Please Remain Calm

by Courtney Summers

• ISBN10: 1466875909
• ISBN13: 9781466875906
• Publish Date: 20 January 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: St. Martin's Griffin
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[Bianca]

I wonder if all hearts are made with the same pockets for fear and pain and sadness. They must not be, or if they are, maybe we all don’t know how to use them. Because otherwise so many of our stories would have ended differently.

[Angie]

That was super screwed up. Even though I was satisfied with the open ending of This is Not a Test, I did want to know what came next for Sloane and Rhys. Now I know. Please Remain Calm picks up immediately where we left off, and follows them on their journey to Rayford. Sloane has reverted back into her suicidal self, so Rhys is the narrator of this novella. He's trying to hold onto hope, but whenever they think they've discovered somewhere safe, the dead swarm upon them. There's no avoiding those hungry gazes.

Please Remain Calm is just a downer. Everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. But it didn't feel like the author was just making her characters go through hell for the heck of it. I believe this messed up world. It gives you hope, then snatches it away. I loved how there are doom's day preppers in this one! But that doesn't mean that everyone is going to survive. Really, the only way I can describe this situation is screwed up. Although the ending is once again, one of those is it happy or is it sad ones. I'm hoping it's happy.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[kimbacaffeinate]

Espresso Review of Please Remain Calm

Please Remain Calm is told in Rhys perspective and picks up right where This is Not a Test ended. He and Sloane are escaping and heading toward a safety. They have his Dad's car and a crowbar.

Summers knows how to build suspense and deliver a tale and quickly drew me in. Narrow escapes, panic and deadly twists will have you holding your breath. I liked getting Rhys perspective and when he and Sloane are separated, I feared the worse. Summers’ introduces new characters and despite being only ninety-six pages, she managed to flesh them out and have me invested. There were moments that had me cringing, crying and sitting staring at the pagees slacked jawed.

The zombies and danger at every turn had my heart racing. The tale managed to pull at my heartstrings too as I became attached. Do not become attached! Summers’ manages to give me one heck of a ride every time we get together. The ending made me scream. *I mean out loud- the kind that makes my hubby come running to see if I am OK.* Yes it wrapped up, but OMG. I want more. I loved it and hated it, I really did. Fans of Mira Grant will love the This is Not a Test series.

I am desperately hoping Summers and St. Martin Press give us more installments. Please Remain Calm will work as a standalone. But where is the fun in that? This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[Nessa Luna]

Read this review and more on my blog October Tune!

In 2013 I read This Is Not a Test a book about a group of teenagers who were hiding in a school to get away from the zombies. Zombies? Yeah, I read a book about zombies, can you believe it? I once said I thought zombies were the Umbridge of mythical/supernatural creatures (ok they're not really mythical nor supernatural but you get what I mean), and that I would avoid books, movies and TV shows about them like the plague. But I did end up reading a couple of zombie books (Warm Bodies, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, etc), and of course TINAT. I was so frustrated with the open ending that I might have cheered when I heard about Please Remain Calm.

This novella of about a hundred pages goes further where the previous book ended, with Rhys and Sloane trying to get away from their hometown and to a safe place that they heard about on the radio. But along the way, they get separated. Rhys ends up  meeting a couple of people who will help him get Sloane back, but nothing really goes according to plan, which is kind of obvious if you're right in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

The story is written from Rhys' point of view, which took a bit for me to get used to. I am just more used to reading from a girl/woman's POV than from a boy/man's, but I guess that's a bit obvious when you're a girl yourself. But in the end, I did like reading from his POV. We meet three new characters in this book; Jess, Lisa and Ainsley, and they were really nice and I liked them a lot. And I was just so sad at what happened to that lovely little family. I mean I think Ainsley wasn't older than five (I think her age was mentioned somewhere in the book but I forgot, oops) and TO SEE THAT LITTLE GIRL CHANGE INTO A ZOMBIE JUST BROKE MY HEART OK!!!

Of course, with the book having only a hundred pages, a lot of stuff happened in a short amount of time, and I thought the book ended way too quickly. And I have to say I am still not really that happy with how it ended, because it still had an open ending. (So fingers crossed for another novella? Okay just kidding. No I'm not).

I liked Courtney Summer's writing, and I am definitely planning on checking out more of her books, just not her zombie books, because I still think zombies are the Umbridge of all the creatures that exist. Sorry not sorry.

My opinion on this book in one gif:


I think people who've read it will understand at which part I did this.. (gif credit)