REVIEW: This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers

This is Not a Test 
by Courtney Summers

Summary: Goodreads

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?


REVIEW:
Lilly was gone and she wasn't coming back, Her sister had always said that she would take Sloane with her. But she left and Sloane was left to fiend for herself with an abusive father. Sloane had had all she could stand and it was time to end it and by it, I mean her life. But then the zombie apocalypse happened. She ended up with six other teenagers barricaded in their high school trying to survive by keeping the zombies out. The whole time she thinks she wants to die. And in the end, she's just running to stay alive.

The entire time I was reading this I'm thinking *FLASH BACK to the 80's* I'm watching The Breakfast Club. Seriously at first that's all I could think about. Throw a little zombie in there and there you have it, The Zombie Breakfast Club. :) Teenage drama *with zombies* until the last 50 pages and BAM everything goes haywire.

This is a story about Sloane, Grace, Trace, Harrison, Rhys, and Cary's survival. Not just a physical survival but a mental and a spiritual one on some levels. It is an emotional story. A story where you become part of them in that school. Listening to their fears, anger, and their pain. They all just wanted to be accepted by each other for who they are and not have to worry about what the others think. They've all lost their families and so they become somewhat of a family, with all the things that come with a family. In the end Sloane's character has matured and is forced to come to terms with the way life will be from then on and I believe she has decided dying is not such a great way "out".

I enjoyed This Is Not A Test enough for 4 Daisy's. Maybe because I would have loved more zombie action or maybe because it moved so slow at the beginning. If it would have started off like the last few chapters WOW it would have been awesome in my book!

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