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A review by tbeaumont223
Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau
1.0
I've finally finished the series. Honstly, my first two thoughts were: "Ugh. Finally." and "I wish I hadn't spent the money."
This series went downhill fast for me, finally coming to a very slow conclusion in Graduation Day. I found the premise of the whole book very hard to swallow. Cia, the main character, interns with the president and is tasked with killing off 12 people the president says are the reason for the testing being so horrific. Almost immediately, Cia agrees.
First of all, I can't believe that such an important and dangerous mission would be handed to a 16-year-old without there being a catch. But, getting past that, I cannot believe that Cia, who has opposed the testing for its brutality and killing since she first found out about it, would so willingly take on such an assignment. She briefly questions it, but comes to the conclusion that it is the only way. She enlists the help of friends, all of whom are the best and brightest the colonies have and NO ONE can think of a better way to accomplish this task than to kill everyone? On top of that, Cia develops her own deadly tests for her "friends" to test their loyalty. That goes against everything she stands for.
I also had a hard time swallowing the fact that she took the president's mission without questioning it. A major theme in the series is to not blindly trust authority just because they are the authority. Yet she takes the president's word at face value without once ever considering that she is being duped. I know Cia is labeled as too trusting, but she doesn't do this with anyone else in the book--she questions their motives constantly--which is a major tip-off and makes the ending not so much of a surprise. Of course the president was playing her!
The characters in the book, and in the whole series, were really hard to relate to and believe. Every one of them there, no matter how good or bad they are, just wants to save everyone from committing the mistakes of the past. Bologne. These kids are not normal. Yes, it's a different world, but they are so altruistic (even if they go about it in a cruel, deadly way) it's impossible to believe them. They've proven they are selfish and willing to kill and do whatever it takes to get ahead, even betraying their friends. And it's all for the good of the country? It's hard to take at face value, but the fact that it is thrown in your face over and over makes it even harder to accept.
I feel like there were supposed to be a lot of plot twists in the story, things to make you gasp and keep you on the edge of your seat. However, I felt the whole thing to be pretty flat. The one thing that had me wondering and wanting to find out was if Tomas was really who he was portrayed to be. The fact that he randomly disappeared at points, wasn't always around, and was pushing Cia so hard to run away made me think he was hiding something. But as it turns out, he wasn't. A bit of a let down. I don't know if the author portrayed him that way on purpose or if I was just reading in to things to try to make the story more interesting.
At this point, if you haven't read this book and haven't been hooked by the series so far, I'd say don't waste your money.
This series went downhill fast for me, finally coming to a very slow conclusion in Graduation Day. I found the premise of the whole book very hard to swallow. Cia, the main character, interns with the president and is tasked with killing off 12 people the president says are the reason for the testing being so horrific. Almost immediately, Cia agrees.
First of all, I can't believe that such an important and dangerous mission would be handed to a 16-year-old without there being a catch. But, getting past that, I cannot believe that Cia, who has opposed the testing for its brutality and killing since she first found out about it, would so willingly take on such an assignment. She briefly questions it, but comes to the conclusion that it is the only way. She enlists the help of friends, all of whom are the best and brightest the colonies have and NO ONE can think of a better way to accomplish this task than to kill everyone? On top of that, Cia develops her own deadly tests for her "friends" to test their loyalty. That goes against everything she stands for.
I also had a hard time swallowing the fact that she took the president's mission without questioning it. A major theme in the series is to not blindly trust authority just because they are the authority. Yet she takes the president's word at face value without once ever considering that she is being duped. I know Cia is labeled as too trusting, but she doesn't do this with anyone else in the book--she questions their motives constantly--which is a major tip-off and makes the ending not so much of a surprise. Of course the president was playing her!
The characters in the book, and in the whole series, were really hard to relate to and believe. Every one of them there, no matter how good or bad they are, just wants to save everyone from committing the mistakes of the past. Bologne. These kids are not normal. Yes, it's a different world, but they are so altruistic (even if they go about it in a cruel, deadly way) it's impossible to believe them. They've proven they are selfish and willing to kill and do whatever it takes to get ahead, even betraying their friends. And it's all for the good of the country? It's hard to take at face value, but the fact that it is thrown in your face over and over makes it even harder to accept.
I feel like there were supposed to be a lot of plot twists in the story, things to make you gasp and keep you on the edge of your seat. However, I felt the whole thing to be pretty flat. The one thing that had me wondering and wanting to find out was if Tomas was really who he was portrayed to be. The fact that he randomly disappeared at points, wasn't always around, and was pushing Cia so hard to run away made me think he was hiding something. But as it turns out, he wasn't. A bit of a let down. I don't know if the author portrayed him that way on purpose or if I was just reading in to things to try to make the story more interesting.
At this point, if you haven't read this book and haven't been hooked by the series so far, I'd say don't waste your money.