Sylvain Neuvel

Award-winning author Sylvain Neuvel explores an immigration dystopia in The Test Britain, the not-too-distant future. Idir is sitting the British Citizenship Test. He wants his family to belong. Twenty-five questions to determine their fate. Twenty-five chances to impress. When the test takes an unexpected and tragic turn, Idir is handed the power of life and death. How do you value a life when all you have is multiple choice?

The Test

arwen

4 of 5 stars

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This is a quick, scary, messed up, definitely harsh but fascinating and thought-provoking novella that really made my head spin! I've read that this book can actually passed as a Black Mirror episode, and it did! This was a perfect read if you want to let a book freak you out and make your mind be blown away. I wish I can find other books just as riveting as this one in the same way.

Ryan 

3.5 stars?

took me an hour and a half to read this and as much as i can say how inventive and original this is, i still don't know how to feel about this

Cigdem O

Denaiir

so much packed in such a short story, this is a masterpiece

Nessa Luna

Wow, this novella was such a surprise to me. I had not liked any of this author’s previous books and actually DNF-ed the second Themis Files book. But this story went in a way I had not expected. I didn’t really like the way it ended though and wished there had been just a bit more to it, but all in all, I really liked this story!

CAWPILE: 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 (Avg: 7.86)

Emelie

3,5owls. 

Wow, this was not what I expected, but really good. And nerve racking!

Ashlyn

Can you have PTSD from a dream? Reality is what you believe it to be.

Ley Stanton

After seeing quite a few people rave about The Test, I was curious to check it out myself. While it’s only a novella, the writing style caused the story to feel dragged out. In particular, I did not like the rambling perspective of Idir. It’s obvious that the reader is supposed to sympathize with him because he is doing everything he can to keep his family safe and pass the citizenship test. I found the perspective of the test operator to be more interesting, certainly more revealing about the testing process. However, I didn’t particularly like any of the characters and found them to be rather flat despite the intentions to make them more dynamic. 

Obvious commentary on the questions for citizenship tests. They are notorious for being difficult for arbitrary reasons, normally to justify not allowing someone to become a citizen. Many test questions have to do with the country’s history and are things a natural born citizen couldn’t even answer. I think this is an important read for those who are ignorant about the citizenship test, especially in predominantly white countries. As someone who was watched others struggle with the test, this simply takes a more direct approach to the difficulty of the test. Instead of making just the test questions difficult, the British government in this near future has made the entire testing situation difficult. It makes it as hard as possible for those coming from other countries, especially if they are not white. 

There is blatant racism in the design of the test. Even the test operator understands this and defends it. I found the whole testing situation deplorable. The problem is that I don’t see it as impossible. While I do not see governments going to that extent for citizenship tests currently, I have no doubt that many would prefer we did. There are more blocks for citizenship, or even just immigration, put in place at every chance politicians are given to do so.

While I do think the message is an important one, I found the delivery to be too heavy handed for me and the writing a touch too erratic. Very curious about the authors other books as I’ve heard the composition for those are out of the norm as well.

Kat H.

Keeping it short and sweet: What an absolut mindfuck of a book. I really enjoyed it and hope I can find more like it

Tee Ng

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?! This is basically an unreleased episode of Black Mirror in the form of novella and let me just tell you one thing: it's hella good. The book is short so you can finish it in one go. The dedication "To the kind people" is a huge contradiction to the twisted and mindfucked plot that go after.

All in all, I give this one a solid 4. This book is a damn perfect match with your free evening/weekends.

Krystal 

Cindy Lieberman

An immigrant to the UK is taking a citizenship test in the future when the exam is interrupted. This Black Mirror-esque novella asks how we measure an individual’s worth to society, and suggests what that process might look like in the future as we are increasingly reliant on Big Data and analytics for decision support.

Kate B-L

Gripping, horrifying, and thought provoking. 
I finished it in less than an hour and I couldn't put it down.

Lincy

Award-winning author Sylvain Neuvel explores an immigration dystopia in The Test Britain, the not-too-distant future. Idir is sitting the British Citizenship Test. He wants his family to belong. Twenty-five questions to determine their fate. Twenty-five chances to impress. When the test takes an unexpected and tragic turn, Idir is handed the power of life and death. How do you value a life when all you have is multiple choice? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Andrew Kerr

Good quick dystopian read

Enjoyed this short novel- dark but imaginative. Felt a little clunky at points but overall not a bad one if your looking for something quick.

Sahi K

I’ve heard quite a bit about this author’s Themis Files series but as it’s sci-fi, I never planned to read it. I can’t even remember when this little novella came onto my radar, but I put it on my library hold and finally got it. And I frankly have no right words to describe this reading experience because my mind is totally blank right now. 

As the summary is already present here on GR, I’m not gonna rehash it. The citizenship test here is just a plot device - what’s important is what the whole process symbolizes and the horde of existential questions it leaves us with. This book is about belonging - how far are you ready to go to belong to a place, especially if you are running from fearful circumstances and want to be a part of a much safer society. If you are made to choose between life and death for others, how will you decide who gets to live. This is a searing commentary on various biases and prejudices that exist, either subconsciously in us as an individual or pervasive in the society; and how much can we overcome them when faced with impossible choices. And finally it’s about choices - how each decision we make influences what happens to us next and how it changes us a person - and that’s why we should be very careful in every decision we make. 

To conclude, this is probably the vaguest review I have ever written but I don’t know what else to say. This book a total mindfuck and just leaves you stunned and unsure of everything around you. So, I would definitely recommend this but be sure you are in the right mindset to be able to handle it. If you are someone who is going to be giving a citizenship test in the near future, this book might be very anxiety inducing, so please be prepared for that. And if you are someone who loves reading about dystopian worlds which feel too close to our reality (something like Internment by Samira Ahmed, or even the Handmaid’s Tale or 1984), then this book is perfect for you.

Jen Estrella

“When faced with a choice, humans almost invariably seek a no-action, no-change option, even when one of the presented alternatives is quantifiably and logically more advantageous.” 

This should be a black mirror episode.

Rina

A father- Idir - from Iran needs to pass a British Citizenship Test. He wants his family to belong. But things take an unexpected turn.

Interesting and unexpectedly psychological. The writing was confusing at times, there were instances I had trouble distinguishing who the dialogue belonged to. But the more I read, it bothered me less, I thought the style fit the narrative and atmosphere the book was aiming for. The ending didn't offer anything definite as well. I still had a lot of questions but taking note of the length of books such as this, there is almost always the concern of still wanting to know more.

I'm gonna echo dozens of other reviews: this would be an amazing Black Mirror episode.

Olivera Mitić

Tbh, when I read the premise and heard people's opinions about how weird and sci fi this was, I expected to read something about an alien taking the citizenship test. 

I was rather sad when I found out that's not what's going on in this book and while it's a stupid reason to lower the rating, I just feel like I've been robbed. Dear mister Neuvel, please write a book about aliens taking a test so they can live on Earth. I really need that story, man, I need it.

Анастасия Розова

4.75/5

Wow. Wow. It made me so worried and emotional. This novella was short, I've finished it in one sitting, but it was amazing! It's been a while since I've read something like this something that made me feel, that touched me. I liked Sylvain's Sleeping giants series, but this is a fucking masterpiece. A new favorite, and I haven't had one in a while.

The Test

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