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A review by thebookhaze
This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
5.0
I really love this book. I thought it was intense, but not in the scary-horror-I'm being chased by zombies way, though there are parts of it that was scary.
Usually, in zombie apocalypse movies, you see how people fight for survival and sometimes when their loved ones die, or other people in their group dies, there's some grief but in general people move on pretty quickly. They have to, they're running from the zombies!
This book is not so much about zombies and death, but about life. It's about the value of life. Each person's life according to how much they were loved. How Harrison was considered expandable because he was alone and no one really knew him. How the Caspers' lives seemed to be worth more because Trace and Grace grieved so deeply for them. How Sloane thought her own life was worthless and wanted to commit suicide, because the only person she thought loved her had left her.
Also, the value of life according to the actions of each person, what they had done with their lives or done to make a difference to someone else's life. There's a part in the book where the 6 of them played the drinking game, I Never. It seemed like just a random placeholder in the book, but it served an important purpose in showing us what kind of persons these people were and how each of them made a difference (or not) in someone else's life.
It makes you really think about your own life and your actions and how you've contributed to your world, the people around you. What is the value of your own life? If you put all these questions in a real life setting, it might be kind of depressing because some of us just cruise through life without caring, some of us have people who love us whom we don't appreciate, some of us put entire too much value on what other people think about us, when the important thing is that you love yourself first and foremost.
There are so many other things that's amazing about this book too. The raw emotions, grief and guilt and anger and fear, but also love and kindness and hope, brought to life by the actions and reactions of the characters. It felt real, the characters felt real to me. I thought it was an extremely well-written, emotional, and thoughtful book, and it's definitely a favorite that I will come back to.
Usually, in zombie apocalypse movies, you see how people fight for survival and sometimes when their loved ones die, or other people in their group dies, there's some grief but in general people move on pretty quickly. They have to, they're running from the zombies!
This book is not so much about zombies and death, but about life. It's about the value of life. Each person's life according to how much they were loved. How Harrison was considered expandable because he was alone and no one really knew him. How the Caspers' lives seemed to be worth more because Trace and Grace grieved so deeply for them. How Sloane thought her own life was worthless and wanted to commit suicide, because the only person she thought loved her had left her.
Also, the value of life according to the actions of each person, what they had done with their lives or done to make a difference to someone else's life. There's a part in the book where the 6 of them played the drinking game, I Never. It seemed like just a random placeholder in the book, but it served an important purpose in showing us what kind of persons these people were and how each of them made a difference (or not) in someone else's life.
It makes you really think about your own life and your actions and how you've contributed to your world, the people around you. What is the value of your own life? If you put all these questions in a real life setting, it might be kind of depressing because some of us just cruise through life without caring, some of us have people who love us whom we don't appreciate, some of us put entire too much value on what other people think about us, when the important thing is that you love yourself first and foremost.
There are so many other things that's amazing about this book too. The raw emotions, grief and guilt and anger and fear, but also love and kindness and hope, brought to life by the actions and reactions of the characters. It felt real, the characters felt real to me. I thought it was an extremely well-written, emotional, and thoughtful book, and it's definitely a favorite that I will come back to.