diane recommends Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau

Although Diane wanted to review Independent Study last year, she never got around to it. Since the final book in the trilogy The Testing comes out on June 17, she is coming back with a guest post to talk about the trilogy.

Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau is the third (and final) book in The Testing Series. Malencia Vale (more commonly known as Cia) and her boyfriend, Thomas, along with many other friends, have been studying at the University. As friends have disappeared, Cia has discovered the terrible things her government does to the people who fail to meet standards at this challenging school. As she gets her schedule (more packed with challenging classes than anyone else’s) and struggles to keep reacting in a “normal” way with this work load, she finds time to start a rebellion, and figure out what is really going on. With a little risk, a little rebellion, some romance, and a lot of stubbornness, Cia manages to finish what she put her mind to without dying.

With a happy, but unexpected, and puzzling end, it perfectly sums up the two books preceding it with seamless perfection. Although not foreseen, the end is perfectly clear, yet keeps the reader wondering what Malencia will do next, and what she should do next.

This book is not like any other dystopian novel written: the usual predictability, the typical romance, and the horror of the fight. This book moves along quickly—so quickly that the reader barely has time to keep up, but then slows down in the perfect places to make the drama, the violence, and the romantic imperfections seem real.

This fast paced book is sure to please any reader wanting an action-packed romance. Right from the first page, the reader is thrown into this dangerous, but pleasing, setting. So, with perfect timing, and a lot of realistic mistakes, Graduation Day is the most realistic (and best) conclusion to a dystopian trilogy I have read.

Copy received from publisher for review.

Graduation Day

by Joelle Charbonneau

published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

June 2014