The Testing 2: Independent Study (The Testing Trilogy)

This was definitely an interesting development from the first book. I really loved The Testing; most of all for Cia's intelligence, and after reading lots of negative reviews for this sequel I really was dubious about what I might think of Independent Study. But I guess I'm the minority, because I thought this was a solid middle book.This second tale takes place immediately after the events of The Testing and shows Cia, Tomas and Will embark on their journey at the University. There are more tests to determine who is smart enough to stay, pass Induction and progress through an Internship in their chosen field of work. But of course, there are lots of twists and turns including the introduction of students from Tosu City. The students who haven't had to struggle through The Testing, killing their comrades and the poverty of smaller cities.I liked that the testing element remainded. Although it's really typical, and as such hugely unoriginal, for this genre, I think this author does a good job of making the tests pretty exciting. You just don't know if they're going to be brutal tests, tests of genuine competence or tests within tests. What I like so much about such an overdone concept in this case is that Cia is such a fantastic main character that she's just miles ahead of me, figuring stuff out and narrowly escaping nasty situations by outwitting her murderous assessors. I think intelligent characters are fantastic - so much better than the lucky, boring heroes that seem to be commonplace at the moment. She's definitely earning her stripes as a strong female lead.I also enjoyed the fact that this author chose not to make the romance between Cia and Tomas a big deal. It's barely touched upon, they're rarely depicted making sickeningly sweet comments to each other and actually it's a really slow, believable relationship that takes a massive back seat. I much prefer this to being smacked in the face with romance and forgetting about anything and anyone else in the plot.It's great that you don't know who and what to trust in this book. I was constantly wondering what to believe and wanting Cia to investigate more for me. I'm the kind of reader who gets bored quickly and there just wasn't time for this in Independent Study!I definitely recommend this book, however there are some flaws. Whilst the ideas aren't original, I really felt that Charbonneau could have changed the direction of this book from the norm. It's apparent from the start that this is going to take the typical rebel group road in which the main character gets tangled up in being instrumental in bringing down a big bad guy corrupting society and murdering innocents. It's been done, and I just hoped there was more to this story. I did see flashes of this towards the end so maybe there's still hope!Overall a strong middle book, not suffering from middle book syndrome at all, that kept me turning the pages long into the night. Don't be put off by the negative reviews like I was.

In the follow up to ‘The Testing’, Cia has made it to the University. Having taken the exams that will determine the future of their careers in the United Commonwealth, Cia and the other successful testing candidates now have a whole new set of challenges to face.Cia’s memories of her first Testing have been erased, but as she prepares for her initiation into her class, disturbing flashbacks make her question the University and all it stands for. With her dreams full of suspicions about what happens to students that fail to live up to the University idea of its ideal candidate, she is thrown into a dizzying round of intense studying, ruthless initiation processes and cut-throat competition.When she learns about a group of rebels working against the government officials in charge of the University, Cia has to choose whether to risk her life, and the lives of the people that she cares about, by joining their cause. But who can she trust? And who is doing everything they can to make sure she’ll fail?When a series gets off to such a strong start, I’ve often found that I’m a little disappointed in the sequel. Here, the author manages to recreate the same world with just as much tension and suspense. Yes, the pace is a little slower and events don’t take quite such as deadly a turn as in The Testing, but that makes the things that do happen even more shocking. It does also suffer a little bit from middle book syndrome – where we’re clearly building up to a larger storyline but we have to wait until the final instalment for the main action to kick off.Despite this though, it still gets a 4/5 from me. I actually like the way that this novel is set against an academic background, although still in a dystopian world. I always think that it’s a little unrealistic when books are set in a world where law, systems and order have completely gone out of the window in just a few short months. It seems entirely plausible that society has set up a system like this to help them rebuild. Having characters rely on their intelligence to get ahead, rather than fighting, also marks this series out from a lot of the other books in this genre out there at the moment and I found it a really interesting read. I’ll definitely be buying the third one in the trilogy when it’s released!

This book was a real non-event for me. Nothing plot advancing actually happens - a large part of the book is spent on a "initiation" challenge that really doesn't add or develop the plot in any way, except for some small character development and Cia seeing a few things that looked suspicious. It felt like an enormous diversion to me, which was frustrating. The world building has already been established in the first book so this book should really have advanced the plot and been able to move forwards in an exciting way. Sadly, it didn't. The new characters introduced were rather predictable and very sketchily portrayed, and I also found Cia's feelings for Tomas quite unexplained and rather dull.On the plus side, the world building is quite good (though the series is clearly trying to ride off the success of the Hunger Games - that's very blatant) and the twist at the end was surprising enough to be satisfying. Overall, though, this book left me feeling pretty non-plussed.

An interesting tale with lots of detail. Wanders into the academic side of the students lives quite deeply. Exciting moments and a good read. Not as good as the first book but books rarely are. I recommend it.

Very much like the first in this book, it's quite predictable, and very "hunger games" styled.That being said it was a good book where you do want to keep reading, as it is a easy read book.The down fall I did really find in this trilogy was the amount of information they talk about the destroyed world (presidents, phases of destruction etc) that seemed to go on ad on and end up being quite irrelevant overall? I understand you need to set the scene of what sort of a place they now live in and the reasoning to why the testing is in place, but it's a bit far fetched and boring to read after a while.