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Title: Graduation Day
Author:  Joelle Charbonneau
Genre: Dystopian YA
Pages: 304
Year: 2014
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Source: Personal Collection
Rating:  3/5

Summary (from Amazon):

She wants to put an end to the Testing
In a scarred and brutal future, The United Commonwealth teeters on the brink of all-out civil war. The rebel resistance plots against a government that rules with cruelty and cunning. Gifted student and Testing survivor, Cia Vale, vows to fight.

But she can’t do it alone.
This is the chance to lead that Cia has trained for – but who will follow? Plunging through layers of danger and deception, Cia must risk the lives of those she loves–and gamble on the loyalty of her lethal classmates.

Who can Cia trust?
The stakes are higher than ever—lives of promise cut short or fulfilled; a future ruled by fear or hope–in the electrifying conclusion to Joelle Charbonneau’s epic Testing trilogy. Ready or not…it’s Graduation Day.

My Thoughts:

Honestly, this one fell short of my expectations. I love this series and I will recommend it in a heartbeat, but I just wish the final book had been as great as the first two. (Final books almost always disappoint me though, and I have no idea what others have said, so maybe it’s best not to listen to me.)

For me, the plot was too convoluted. People were double crossing the people they were double crossing and I had no idea what side anyone was on. I also had some trouble with the plausibility. Yes, this is dystopian fiction, but why would the president of a county ever think it was a good idea to put a teenage girl in charge of a rebellion? And, two months later, I am really struggling to remember how the book actually ended.

On a positive note, the book is action-packed and Cia becomes an even stronger, independent young woman, which is satisfying in its own way. It almost becomes a political thriller, rather than a typical YA dystopian.

In short, this book was by far my least favorite in The Testing series, but the series, as a whole, is still very much worth reading.