Joelle Charbonneau

Independent Study

Now a freshman at the University in Tosu City with her hometown sweetheart, Tomas, Cia Vale's attempts to expose the ugly truth behind the government's grueling and deadly Testing put her and her loved ones in great danger.

Independent study

Hannah Yang

Oohh, I want to give this a four. I think I'm downgrading it a little.

Independent Study is the sequel to The Testing, which really impressed me. It's about Cia after she passes the Testing, and begins to find more and more dark and dirty secrets about the United Commonwealth during her time at the University.

It's definitely action-packed. I don't think the action ever stopped. Independent Study is a page turner, and all of the challenges were intriguing. I liked the Inductions. The occasional Testing flashback was nice. All the stuff about the rebellion and going-behind-people's-backs: great. Everything's well written and really kept me on my toes. I wasn't the least bit disappointed in the plot.

But what. happened. to. the. characters?! The characters were one of the reasons I loved The Testing. In The Testing, characters were unique, complex, and had both pros and cons. In Independent Study, there's only one character who's really in focus, Miss Perfect Cia Vale. 

She had perfect judgement, figured all the tests out, didn't fall for any real traps, kept rescuing people because that's just how caring she is, balanced nine classes and aced all of them, was the first intern for the president... the cover says failure is not an option, but I'm pretty sure Cia doesn't fail anything this whole book. It's even confirmed by the other characters.

  Unease churns my head. "Did I do something wrong?"
"You did everything right."
I don't understand. "Then why am I in trouble?"
"Because you did too well." Ian takes a seat on a high metal stool. "Every year the Induction is different to ensure students don't have advance knowledge of how best to approach the problems that are given. You figured out the purpose of the final test faster than anyone expected."
Come onnn. Can she do something wrong? Please?

She and Tomas aren't that close at all, and the only real hints of their relationship are their kisses. In fact, Cia doesn't trust Tomas. Or Will. Or anything. Not only does Cia not trust anyone, she makes us readers suffer through her dramatic inner dialogue, which involves many triplets of dramatic phrases. Here are some examples:

  I am determined to find out if that voice is right. About Will. About Tomas. About everything.

Tomas has faith in me, but I am not certain I can return his trust. Not in myself. Not in him. Not in anything.

To do so would be like saying their deaths don't matter. That Dr. Barnes and his people have the right to select not only who leads but who lives and dies.
He doesn't.
They don't.
No one does.

Who will pay the price for their deception?
My family. My friends. My colony.

They didn't watch friends die. They are not plagued by nightmares or doubts. They are safe. Whole. Unscarred.
I mean, there are plenty more, but all of these happened in just three chapters (46 pages) of the book. That's a lot of dramatic pausing. That's a lot of making things seem worse than they are. That's a lot of foreshadowing about the doom and horror that is to come for Cia.

Okay, okay. Disappointment in the lack of character growth and interesting new characters (minus maybe Raffe, who I am pretty curious about) aside, Independent Study was definitely a book that was meant to lead up to the final installment in this trilogy. The whole book was a build-up and the cliffhanger at the end is like Joelle Charbonneau yelling "I guess you're gonna have to find out in the next book!! (: (:" at us. 

The problem is, it worked. I'm super excited for what Graduation Day holds in store for Cia, her friends, and the rebellion. 

For now I would recommend Independent Study to those who enjoyed the first book (if you weren't too satisfied with the first, I don't think Independent Study is for you) and don't mind constant-action-with-little-character-development. Normally, this is a problem for me, but Independent Study made it work. *shrugs*

henrique

Just like the first book, this one is a very enjoyable read, which gives continuation to the likeable characters we already know and advances the story of Cia, and her pursuit to bring down to system which stood by and watched whilst many of her friends and foe where killed alongside her during the broken system that is the testing.

Whilst first half of the book serves as a slow and careful rampage to the events of the last half of the book (where most of the action takes place) it is by far no less enjoyable.

The end of the book leaves great expectation and lots of action for the last of the trilogy to work off of, starting with the catching cliff-hanger.

Another great book. This series is a must read in my opinion.

This book took everything that I liked from the first book and didn't use it.

The tests where each one has a loophole and is largely left up to human variable? None.

Having to be careful around the identification bands? Nope.

Magically, the testing bands had recorders, the first-year pre-study bands had NOTHING, and the student bands had (within the past year) been changed from recorders to trackers. The main character doesn't even mention the pre-study bands don't have a recorder. She just worries that the student band DOES have a recorder after telling her boyfriend super secret information while they both had their bands on. Also, she sneaks around without the book ever stating that she turns off her tracker. She just BUILT the tracker disrupter and a signaler and used the signaler once. If the book had done what made sense and put either a tracker or recorder in the pre-study band, the main character would have been absolutely caught either way by either playing her communicator's recording of herself before her memory was wiped OR by sneaking off and watching one of the students getting "redirected."

I spent a large portion of the book worrying about it the bands (which were the TOP importance in the first book) and if they were a plot hole or if something cool and wild was about to happen as a repercussion for the main character not being as careful as she was in the first book. But alas, it was a weird glossed over plot point.

Another con: I keep thinking her boyfriend is super untrustworthy. Every time she tells him all of her top secret information, I worry. He has done so many things that have made me worry that he isn't trustworthy and the main character just blindly trusts him all the time. (Also, he is just SO aggressive. He's fine when it's just the two of them, he acts pretty normal. But whenever someone else is there with them, he just stands behind her angrily. To be fair, he kept his testing memories but even in the first book, I found him a bit unnerving.)

As one add on, it seemed like Michel kind of had a thing for Cia. She's about 17 and he is at least 6 years older than her but sometimes the way she talked about him in her head plus what he was saying and doing has me thinking he liked her. I thought that was a strange thing to add. Cia mentioned in the first book he seemed young so I thought they were close in age but he's at least 23. I thought he was sweet though and him getting shot was absolutely wack.

Plot holes that were glossed over made me too frustrated to read the book.

Tomas is so untrustworthy to ME but apparently the author didn't mean for that to be people's read on him

This book took the things I liked from the first book and just threw them away

Reagan

This book took everything that I liked from the first book and didn't use it.

The tests where each one has a loophole and is largely left up to human variable? None.

Having to be careful around the identification bands? Nope.

Magically, the testing bands had recorders, the first-year pre-study bands had NOTHING, and the student bands had (within the past year) been changed from recorders to trackers. The main character doesn't even mention the pre-study bands don't have a recorder. She just worries that the student band DOES have a recorder after telling her boyfriend super secret information while they both had their bands on. Also, she sneaks around without the book ever stating that she turns off her tracker. She just BUILT the tracker disrupter and a signaler and used the signaler once. If the book had done what made sense and put either a tracker or recorder in the pre-study band, the main character would have been absolutely caught either way by either playing her communicator's recording of herself before her memory was wiped OR by sneaking off and watching one of the students getting "redirected."

I spent a large portion of the book worrying about it the bands (which were the TOP importance in the first book) and if they were a plot hole or if something cool and wild was about to happen as a repercussion for the main character not being as careful as she was in the first book. But alas, it was a weird glossed over plot point.

Another con: I keep thinking her boyfriend is super untrustworthy. Every time she tells him all of her top secret information, I worry. He has done so many things that have made me worry that he isn't trustworthy and the main character just blindly trusts him all the time. (Also, he is just SO aggressive. He's fine when it's just the two of them, he acts pretty normal. But whenever someone else is there with them, he just stands behind her angrily. To be fair, he kept his testing memories but even in the first book, I found him a bit unnerving.)

As one add on, it seemed like Michel kind of had a thing for Cia. She's about 17 and he is at least 6 years older than her but sometimes the way she talked about him in her head plus what he was saying and doing has me thinking he liked her. I thought that was a strange thing to add. Cia mentioned in the first book he seemed young so I thought they were close in age but he's at least 23. I thought he was sweet though and him getting shot was absolutely wack.

Final thoughts:

Plot holes that were glossed over made me too frustrated to read the book.

Tomas is so untrustworthy to ME but apparently the author didn't mean for that to be people's read on him

This book took the things I liked from the first book and just threw them away

Julia Lotz

Inhalt: Cia Vale ist gemeinsam mit ihrem Freund Tomas an der Akademie von Tosu City aufgenommen worden. Und obwohl die Regierung ihnen ein Medikament verabreicht hat, das alle Erinnerungen an das brutale Auswahlverfahren der »Auslese« löschen soll, hat Cia nichts vergessen – weder die schrecklichen Todesfälle noch ihre Liebe zu Tomas.

Ab sofort kennt sie nur noch ein Ziel: die »Auslese« zu beenden, indem sie dafür sorgt, dass die ganze Welt die grausame Wahrheit erfährt. Doch damit bringt Cia nicht nur sich selbst, sondern auch alle, die sie liebt, in größte Gefahr ... (Quelle: Verlag)
Meine Meinung: Ehrlich gesagt, war ich unglaublich gespannt auf den zweiten Band, hatte aber auch ein bisschen Angst in zu lesen. Vom ersten Teil der Auslese war ich so begeistert, dass er sofort zu meinen Füchschenbüchern gehört und so hatte ich bedenken, ob der zweite Teil mich ebenfalls so sehr überzeugen kann. Aber das hat er. Genauso wie Teil 1 ist die Auslese 2 einfach absolut süchtig machend. 
Cia hat die Auslese hinter sich und nach dem ersten Semester an der Uni, das eher als Einführung gedacht ist, geht es jetzt darum herauszufinden, in welchen Studiengang man gesteckt wird und anschließend wird man von den Studenten dieses Studiengang auch noch geprüft. Hier muss ich nun natürlich aufpassen, dass ich euch nicht zu viel verrate. Ihr könnt euch sicher sein, dass Cia einige Überraschungen erwarten.
Sie muss, wie oben schon erwähnt, beweisen, dass sie für den Studiengang würdig ist. Sonst passiert mit ihr das gleiche, wie mit all jenen, die die Auslese nicht geschafft haben. Da diese Einweihung von so ziemlich den gleichen Leuten geleitet wird, wie die Auslese, erwarten den Leser und Cia und die anderen Studenten ebenso spannende Aufgaben, wie wir sie schon im ersten Teil lesen konnten. Die Buchreihe verliert also so nicht ihren besonderen Reiz und behält den Aspekt, den ich schon am Auftakt der Trilogie so mochte. Denn egal ob Test oder Outdoor-Aufgabe: Von Cia und ihren Freunden wird wieder viel verlangt.
Was ich auch besonders toll finde ist, dass dieses Mal nicht nur der Auslese- bzw- der Einweihungsprozess im Vordergrund steht sondern, dass auch die Rebellion sowie Cias private Probleme mehr im Vordergrund stehen. Die Geschichte wird so vielschichtiger und auch Cia wird durch die Gedanken, die Gott sei Dank auch mal ein bisschen vom Ausleseprozess weggehen interessanter.
Ich finde auch, Cia macht eine unglaubliche Entwicklung mit. Sie ist nicht mehr das kleine Mädchen aus der Five Lakes-Kolonie. Sie ist in der Zeit in Tosu-Stadt eine junge Frau geworden und meistert alles immer noch klug und bedacht. Und das, obwohl ihr der größte Teil der Erinnerung an die Auslese fehlt und sie den Rest nur von ihren Aufzeichnungen weiß. Und genau das bringt Cia in eine größere Gefahr, als ihr zunächst bewusst ist.
Zusammenfassend kann Teil 2 der Auslese mit dem ersten Teil mithalten. Das, was in Teil 1 fasziniert wird in Teil 2 in abgewandelter Form wieder gefunden. Zudem verstärkt sich der Fokus auf die Rebellion und die ganze Trilogie bekommt somit einen Leitfaden. Cia gefällt mir als Protagonistin immer noch sehr gut und macht meiner Meinung nach eine tolle Entwicklung zwischen den beiden Büchern.
Bewertung: Die Auslese: Nichts vergessen und nie vergeben kann für mich definitiv mithalten. Sie schließt perfekt an Band 1 an und führt das fort, was dem Leser am Vorgänger gefallen hat. Da das Buch mit einem fiesen Cliffhanger endet, bin ich außerdem schon sehr gespannt auf Teil 3 und geben dem Buch in der Zwischenzeit 5 von 5 Füchschen.
Vielen herzlichen Dank an penhaligon für das tolle *Rezensionsexemplar.

Chloe Verhoeve

3/5 stars 

“Because sometimes the best leaders are the ones who have no interest in leading. Those are often the ones who are most interested in doing what is right, not what is popular.” 

This is the second book in the Testing trilogy by Joelle Charbonneau. We follow Cia in Tosu City, living her new life as a student at the university. That is, until she discovers some details about the testing.

After reading the Testing I immediately started this one. I enjoyed the first one so much that I didn't even read what this one was about. Of course, this became clear very soon. I really enjoyed this one too, but not as much as the first one.

Tbh, I think that this one and the third book could have been combined in one slightly bigger book and we still get the same information. 

Something I thoroughly enjoyed was the campus and Tosu City. Every time something was described I could vision it perfectly. I loved reading about the city and where the students lived.

I'm currently reading the third one so I can finish my first series of the year!

Nicole Dykeman

I swear to god, this had me guessing from beginning to end. You never know which characters you can trust. I absolutely love every single character, even the ones that I hate, if that makes any sense. Tomas is officially my new fictional boyfriend. Beautifully written. I'm LOVING this trilogy. Can't wait to start the next book tomorrow!!!!!

Maggie Gordon

Cindy Lee

*spoilers for the Testing ahead*

Independent Study starts off right where the Testing left off. Cia is now in the University and she is placed in the government / leadership program. The government had tried to erase her memories of her times in the Testing but she remembers. Even though she's in the University now, the game is still as deadly as ever with the Tosu City students. To pass the Initiation for her program, they're divided into groups to pass deadly challenges. That's probably my favourite part of the whole story. I love the challenges and how Cia has to think through all the possibilities to solve them. Now Cia is trying to expose the truths about the Testing by leading a rebellion, things are just getting better and better! I cannot wait for Graduation Day!

Rating: C+

Manon van Keulen

I loved the book and can recommend to anyone to read it. It is well-written and almost impossible to put down once you started reading.

Independent Study

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