The Testing

This book shows that if imitation is the deepest form of flattery, then Suzanne Collins should be deeply flattered. I had hopes that The Testing was something that was going to be unique and interesting, but sadly, it is a ripoff of every famous dystopian novel to come out in the last five years (since 2013).

Our first and biggest problem with this book is the main character, Cia. She is a girl that, sadly, feels like a paint-by-numbers strong female lead character. Now, let me say upfront that I don't hate female lead characters who are strong examples of what a woman can do. In fact, I like a woman in a story to be strong no matter her capacity. However, with these women being very popular right now, the author has to distinguish her from all of the other, more famous leads out there. And, in this book, she doesn't. Not to say that Cia isn't a bad character. She is strong, independent, and very smart. However, I felt that the way she was written made her instantly forgettable against someone like Katniss, or even Tris form Divergent . I felt no emotional grab towards her at the beginning of the novel, and I felt that she didn't convince me she was worth my time when I decided to stop reading.

Then there is her main romantic lead...hey, Veronica Roth? You remember in my Divergent review about how I thought Four was a flat character and he was a major cliche that wasn't worth writing? I don't know if I said those things exactly, but I certainly meant to (sarcastic laughter)...Roth, I am so sorry for judging you. I have found someone far worse than Four. Thomas is a character who seems to like Cia, but he is just as standard as her in terms of what we should expect from a romantic lead in these kinds of books. And there is absolutely no basis for them being together...and that is saying something considering how much crap I gave Divergent for its romance. Worse still, there is a testing official who seems to like Cia who has even less of a basis for liking her than Thomas. At least Cia and Thomas grew up together. The official, whose name I forget, just seems to look at her and, boom, he likes her. One could just chop this up to hormonal teenage boys, but this novel wants us to take it seriously, and I...Just...can't. It is painfully obvious that this is set up for a love triangle, and I just can't handle that. I am SICK of love triangles at this point.

The world building is even more unoriginal. The country is split up into different sections, here called colonies, and they all work for The United Commonwealth, and their main capitol Tou Sou city. When the smartest students turn sixteen, they are selected to go through a series of deadly tests, and eventually only a few will come out as winners. Does this sound familiar to anyone? This world is so devoid of originality that I refuse to write any more about it.

And in the end, that sums up The Testing fairly well. There is nothing to make it origonal, let alone memorable, when it copies every famous dystopian novel made in the five years since it was first published. And because it isn't memorable in the slightest, I have to give this book a two, out of five.