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thefastcar's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
sheiltheshell's review against another edition
3.0
This book was okay, good but kind of slow at parts. Wasn’t a huge fan of some of the characters, some were good and some didn’t have enough depth
kate4ez's review against another edition
4.0
At first, I was sure I was going to be disappointed in The Testing. The idea of wasting all these obviously talented young people as they narrowed the field from well over 100 down to 20 didn't make sense. There are so few humans left, what possible benefit is there to eliminating the best and the brightest? The author did hint at reasons later in the story, so I am hopeful that the next book will explain the reasoning behind the testing. Overall, I found the book an interesting read, and look forward to seeing what happens next.
vieeeee's review against another edition
4.0
this book definitely started out rough. I mean, first of all, the writing immediately threw me off because the voice of the character felt like a naive little child speaking in my head. I mean, I understand she's only 16, but I DID NOT enjoy this at first. not to mention, most of the characters were underdeveloped. we don't get too know much about the main character except she's somehow good as at everything ehich isnt relatable or interesting. i did like how, while she was human and opposed to killing, she wasnt completely incompetent and still did what she needed to do to survive as well as mantained the ability to think rationally. the love interest is charming and nice and nothing else. all the other characters are shallow and not described well enough to give their deaths too much impact.
the love story in this book is terrible, honestly. I understand that Cia and Tomas knew each other before the Testing which could explain why some of their story is underdeveloped but it seems to me that they just me each other and it was "love at first sight" which is not something I personally prefer to see in books. also I find it odd that the ONLY person Tomas trusts or pays any attention to is Cia. THERE ARE OTHER CHARACTERS TOO?! I rlly hate underused and undeveloped side characters.
the plot of the book in and of itself was pretty good even if the writing threw me off. I will say, the writing and plot both overall improved throughout the course of the book and I think it's just one of those "trust the process" novels. I rlly liked how it delved into the ideas of what it means to be a leader and related it back to killing and dystopian worlds etc.
as for the plot twists at the end, the one with will got spoiled for me so it didn't rlly affect me a lot, so at this part my opinion is quite biased but I think it was easy to see coming considering how much more he was mentioned than other side characters, Gills death, and the way Tomas didn't trust him. oh btw, I was rlly annoyed at how the characters seemed to switch up behaviors and personalities. ryme was nice at first but somehow all of a sudden she spiraled, (presumpetively) tried to poison Cia, and offer herself? and Tomas, who is known for being nice to everyone, hated and acted childish with will (he was right but that's not the point)? like Tomas was supposed to be smart, yes, but he also didn't show this throughout the book in other ways. instead he was just under cias shadow as she was doing all the smart stuff and he was blowing stuff up. and ig will made a little sense but I'm still confused on how his character developed. on the second plot twist, I did not see coming bc I actually thought zandri was nina (the girl who they buried) for a while because she specifically mentioned blonde hair but ig not. so yeah, Tomas probably killed her somehow considering the blood on his knife, but I rlly want to know the details and I kinda wanted zandri to meet up with them at least once but oh well. also I was lowkey shipping zandri × malachi and Nicole (keeps autocorrecting the name wrong) × will but alas.
anyway the qhole memory losing plot. I actually do like the concept of her losing her memory but listening to the recordings, it's quite interesting and I rlly want to see her emotional turmoil in the next book and have her contact her family. but some minor plot holes that may just be a product of stupidity: if Tomas had th memory pills, first, why did he not give one to her earlier? why did the man she met at the gate not give her something to fight that along with the truth serum. and second, does Tomas remember? it doesn't seem like he does, meaning he didn't consume the pills? why? bc Cia didn't? bc he wanted to forget? idk.
LAST, about the gray haired man at the fence. I think it's an interesting plotline and will build up for the next books hopefully. if it doesn't then it's going to inevitably be a bad plotline so I hope the author does something with it. but anyway. overall this book was rlly bad at first but it got so much better and I liked the social and political commentary which qill hopefully grow in the next books and the way it ended. so 4/5 stars overall, thought the first hundred or even more pages were like 2 stars. thanks for coming to my tedtalk!
the love story in this book is terrible, honestly. I understand that Cia and Tomas knew each other before the Testing which could explain why some of their story is underdeveloped but it seems to me that they just me each other and it was "love at first sight" which is not something I personally prefer to see in books. also I find it odd that the ONLY person Tomas trusts or pays any attention to is Cia. THERE ARE OTHER CHARACTERS TOO?! I rlly hate underused and undeveloped side characters.
the plot of the book in and of itself was pretty good even if the writing threw me off. I will say, the writing and plot both overall improved throughout the course of the book and I think it's just one of those "trust the process" novels. I rlly liked how it delved into the ideas of what it means to be a leader and related it back to killing and dystopian worlds etc.
as for the plot twists at the end, the one with will got spoiled for me so it didn't rlly affect me a lot, so at this part my opinion is quite biased but I think it was easy to see coming considering how much more he was mentioned than other side characters, Gills death, and the way Tomas didn't trust him. oh btw, I was rlly annoyed at how the characters seemed to switch up behaviors and personalities. ryme was nice at first but somehow all of a sudden she spiraled, (presumpetively) tried to poison Cia, and offer herself? and Tomas, who is known for being nice to everyone, hated and acted childish with will (he was right but that's not the point)? like Tomas was supposed to be smart, yes, but he also didn't show this throughout the book in other ways. instead he was just under cias shadow as she was doing all the smart stuff and he was blowing stuff up. and ig will made a little sense but I'm still confused on how his character developed. on the second plot twist, I did not see coming bc I actually thought zandri was nina (the girl who they buried) for a while because she specifically mentioned blonde hair but ig not. so yeah, Tomas probably killed her somehow considering the blood on his knife, but I rlly want to know the details and I kinda wanted zandri to meet up with them at least once but oh well. also I was lowkey shipping zandri × malachi and Nicole (keeps autocorrecting the name wrong) × will but alas.
anyway the qhole memory losing plot. I actually do like the concept of her losing her memory but listening to the recordings, it's quite interesting and I rlly want to see her emotional turmoil in the next book and have her contact her family. but some minor plot holes that may just be a product of stupidity: if Tomas had th memory pills, first, why did he not give one to her earlier? why did the man she met at the gate not give her something to fight that along with the truth serum. and second, does Tomas remember? it doesn't seem like he does, meaning he didn't consume the pills? why? bc Cia didn't? bc he wanted to forget? idk.
LAST, about the gray haired man at the fence. I think it's an interesting plotline and will build up for the next books hopefully. if it doesn't then it's going to inevitably be a bad plotline so I hope the author does something with it. but anyway. overall this book was rlly bad at first but it got so much better and I liked the social and political commentary which qill hopefully grow in the next books and the way it ended. so 4/5 stars overall, thought the first hundred or even more pages were like 2 stars. thanks for coming to my tedtalk!
soulfish's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.0
It's a generic YA dystopian with not even an ounce of originality. One star for no grammatical errors I can recall.
sarkamatty's review against another edition
4.0
Proč jsem to vlastně začala vůbec číst, to se mě neptejte, ale vlastně to nebylo vůbec špatné. Ověřila jsem si sice, že mezi cílovku už asi tak docela nepatřím, ale věřím tomu, že číst to před šesti lety, tak jsem nadšená.
Je to taková obvyklá vykrádačka Hunger games smíchaných s Divergencí, až na to, že je to trochu horší než Hunger games a trochu dost lepší než Divergence. Hlavní hrdinka vlastně ani není moc na zabití, jenom je prostě jako vždy zcela dokonalá a výjimečná, nicméně za to přeci nemůže, žejo. Ta romantická linka by tam asi taky vůbec nemusela být, protože Tomas je taková mdlá postava, že nechápu, co na něm hrdinka vidí a mnohem radši bych ji spárovala s Michalem, ale tak co no. Nemůžu mít všechno. Jo a taky bych si alespoň jednou v životě moc ráda přečetla dystopii o hrdince, která je vysoká. Ale hádám, že to by pak nebyla tak roztomilá a nefungoval by na ni hrdinský komplex hlavního hrdiny. Jaká škoda. 😅
Je to taková obvyklá vykrádačka Hunger games smíchaných s Divergencí, až na to, že je to trochu horší než Hunger games a trochu dost lepší než Divergence. Hlavní hrdinka vlastně ani není moc na zabití, jenom je prostě jako vždy zcela dokonalá a výjimečná, nicméně za to přeci nemůže, žejo. Ta romantická linka by tam asi taky vůbec nemusela být, protože Tomas je taková mdlá postava, že nechápu, co na něm hrdinka vidí a mnohem radši bych ji spárovala s Michalem, ale tak co no. Nemůžu mít všechno. Jo a taky bych si alespoň jednou v životě moc ráda přečetla dystopii o hrdince, která je vysoká. Ale hádám, že to by pak nebyla tak roztomilá a nefungoval by na ni hrdinský komplex hlavního hrdiny. Jaká škoda. 😅
smateer73's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked this book. I love the characters and the plot is exciting. The twists are well done and will leave you speeding through the book. I can’t wait to read what happens next!
jl27's review against another edition
3.0
This was a book selected for our high school’s schoolwide read. I’d grown quite tired of the dystopian genre, and reluctantly picked up this one along with my students. I found it to be more of a middle school level read, but with a lot of really dark stuff happening throughout. The story was good overall, and the read was easy, but much too parallel to the Katniss Everdeen plight. And we all know THG series already did its thing quite well, long before this book was published. I don’t think I’d read the other books in this series; but if you’re into the dystopian genre, then give it a read once you’ve checked out the better-written, more popular series pieces out there.
txpamcakers's review against another edition
3.0
Hunger Games fans will either love or hate how much this mimics the same storyline. I liked it well enough and will read the sequels.