Title: This Is Not A Test
Author: Courtney Summers
Series: Stand Alone (but could see series)
Pages: 320
Published: June 19th 2012
by St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN: 9780312656744
Source: Around The World Tours
Description: 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?
I Give This ...
This immediately went on my to-read list just because its Courtney Summers. I have to admit I was a little wary about zombies (not because I don't like zombie book, but because Courtney hasn't tackled this type of book before). Turns out that I should have realized this book really isn't about zombies.
I found it interesting that Sloane is so ready to turn it all in. We get a little bit of a glimpse of why (and the full pictures comes throughout the story), but she never seems suicidal. To me it just didn't fit with her character. If she was that willing to die, I don't think she would have made such an effort to get to the high school. I think in the back of her mind she knew she had something to live for.
At first I was a little annoyed about how the zombie apocalypse takes place. We know next to nothing about it. And it's never explained. One moment the world is fine, the next its not. But, as the characters get their moments in the book, I came to realize this story was about them. It's focusing on the tensions that can be created when faced with this grim reality. That the people who will survive are the ones who find their inner strength and courage to push on no matter what. And that sometimes the only way to do that is to put your trust in someone you normally would have nothing to do with. This type of catastrophe breaks down all social barriers. I think the author did a fabulous job with this.
Once I let go of the zombie portion of the story, I found that this was really just like every other book I've read by Courtney Summers. And I enjoyed it immensely.
I greatly enjoyed most of the characters and Summers' writing style, there were annoying flaws. I hated that this zombie novel barely had any zombies in it at all. They were present through the first part of the book, banging on doors and trying to get in, but they went away when a gas station exploded. Then they never came back. I liked that they were at least an ominous presence, but then they were just absent. Then some of the characters were insufferably annoying and I kind of wish they were made zombie food. They held on to their little petty conflicts and moaned and whined over the dumbest things. Ugh. This aspect was the worst for me and I kept waiting for those characters to get better and unfortunately they never did.
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