely worried about who would and wouldn’t make it to the end (gotta love those dystopians).

Overall, I consider this dystopian well worth your time if you like the genre. To me it’s worth it for book 2 alone. I loved them enough to buy them all in hardcover and will definitely be rereading them.

Other books you might like:

: Partials by Dan Wells

: The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

: The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

: Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott

: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

by Niki Hawkes

Title: Graduation Day

Author: Joelle Charbonneau

Series: The Testing #3

Genre: Teen Fantasy

Release Date: June 17, 2014

The Overview: In book three of the Testing series, the United Commonwealth wants to eliminate the rebel alliance fighting to destroy The Testing for good. Cia is ready to lead the charge, but will her lethal classmates follow her into battle? She wants to put an end to the Testing: In a scarred and brutal future, The United Commonwealth teeters on the brink of all-out civil war. The rebel resistance plots against a government that rules with cruelty and cunning. Gifted student and Testing survivor, Cia Vale, vows to fight. But she can’t do it alone: This is the chance to lead that Cia has trained for – but who will follow? Plunging through layers of danger and deception, Cia must risk the lives of those she loves–and gamble on the loyalty of her lethal classmates. Who can Cia trust? The stakes are higher than ever-lives of promise cut short or fulfilled; a future ruled by fear or hope–in the electrifying conclusion to Joelle Charbonneau’s epic Testing trilogy. Ready or not…it’s Graduation Day. The Final Test is the Deadliest!

Graduation day

Hosted by Breaking the Spine

I have a plethora of books I’m waiting on. The trouble is, all the ones I’ve not done a WoW post for don’t have covers, release dates, and/or titles as of yet, making difficult to feature them. So for the next foreseeable future, I’m going to be focusing on books that I think I would be waiting on if I’d actually made the time to start the series.

The Testing is a book I disregarded initially because I read one rather underwhelming review about it. Over the last couple of months, however, I have come across at least half a dozen rave reviews which definitely made me reconsider my decision not to read it. I do love books about competitions, so I think I actually might be giving the series a try sometime soon. I always love it when I start a series right before the final book is released – I really hate waiting!

What book are you waiting on? Is this a series you’d recommend I start reading?

by Niki Hawkes