Review: This Is Not A Test

Name: This Is Not A Test

Author: Courtney Summers

Recieved: Purchased

Publication: St. Martin's Griffin

It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

 

 

                                   

 

Boy am I impressed. This is my first zombie book, and Summers has not failed to deliver! After having read such great reviews, naturally my expectations were high. After reading the first sentance... I was hooked.

I aboloutly ADORE the narrative voice. Sloane's character is so interesting and the writting style is so different... I just couldn't help but love it!

The novel follows Sloane Price and five other students as they take refuge in Cortege High during the zombie apocolyse. But for Sloane, her world had already ended six months earlier, when her sister Lily left her alone with their abusive father and fled. Now with death around every cornor, their motivation for living gets bleaker, as what's outside-- and inside-- tears them apart.

 

Although I loved the atmosphere and the narrative voice, I did feel like this was a single dimensional story. Other than the occasional flashbacks into sloan's life, most of it was told & not shown. No background information was given about any of the other characters. This didn't affect the story too much, as the emotional tension and plot made up for it.

Summers knows what she's writting about. Sloane's hate for life, the love/hate she feels towards her sister- yet surviving anyways. It's all spread out and planned to perfection. Have I mentioned the zombies yet? PERFECT.

Sloane's hate for her father and the betrayal of her sister makes the story all that much more enjoyable. It changes her attitude when she contemplates killing herself, then thinks about how she'll be betraying another person as her sister betrayed her. The way her story is pasted together creates a page-turner that's hard to put down.

Most of the other characters got on my nerves- and again, I felt that they were way too one demensional. In the moment, the characters we're conflicted *cough*TRACE*cough*, which made the story all the more amusing to read- but nothing that made each character, other than Sloane, memorable.

Now, this is a short novel AND it's a stand-alone, so it's understandable that each characters life story etc. wasn't told. It's a great read that's hard to put down.

 

More zombies... Here I Come!