Graduation Day is Joelle Charbonneau’s conclusion to her trilogy that began with The Testing and continued with Independent Study, and I’m disappointed I didn’t enjoy it more. The Testing and Independent Study were both exciting, edge-of-your-seat page-turners, full of action and plot twists. Graduation Day felt lackluster in both action and twists – not enough action and a few too many twists.

After the events of Independent Study, Cia is determined to get rid of the Testing once and for all. She can’t do it alone – she must partner with some of her classmates, including those who killed other teens during the events of the first book. She’s also asked to carry out a special assignment by the president, who claims that she, too, wants to abolish the Testing. But what are her true goals? Who can really be trusted?

I think what I missed most were the actual tests that pervaded the first two novels. They were clever and cruel and tremendous fun to read about. The tests were where Charbonneau’s imagination was at its best, and they were also a great way for us to get a feel for how characters behave in very tough situations. Graduation Day sacrifices these tests in favor of a more straightforward plot where Cia investigates who really wants to get rid of the Testing and what each person’s motives truly are. I say straightforward, but that’s really only true initially. By the end of the story, we’ve gone through at least three double-crosses, and I was never quite able to wrap my mind around who did what and why. It’s more than a little muddled and grew tiresome after a while.

Beyond my frustrations with the plot, I felt like many of Cia’s actions were out of character. I can understand that she would resort to more drastic measures here than she would have in the first book, but the way she reacts to certain events, the things she says – they often seemed a little off. I can’t go into much detail without revealing major plot points, but what I can say is that Cia didn’t always resemble herself from the previous two books.

Whereas I read the first two novels almost straight through in one or two sittings, this one took me several days, and I never counted down the minutes until I could pick it up again. The final confrontation, which I was hoping would be a big showdown with more secrets revealed, instead felt anticlimactic. This is obviously a must-read for diehard fans of the first two novels, but it’s not a completely satisfying conclusion, and I was left feeling a bit let down.

Review copy received from the publisher. Graduation Day is available now.