After reading one zombie novel and being rather disappointed with the book, I figured it would be a great idea to read another. It was. Courtney Summers has successfully created a claustrophobic story that continues to grip you even when the corpses are out of sight. 
 This is Not a Test begins with the narrator and main character, Sloane Price, at the beginning of her first day back at school. Right off the bat, we learn that Sloane wants to kill herself. Her older sister, Lily, has run away from home, leaving her at the mercy of their abusive father, who is the reason that Sloane hasn't been at school. She is too terrified to eat her breakfast when there is a knock at the door, and the apocalypse begins. Fast-forward a week, and Sloane and a small group of her classmates are barricading the doors to their high school. Everyone is panicked, yet relieved that they are alive. Everyone except Sloane, that is, who feels as if she shouldn't be alive. 
 It is Sloane's depression that made me think this would be an interesting take on the zombie apocalypse tale. Usually the genre is dominated by main characters who are determined to survive, but how would the story play out with a suicidal protagonist? The answer is beautifully. Though I can see how some readers wouldn't enjoy Sloane's voice (and I do think that people who have suffered through parental abuse and suicidal thoughts might struggle with the narrative), I could really sympathise with her. As the reader learns more about Sloane's relationship with her sister, we understand why she feels the way she feels. The fact that the people around her are desperate to live is ironic when the world seems designed to help Sloane achieve her goal. 
 I feel like this book is very clever in its way. Summers doesn't try to explain where the zombie virus came from, but she does make her zombies frightening. As far as I'm concerned, those are the two things that the last novel I read failed at, so it's really refreshing. Summers' zombies are mindless and hungry, the only difference between a freshly-turned zombie and a living person being their milky-white irises and, well, the fact that they're a reanimated corpse and they'll start rotting soon. The zombies were perfect for me. I also loved that, even though the zombie-threat dies down as the group settles in to their shelter, the threat is always present. The characters don't forget that their town is full of monsters, even when they become more relaxed. The atmosphere in the novel is almost always tense, and that is the part that I think is best about the novel. 
 This is Not a Test is just as much about the characters and their conflicts as it is about the constant presence of death. Put six teenagers in close quarters with one another and you're bound to have some friction, and so the story is very believable in that respect. Now think about how each of those teenagers has lost their families, some more recently than others, and you have a boatload of tension that keeps you paying attention to the story at all times. Sloane's relationship with each of the different characters keeps things interesting. I especially enjoyed watching their friendships and rivalries develop, as two of the boys struggled for power, and Sloane begins to feel close to people other than her sister for the first time in years. 
 A lot of this book hurt my heart, which is to be expected when the main character has PTSD from years of child abuse and is thrust into a zombie-filled nightmare. I really grew to care about these characters, and I'm a little sad that the story ends the way it does. I wish there was more, that I could keep reading and see how the story evolves past the final pages. Still, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in reading a slightly off-beat zombie novel, or a novel that is extremely character driven. I'd even recommend it to people who aren't fond of scary novels, because even though the book is very tense, it's not out to shock you. It's less of a horror story and more of an journey through the spectrum of negative emotions, but it's an experience you don't want to pass up on.