This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

Happy Monday, all! It's Sunday night as I write this and I'm hoping that this week will prove to be easy peasy -- it's a holiday week (July 4th is Wed so that's a little strange but I won't complain) and then Saturday is my b-day.

My b-day is always sort of a toss up for me: I'm at that point where I just want to pause my aging. Yes, I'd just like to settle a bit and get used to being in my 30s before moving further into them. Too much pressure to be all grown up now. Makes it kind of appropriate that I'm blogging about a YA book today :)

When I first started coming across murmurings about Courtney Summers's This is Not a Test, I knew it had to go on my desperately want/must have list. It's zombiepocalypse for one! Who can resist that? Not me. For another, PW called it "The Breakfast Club, George Romero style." What, what?! Even better!

Sloane Price wants out. Her sister is gone and her home life is nothing to get excited about, but when the dead begin to walk, Sloane's choice is made for her. She and five other teens have managed to make their way to the high school, boarding up doors and windows and holing up in the auditorium to wait out the attack. They're all sure that help will be on its way soon, but as the days pass, that hope starts to wither. Desperate, each of the teens is confronted with the ultimate fear: what if no one is coming? What if they're all alone? What do they do next?

Publisher's Weekly definitely had it right in that This is Not a Test is an intense character study -- teens facing the end of the world as they know it, relying on each other for survival with no parents around to guide them or help them along the way. Summers adeptly combines true supernatural horror with the horrors of real life giving depth to an already gripping story. It's a win all around in my opinion.