Cia is given a course load that is much harder than her classmates in order to make her fail and get… um… redirected. I was happy to see that addressed in Independent Study a bit. She is just always right and it gets annoying. My major complaint about this book (and the series, really) is how know-it-all Cia seems. I didn’t have any strong feelings one way or another about the plot until the very end, when the setup for Graduation Day was initiated. It was just a bridge between the first book (which was awesome) and the (what I hope will be epic) conclusion to the series.

Independent Study was a decent follow up to The Testing, but this book really was a “second book syndrome” kind of book for me. But the future of the Commonwealth depends on her. Her attempts to expose the ugly truth behind the government’s murderous programs put her-and her loved ones-in a world of danger. In Independent Study, Cia is a freshman at the University in Tosu City with her hometown sweetheart, Tomas-and though the government has tried to erase her memory of the brutal horrors of The Testing, Cia remembers. a promising leader in the effort to revitalize postwar civilization. In the series debut The Testing, sixteen-year-old Cia Vale was chosen by the United Commonwealth government as one of the best and brightest graduates of all the colonies.

some students are really like that.Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on 2014 I don't mind that Cia is portrayed as being the brightest student, and that she succeeds a lot. Now the boundaries are crystal clear and she is trapped with the only possible route of escape being to play the evil Dr Barnes at his own game and win. I found this a compelling problem for her - in the previous book I felt like her reasons for staying were not explored well at all in the beginning - she seemed determined to stay even as things took a deadly turn, and she had no idea that leaving would be punishable. Running away is also not an option, as her family are sure to suffer. The thrust of Independent Study is really Cia struggling with a horrific set of tasks before her, while desperately trying to appear as if she is taking it all in her stride - just in case someone thinks she needs 'redirecting', which as far as she can work out might mean leaving in a body bag.

Independent study by joelle charbonneau