Jedidiah Barnes is the one ordering “redirections.” When Michael suspects Cia of recalling memories, he tells her of a man named Symon Dean who leads the rebellion to end the Testing program.

She is confronted by Michael Gallen, who explains she cannot leave. Intent on stopping the murders and uncovering the truth about the United Commonwealth, Cia tries to flee Tosu. When Cia sees Obadiah’s dead body being carried out by government officials, she realizes the term “redirected” is a euphemism for murder.

Cia can’t believe the horrors of her recorded memories, so she attempts to prove them with her own eyes. Cia’s friend Will is placed in Government Stacia in Medicine while Obadiah Martinez is redirected.

Cia’s boyfriend, Tomas Endress, is placed in Biological Engineering. After an eight-hour exam, Cia is placed on the career path of Government studies, her last choice. Now a freshman at Tosu University, located in the former Wichita, Kansas, Cia has been assigned a nine-class course load, while the other freshmen are only assigned six. Those who did not pass The Testing have been “redirected,” which Cia believes to mean they were sent home or relocated for work. However, thanks to her brother’s Transit Communicator, Cia was able to record fragments of what happened to her during the grueling Testing period. Cia is one of twenty students who passed The Testing, and as a result, her memory has been wiped. Narrated in the first person by Malencia Vale (Cia), the story resumes six months after The Testing.

Independent Study has been called “fast-paced…right to the cliffhanger ending” by Booklist, and “a twisty story that hits the mark” by Publishers Weekly. Along the way, Cia must fend off mistrust and paranoia, wading through a series of double-crosses and back-stabbings en route to liberating the truth. Now, as Cia’s memory has been erased and she’s been assigned a hefty course load to determine her role in rebuilding civilization, Cia and her boyfriend, Tomas, recall the past in order to expose the horrific truth behind the United Commonwealth government and its deadly programs. Set in Tosu City, the dystopian novel resumes the schooling of Malencia Vale (Cia) six months after graduating the Early Studies Program. Published in 2014, Independent Study is the second novel in the young-adult science-fiction trilogy The Testing by American author Joelle Charbonneau.

Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau