Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Halloween Reads Week: This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

This Is Not A Test
by Courtney Summers
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Publication Date: June 19th 2012
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 323
ISBN: 9780312656744
Genre: Young Adult | Zombies
Source: Own

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

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? (Goodreads)
This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers is book #3 in my Halloween Reads Week! This is another book that I have wanted to read for a while now, and I’m super glad I finally decided to read it this Halloween. It made a perfect addition creepy Halloween reading list.

To be honest, I’m not a big fan of zombies. You’ll never catch me voluntarily watching The Walking Dead or anything like that. I can take them, in moderation, and that’s exactly what we get in this book. While they are around, and the times we do see them are freaking intense, they aren’t the main focus of the story. I enjoyed that about the book, I think it made it the book a lot easier for me to read.

The main character in the story is Sloane. Wow, this character is seriously messed up. After years of abuse from her father, and being left by her older sister who promised to always take care of her… it’s easy to say she has some serious issues. You totally feel her emotions when reading the pages. She wants nothing more than to give up on life, and so different than what I am used to reading in a main character. You couldn’t help but feel sorry for her situation. The way that she interacts with the secondary characters, who are all hoping to survive, you can just fell her despair and detachment. 

The storyline was so very creative. The book is mainly based around the six teens trying to survive inside their high school. Their survival stories made the book an intense read, especially the parts with the zombies, and I flew through the pages to find out what was going to happen to everyone in the end. Speaking of the end… WOW, what an ending. I’m surprised I didn’t have nightmares! (Yes, I’m a big chicken.)

Overall; I had heard this book was pretty great, and I’m seriously kicking myself for not reading it sooner. It has a major creep factor going on, which made it yet another awesome Halloween Read!

Happy Reading!


2 comments:

  1. I am not a big zombie fan either. I do like the sound of the six who are trying to survive and what they'll do to survive. That sounds like the part of the story that would keep me reading more.

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  2. I love this book! I think it's my favourite Courtney Summers book. I also love reading about zombies, so this was totally up my alley, but I'm happy it's still a good read for people who aren't into that!

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