This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
320 Pages (Paperback)
St. Martin's Griffin
June 19, 2012
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback

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?

ADGJ SKLDJ FLKAJS FLJDAFLKJASLDJ! Those are about the extent of my thoughts on this title. Incase you are unable to translate, that means incredibly in love, shocked, heartbroken, and confused. This is Not a Test is going on the "the shelf". The shelf that is reserved in my bedroom for the books that I absolutely loved. Let's see if I can be somewhat coherent for the rest of this review...


The world is collapsing, but this is nothing new to Sloane. Actually, Sloane welcomes the chaos and her imminent death. But after joining up with a group of high schoolers looking for shelter, her life is no longer up to her. She is forced to survive through the sheer will of the other teenagers. But what can you do when not only does the outside world hold unimaginable danger, but the inside holds its own types of threats? What lengths would you go to survive? And who will actually make it? 


The simultaneous best and weirdest part of this novel is how much it resembles a contemporary. I realize that there are not zombies currently walking the Earth (or are they....), but the novel is not really about the zombie apocalypse. The apocalypse is what forces the characters to really be introduced to themselves for the first time. Their regrets and fears rampage them, and they start to see how strong they really are. But what is the most terrifying is what they will do to survive. It honestly reads like a contemporary, which was undeniably strange, but made the novel so much better.


This book was just really beautiful, something you don't expect when you read the synopsis. I would highly recommend it, especially to those crazies who like to have their hearts torn out. Look out early next week for a giveaway!