Saturday, March 24, 2012

This is not a Test by Courtney Summers - another review

Wow! This one is so creepy and is such a great story. It’s very dark, very suspenseful, and has some unexpected twists. The main character, for starters, is going to kill herself, and then the end of the world happens. Sloane Price is physically and mentally abused by her father and is planning to end her life that very day. She’s getting ready to leave for school when there’s a commotion outside. Her father goes to see what’s going on and zombies tear through her front door and windows. They come after her and her father and he tells her to run and fights them off, but is overwhelmed. She runs and ends up in her high school as the sixth in a group of ragtag teens who, until that day wouldn’t have had the time for each other. They barricade themselves in and wait for help to come. The teens who end up inside the school do not like each other. The only teens there who don’t hate each other are a set of twins who in turn hate another one of the teens because they feel it’s his fault for the death of their parents. Sloane continues to think about killing herself, but she can’t figure out a way to do it without putting the others in harm’s way, so she waits. After weeks of being in the school and fighting with each other, someone new arrives, but it isn’t help. It’s a teacher they once had. He’s almost dead, but he’s not a zombie, at least not that they can tell, and from there things get worse.

This is not a Test is action packed and never slows down. It grabs readers from the first page when the zombies break through the glass in Sloane’s house and she runs from her father. It was not very predictable at all, and I hope there will be a sequel. This one is a great addition to any collection.

2 comments:

Luxembourg said...

At first glance this book seems to be filled with whiney kids. I mean none them are particularly good at surviving, they aren't really good at working together and they really don't like each other much. These aren't people you would want at your side during a zombie outbreak. As I was reading this book the characters became more and more irritating. That being said, it was perfect. You aren't always going to get gun carrying survivalist. You are going to get regular people caught up in things bigger then themselves. This was a very realistic book considering it takes place during a zombie outbreak. The kids in the story really don't get along. One thinks another killed his parents, another wants to die because her sister ran away from home and there are others to contend with as well. I really enjoyed this book

Della said...

Glad you enjoyed it! I totally agree about the whiny kids!