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Book: This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
Publication Date: June 19, 2012
Series: None
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Synopsis: 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 wantto 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?
Overall Review:
I must say that I am incredibly disappointed with This is Not a Test. So many people have told me what an amazing book it is and how Courtney Summers' books are just incredible, so with all the praise this book was getting from people I went in with my expectations pretty high only to be let down. This is Not a Test started out very exciting yet super dark, I was drawn into the story almost immediately, but as the story went on I started to lose interest. Six teens are stuck in their old high school waiting for help during a zombie apocalypse; they're bloody, bruised, tired, and distrusting of each other. All they want to do is survive this nightmare, except for one. With a premise like that you'd think there'd be tons of action, horror, suspense, death, and darkness but sadly no. What we got is tons of nothingness with a few interesting and bloody scenes here and there. When I say nothingness, I do mean nothingness. I get that there really isn't much you can do when your characters are all stuck some place waiting to get rescued but you can still do something. There was just so much repetition. "We ate breakfast." "We checked our barricades." "They continued to yell at each other." over and over and over again. It was so boring because nothing ever happened. There was more yelling and stupid angst and drama going on than anything to do with the apocalypse. It was pretty much teens yelling at each other all the time over stupid things that didn't matter with a zombie apocalypse as an afterthought. While Courtney Summers' writing is very dark, compelling, and emotional the story itself lacked well, a story, and the only reason I read the whole thing was because I felt the need to see how it ended.
Sloane was a very complicated character for me. I felt so bad for her because she's been through so much, more so than what anyone should have to go through. Her life has been a living hell and the only person she trusted, the only person who truly loved her, left her. Her story is very tragic and it definitely pulled at my heart strings. Especially since she was suicidal and just wanted life to be over. At the same time, however, she could get on my nerves. She talked constantly of killing herself or letting the zombies in so they could kill her, but she never truly thought that if she did that sort of thing then the others would die as well. She would go on and on about how she wasn't selfish like her sister and she wouldn't hurt the people she was with, but so many of her decisions put others in danger and she never thought twice about it until afterwards. She always talked about doing stupid and risky things so her life would just end. Now I'm not trying to sound mean and say that if you continuously talk about suicide and ending your life that you're annoying, but it wasn't so much the suicidal thoughts that bugged me but the fact that it was all she thought or cared about. Everyone could die around her and she wouldn't think twice, in fact she'd get mad that they died before her. Just the way she thought and acted bugged the crap out of me, and no amount of sympathy from me can change that awful and selfish behavior.
The pace was actually pretty slow, but I expected as much since they hung out at the high school waiting for help for a huge majority of the book. I was expecting a heck of a lot more than what I got from This is Not a Test. While the writing was power, deep, and emotional there was almost no story line and the entire book felt like complete nothingness and blah. Yelling over stupid stuff, eating, checking barracks, yelling over stupid stuff, yelling about yelling over stupid stuff, checking for supplies, yelling because they were ordered to check for supplies, yelling over yelling, sleeping, eating, yelling. There was just so much freaking yelling and stupid drama that it gave me such a headache. The whole zombie apocalypse seemed like an after thought and to be honest, given with what happened in the story the whole zombie thing wasn't really needed. It was just there. I was so disappointed with this book and the only reason I continued on was because I felt the need to see how it ends and even then the ending was pretty disappointing and predictable. I felt really bad for Sloane because she's been through a living hell, honestly I was scared for her at times. Life has kicked her down one too many times and now she just refuses to get back up. I felt so bad for her, I really and truly did, but there were times that she just got on my nerves. She could be far too selfish, idiotic, and mean. I couldn't stand how she thought sometimes which made it hard for me because I still felt bad for her. I do adore that cover though! So dark and creepy! The blood drops in the corner were a nicely added touch!
Overall Rating:
I give This is Not a Test a 2.5 star rating. It had great premise and I was so looking forward to reading it, but it just fell so flat for me. There was no story line and I was just so bored. I personally would not recommend this book but if you want to give it a shot, I hope you enjoy it! While this was a disappointing read, I'm still open to reading more of Courtney Summers' books in the future! I do love her writing. Hopefully her next book will be the one for me! Thanks for reading!
2.5/5 stars
~Kayla~
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