My Thoughts On: This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers

This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers
Published by St. Martin’s Griffin
Publish Date: June 19, 2012
323 Pages
Source:  review copy from publisher

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? –(summary from  Goodreads)

This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers

My Thoughts: This is my first Courtney Summers book, you guys! I have heard only spectacular things about her as an author, about her contemporary stuff. Contemporary is a new-ish thing for me, as you know, and while I do have one of her contemps here waiting to be read, I haven't gotten around to it yet. OH, BUT I WILL. Because, you see, if This Is Not A Test is any indication of the rest of her stuff, I am already a fan. 

1. Sloane Price. Sloane is our female main character - a sad girl living with her awful father, wishing for a way out of life. Sloane is having breakfast one morning, just like any other morning, when the streets become flooded with people acting all kinds of crazy. Zombies! Sloane barely has a chance to think or act before one of the infected has jumped through the front window and tries to attack. Before we've had time to register that whole event as readers, Sloane and a few other young survivors have barricaded themselves into the local high school with hopes of being rescued. And there Sloane sits and waits, along with the rest of them.  

Sloane moves through life inside the school sort of on auto-pilot, just like she did before she got there. She constantly thinks about her older sister Lily. See, Lily left home a while back - left Sloane there to deal with her abusive father all alone. That wasn't the plan! Lily had promised that she'd wait until Sloane was a little older and they'd leave together, but Lily broke her promise and left without warning. Sloane had already decided, before the zombie attack, that she didn't want to live anymore, so when Cary, Rhys, and the others came and helped her to safety - they really only screwed up her plans. Sloane goes back and forth between wishing she were dead, despairing over her sister leaving her, hating her sister for leaving her, and wondering if somehow, just maybe Lily was strong enough to survive this zombie apocalypse and be out there alive somewhere. Sloane's thoughts are all over the place and at times, she makes bad decisions and puts others at risk. 

I went back and forth between feeling deeply for Sloane but wanting her to get a grip on life a bit. I mean, Sloane was mopey a lot and I understood that. Sloane had issues, you guys - issues that were there before the zombies running around in the schoolyard. She needed to be able to trust someone enough to open up enough and find a reason to keep going. The question is, with only a few people left in her world, who would that be? 

2. The Other Characters. Sloane is stuck inside the school with a group of students that have survived the hike across town. Within this group, there is initially an obvious leader in Cary - but it isn't long before tensions rise big-time and other students begin to question his authority. Cary knows he doesn't really have any authority yet he still tries to keep peace and organization rather than argument and distrust. This doesn't stop the others from forming an alliance-of-sorts against him. Grace and Trace, the twins, have their own reasons for hating Cary. Harrison is the young one of the group, only a freshman, extremely weak and very impressionable. He is a wild card, always moving his loyalty back and forth between the person who is in control at the time. Rhys is another survivor, a strong one, very smart. He seems level-headed and sincerely wants to survive despite losing everyone and everything. He also seems to want to help everyone else survive. (Rhys is probably my favorite character.) 

Sloane develops relationships with some of these secondary characters that are real, emotional, tense, and stressful - because that's how real life is, especially when times are tough. None of them have ever been under this amount of stress before, so their interaction was always gripping and never boring. Some of them do things that will shock the heck out of you and some of them surprise you wildly in good ways. Basically, you come to know these guys and gals, but with the stakes and tensions as high as they are, you never really know what they're gonna do. I really liked it that I was learning about these characters in small bits throughout the book, slowly and surely. 

I found the characters and their relationships absolutely exhilarating and dangerous and nerve-wrecking and delightful. Sometimes I was breathing all weird and sometimes I was actually sitting on the edge of my seat with the actions of these people. LOVED IT. 

3. The Setting & Story. Most of this book took place inside of a building. I love a great setting, and I love it when it is built well and in a way that I can easily visualize. Courtney Summers did that really well here by creating a world for her characters within an institution that most of us are very familiar with - a high school. It was crazy-easy to imagine using the locker room for showers, the gym for exercise, and the cafeteria to scavenge for food. It was easy to imagine how dark it could get inside the school with no power. It was just a great setting and I loved it. There was potential for extreme boredom in this setting but I never felt it at all. In fact, the story moved along at a really great speed and I plowed through this book, pretty much ignoring life outside the story for a few hours until I finished it. I could not stop reading it. 

4. The Zombies. These infected people are pretty typical of the infected people we mostly read about, so there is no surprise there. Get bitten, become infected, feast on other people, the cycle starts again. I love zombie stories and movies, and this was no exception. It may be unladylike, but blood and guts don't scare me - particularly with zombies. However, this story is more about these few young survivors than about the zombies. Just know that they're there, right outside the schoolhouse doors - kind of in the background, and they're trying to get inside so they can bite everyone. 

What we're focused on, as readers, are the people who aren't zombies and what they're doing to keep from becoming zombies, how they're staying sane, and whether or not they can get along with each other and not kill each other. 

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This Is Not A Test was awesome. I absolutely loved it. It was fast-paced and action-packed, which was surprising given the setting and the fact that it was less zombie-centric than I originally thought. The story was magnetic, pulling me in until I had to just ignore everyone around me no matter what their needs were (bad, bad, bad of me). 

In the end, Sloane Price won me over with her change of heart, the gumption she gained, and a new-found willingness to live. She had help, certainly, from one or two of her peers, but her growth came from an event or two that left me breathless and hyperventilating, and then cheering for her. Sloane may have started the book a sad girl with no hope in the world, but she didn't end it that way and that is awesome. 

I think people who like zombie books will like this one as well as some contemporary YA lovers. Somehow, it all blends together well. It isn't quite hard-core zombie but there is enough real-life happening inside that high school to probably satisfy some contemporary readers and true fans of this author. I will certainly be reading more of her books because I'm curious about how she handles the contemporary stories she is famous for.

This Is Not A Test will appeal to fans of:

Zombies/The Infected
Slow Romance-No Love Triangle
Great Characterization
(with Character Development)
High Stress Situations!

This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers
is currently available for purchase.

**I received a review copy from the author and publisher in exchange for an honest opinion and review. I received no compensation for my thoughts. Thank you St. Martin’s!

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Do you like reading/watching things about zombies? I DO!

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