The testing (2013)
The testing is a 2013 graduation (school) book written by Joelle Charbonneau.
Cia Vale is proud when she is chosen for the Testing, the brutal selection that decides which teenagers earn a place at the University and a hand in rebuilding a post-war United Commonwealth. Her father, a Testing graduate, cannot recall his own ordeal, only the nightmares it left behind. As the trials begin, Cia realizes the candidates who fail do not simply go home. Joelle Charbonneau runs the competition lean and paranoid, forcing Cia to weigh ambition against trust, and to wonder which of her rivals she can afford to believe.
Quick answers
What is The testing about?
Cia Vale is proud when she is chosen for the Testing, the brutal selection that decides which teenagers earn a place at the University and a hand in rebuilding a post-war United Commonwealth. Her father, a Testing graduate, cannot recall his own ordeal, only the nightmares it left behind. As the trials begin, Cia realizes the candidates who fail do not simply go home. Joelle Charbonneau runs the competition lean and paranoid, forcing Cia to weigh ambition against trust, and to wonder which of her rivals she can afford to believe.
When was The testing published?
The testing was published in 2013.
Who made The testing?
The testing was written by Joelle Charbonneau.
The testing in our writing
- Companion guide: YA Dystopias: The Hunger Games and the Decade the Arena Ruled
A few thoughts on The testing
Fans should try The Hunger Games, whose arena strips young competitors to survival while the state watches. Battle Royale runs the same engine colder, with classmates forced to eliminate one another. Ender's Game shares the gifted-teens-tested-by-a-ruthless-institution nerve, all promise and hidden cost.
Deadly competitions where only the adults know the real rules
Cia goes into the Testing certain she has earned her spot, and only slowly realizes the people running it are the threat. Battle Royale drops its class into the same kind of rigged contest with a straight face, Ender's Game hides its cruelty inside training exercises a boy thinks he understands, and The Hunger Games and Legend both put a government's fingerprints all over a fight dressed up as fair.
Societies that sort young people and never explain why
The United Commonwealth rebuilds itself by testing its teenagers and burying what actually happens to the ones who fail, which is the same quiet horror running through The Giver's tidy community, Gathering Blue's harsh outskirts, Uglies' mandatory transformation, and Delirium's cure for love. None of these worlds look cruel from the inside, which is exactly the point.
Ruthless entrance exams that became full blockbuster franchises
Cia's climb through the Testing sits comfortably next to the other competitions that took over multiplexes the same decade. Catching Fire and The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes both dig into how the Hunger Games machine grinds down its competitors, Divergent turns an aptitude test into a franchise-launching initiation, and The Maze Runner and The Giver both send their leads through a trial built by people they can't see.