This Is Not a Test by Courntey Summers

This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

5 stars

The end of the world is here. Six students have taken refuge in Cortege High until they are able to be rescued or until the horror that has started stops. The dead are trying to get in and they won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bit could kill a person and turn them into an empty shell of their self. Sloane Price woke up on a morning that she planned to die and finds zombies taking over. Being bitten doesn’t seem so bad to Sloane. Six months ago, her world officially ended and she doesn’t want to keep going. Now is the perfect time to give up. Sloane waits for the barricades to fall, but the other five students are striving to stay alive. As the days go by, the group’s fate is determined less by what’s happening on the outside, but the inside. It’s been a month since I read this book and I still don’t know what to say about it. This book blew me away. I’ve been caught up on my reviews for about a week, but I didn’t review this one until now because I didn’t know what to say. I still don’t know what to say. This book is different from the usual zombie novel. Yes, there are zombies, but they aren’t present very often. I appreciate this because even though the zombies weren’t there you could feel them waiting. Summers did an excellent job with the suspense of what would happen. This book will rip your heart out and slowly stitch back together and then rip it out again. If you want a happy book this is definitely not the book to go for. Depression is ever present and it always feels like a heavy weight is compressing the characters and the reader experiences it as well.


The main female character is Sloane. Sloane is probably one of the most depressed characters I’ve ever read about. You can literally feel her depression through the words. It’s haunting. Sloane’s depression is from one person leaving her. Her rock and best friend- her sister are what drive Sloane into giving up and not wanting to go on. I personally thought that Sloane was too far gone at points. As the story progresses, Sloane changes and begins to break away from her depression. Sloane doesn’t have much of a personality. She reminds me of Chloe from Imaginary Girls. She is so dependent on her sister that without her she is nobody. Sloane does change though and she becomes a different person and it’s for the better.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 8.5

The main male character is Rhys. I actually really like Rhys, but he was just tool for Sloane to get over her problems. He really does come to care for Sloane and she for him. I wonder where their journey will take them next. Rhys is the second-in-command to the “leader” of the group. He was a ladies’ man and your typical bad boy before. I wonder how he has so many cigarettes. He always seems to have an endless supply and that’s a little odd considering that they are trapped in a school. I highly doubt every student had cigarettes in their locker because with as often as he smokes that would have to be where he would get them.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 8.5

The Villain- While it would be seem like the zombies were the group’s biggest threat there was something lurking about that was worse. I’m not going to spoil that though because that would probably ruin the whole book.


Villain Scale: 8

The rest of the group consists of Cary, Grace, Trace, and Harrison. Cary is the unofficial leader of the group, much to Trace’s chagrin. Cary knew Sloane’s sister well, so they develop a kind-of friendship. I like Cary, but there were times where I wanted to punch him the face. He’s not always the nicest guy. Grace and Trace are twins. Grace and Sloane had a sleepover once and they could’ve been friends. As the story unfolds we learn more about what could’ve been. I really liked Grace especially towards the end. She had so much hope and she was so happy to start over. She was one of my favorites in the group. I didn’t particularly like Trace. As time went on I liked him less and less, but by the end of the book I understood his reasons and while I still didn’t like him I understood him a lot more. Harrison was always searching for approval and I didn’t really like him either. I didn’t hate him though, but like most of these characters as the story progressed I liked him more.


Character Scale: 8.5

This book hurts to think about because it’s one of those books where there is just no happiness when I thought about. Right all I want to do is eat chocolate and crawl into a ball and cry. Summers is officially one of my favorite writers. All hail Courtney Summers’ books. *bows*




Cover Thoughts: This girl is in such an awkward position, but I love the cover for some reason. There’s just something about it that I find beautiful.