Book Review: This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers

this is Not A Test
by Courtney Summers
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: June 19, 2012
Pages: 336
Age Demographic: Young Adult/Adult Crossover
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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?

* Summary taken from Goodreads.

❝My Thoughts❞

Courtney Summers pens an emotional edgey unpredictable tale of survival and strength in a chaotic world full of danger and destruction. In many ways, it's a startling dismal outlook at life and death in an intensely gritty realistic and terrifying way. This book is by no means your average run of the mill zombie apocalypse horror stories. It's riddled with chaotic violence, terrifying outlooks on life itself, and the human race. This book is sure to draw readers into its web and wrap them up inside the pages.

There is so much more to this story, than just what appears on the surface. Sloane is not just fighting to die, she's actualy fighting to SURVIVE herself in this crazy violent and messed up world that Courtney Summers has created. It's not just about living life through the eyes of five strangers as they stuggle to survive and stay alive, but more about growing, learning, and needing to feel that urge to fight for survival on Sloane's part, herself. Sloane is a broken protrait of a young woman on the cusp of womanhood, yet she has had to deal with far more pain in her life at the hands of her father and again when her sister abandons her to save herself in the zombie apocalypse. It's easy to see how she would rather fight to die, than fight to stay alive.

The absolute best part of this book are the characters and how realistically written they are and how wonderfully flawed everything is. Nothing in this life is perfect, nor is it by any means necessary in Courtney Summers world either. It's what makes this story even more intriguing and incredibly intense. I absolutely fell in love with the premise, the memorable characters, the brilliant sense of reality, and the start dismal violence that comes along with it. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of dystopia and or zombie/horror fiction. It is certainly one that will grab readers and pull them in for more.

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COURTNEY SUMMERS

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Courtney Summers can't wait for the zombie apocalypse. Also she is the author of CRACKED UP TO BE and SOME GIRLS ARE, FALL FOR ANYTHING (available now) and THIS IS NOT A TEST (June 19th, 2012), four edgy young adult novels published by St. Martin's Press.

Author information taken from her Goodreads.

{ This ARC was provided by ATW ARC Tours, in exchange for an honest review which I have provided. No money exchanged hands, I review books for fun because I love to read. I am not interested in monetary gain.}