#Zombies! Review: This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

May Contain Spoilers

Review:

I’ve had a copy of This is Not a Test moldering in my TBR for a while. I had purchased a print copy from Amazon, but since my reading preferences have changed and I prefer reading eBooks now, it just sat in a box. Then I noticed that the library had acquired a digital copy, I was in the mood for a zombie story, so I hit the Borrow button.

I have mixed feelings about this book. First, while it was a gripping read, I had a hard time caring about any of the characters other than Rhys. Trace is an asshole, Harrison is a crybaby, Cary is willing to do anything to survive, and Grace marches in lockstep with her twin brother Trace for most of the book. The characters are kind of flat and one-dimensional, and not very interesting.

The story is told by Sloane, in first person present tense. I liked her, for the most part, but got tired of her angsty feelings of smothering betrayal towards her older sister Lily. Lily ran away from home six months ago, leaving Sloane alone with their abusive father, and the day Lily left, the world ended for Sloane. So when the zombie apocalypse happens, it’s anti-climatic for Sloane. She’s been planning her suicide for months, and when the dead start walking again, she feels that she’s been already dead herself.

When Cary and Rhys find her sitting in the middle of a street, Sloane’s just waiting for her death. She wants a zombie to get her, so she can stop hurting. Lily’s absence leaves her in physical pain. But the boys are in full on rescue mode, and it’s just easier to go with them than to fight them. Besides, Sloane thinks that she’s nothing like Lily, and she’s not selfish enough to put Cary or Rhys in danger by resisting them.

After the promised sanctuary at the community center is overrun, Sloane, Cary, Rhys, and their small group of survivors make it to the high school. While they have food, water, shelter, and the safety of solid walls around them, their safe haven came at a price; Trace and Grace’s parents were killed by the undead when they led the way to the school. Trace and Grace blame Cary for their deaths, because he called the all clear when the alley was teaming with zombies. Trace can’t forgive Cary, and he makes his hatred for Cary very clear. The tensions within the small group of survivors is seething with distrust, and I wondered how they would stay in such close quarters without killing each other.

While the pacing is tense, and obstacles repeatedly cause grief for the little band, I had a hard time with all of Sloane’s angst. I soon became impatient with her. I wanted to tell her – If you want to die that badly, just go up on the roof and throw yourself off! Yes, I felt some sympathy for her because the only person in the world she trusted turned out to not be so worthy of her trust, but get over yourself, already! The zombies gave Sloane a new lease on life. Her father was gone, his abuse a thing of the past. The apocalypse gave her the freedom she longed for, and distance from her father, but she never took advantage of the chance to reset her life. Instead, she allowed Lily’s betrayal to consume her. I found it exhausting.

I did enjoy this enough to immediately check Please Remain Calm out of the library as well. Let’s see if that works better for me.

Grade: B-

Review copy purchased from Amazon / Borrowed digital copy from library

From Amazon:

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?