I think the characters were one of the most interesting things about This Is Not a Test. Sloane and the other kids do a lot of arguing, they wait around, they have desperate l’m-dying-anyway-so-who-cares sex, they hate each other. Similarly to William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies, Summers focuses a lot on human nature and survival, which is pretty fascinating. This Is Not a Test isn’t some edgy, fast-paced action novel it’s more of a psychological thriller.

Sloane and five other teens make it to the high school and they barricade themselves inside. That someone is a zombie the entire neighborhood is swarmed by infected. Sloane Price is sitting at the breakfast table one morning with a suicide note in her pocket, and someone knocks on the door. I, personally, thought the last few paragraphs of This Is Not a Test were brilliant.īasically, this is a zombie book, but it’s not a gory-type zombie book. That’s not what this books is about, and had Summers ended things in any other way than how she did, the entire story would have been ruined. Warning (and small spoiler): This Is Not a Test does not have a happy rainbows-and-butterflies ever after ending. I'm glad I read it, though, and would probably suggest it to someone who enjoys contemporary and wants to dip their toes in the paranormal/horror genre. The Nutshell: In the end, I think I was a little let down by This is Not a Test simply because of all the hype. I know her judgement was impaired by her mental state, but man, it was hard to read. One more thing about Sloane: her stupidity almost hurt. I would have been down with more zombie scenes, but in the end, I didn't miss them all that much. They are a definite presence in the book, but there are only a few scenes in which they interact with our band of teens. There's not really too much to say on the zombie front. I really liked how Summers handled the subtle shifts in the group dynamic the longer they were stuck in close quarters together. All the characters had very distinct personalities and I enjoyed watching the way they interacted as time went on. While I didn't like Sloane and one of the other characters rubbed me wrong, I can appreciate the way Summers handled them. I was kind of hoping she'd start to pull out of it at some point, but while she showed glimmers of hope, it never really happened.

I was aware Sloane wasn't in the best state of mind, but I didn't expect it to last the entire book. This is Not a Test wasn't quite what I expected.

Books by courtney summers