This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

This is Not a Test

by Courtney Summers

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?

Reviewed by Angie on

4 of 5 stars

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This is Not a Test sounded like a very different kind of zombie apocalypse novel, and for the most part it was. Sloane is not the ass-kicking, save myself and save the world heroine. She has her suicide note written and is ready to leave this world when the dead come back. But she's picked up by a group of students from her school and begins the fight for survival. However, it's always at the back of Sloane's mind that she doesn't want to survive; she has nothing to live for.

I really liked This is Not a Test. The beginning isn't very action packed, even though there are zombies everywhere. Sloane and the others are very well barricaded, but it's what they can't see that's the most frightening. Especially when they realize the school isn't as closed up as they originally thought. Sloane is also the first one to volunteer for the most dangerous tasks, because she wants to die! No one wants to go outside, because they want to live! Sloane on the other hand, well, she gets to be helpful and hopefully gets the death she's been wanting.

Those last few chapters though? My gosh! I kind of forgot to breathe at points! I had to know what was going to happen next! It had me so nervous, since Sloane finally has a sliver of hope, but there's hordes of zombies between her and what she wants most. It's just nonstop tension! No one is safe! I couldn't assume that anyone was going to survive this, even Sloane. Just because she's out narrator, doesn't mean she has to make it! And how could it just end there?!

Actually, This is Not a Test could have been a great standalone. It has one of those semi-open endings where you can just imagine what comes next. Hopefully, it's something good, but really it could go either way. I think I would preferred it to end there, because I could think up my happy ending and move on. But then I was tense again, because I didn't know what was going to happen!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 30 March, 2015: Finished reading
  • 30 March, 2015: Reviewed