Amy's View: This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers
♦publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
♦release date: June 19th, 2012
♦paperback, 323 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult

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?

Reviewer: Amy
Source: ALA

Review:

All is can say is this book is hauntingly horriffic in the best way possible. If you're a zombie lover in any way, this book is a must read! This is not a Test is a very imaginitive and thoroughly thought out story of teens fighting to stay alive in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.

Slone Price is one of those characters that grabs you in the first sentence and leaves you hanging on her every action. Not a character that everyone can identify with, but her emotions are so honest you can't help but to respect her. I found myself gripping onto the book as I read not knowing if I was brave enough to turn the page but also not being able to resist. I flew through this book waiting and waiting for that time when they are rescued and found myself fearing that they might just all perish and return as the walking dead.

The story weaves you through the perils of survival and the breakdown of finding these teens in a no-win situation.... Alone, no adults, no help, and trapped. What would you do if you found yourself trying to survive, running and running, only to find yourself alone with a group of kids you barely know, trapped in a high school surrounded by flesh-eating zombies? It does make you sit back and wonder.

I love the true grit that this story is told in. Courtney Summers doesnt tip-toe through the daisies. This is written so realistically it makes you look out the window and double check for walkers. I loved the story---it is not predictible in anyway, nor are the characters. This is a group of happenstance, not the group of best friends braving it together through thick and thin. No, it's the oddest group of kids forced to stick together to survive. And don't fear, the ending does not disappoint. It will leave you breathless. A definite recommendation.

5 cupcakes and 2 zombie thumb ups!

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Purchase This Is Not A Test: Amazon • BN.com • BookDepository • Indiebound
Trailer: (just a warning---its a bit disturbing!)