This is Not a Test | Book Review

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Most zombie books are about survivors who want to live. This one isn't. Abused by her father, abandoned by her sister, Sloane Price wakes up one morning determined to end her life and discovers the zombie apocalypse has begun. This should be a simple solution. Let the dead kill you. But Sloane finds herself saved by survivors from her school and unwilling to risk their safety for her own suicide. As Sloane tries to find a way to die, the others do everything they can to survive.

Writing technique: ★★★★1/2 Summers is an incredible writer. She writes this tale of survival so poignantly, I felt everything. I felt Sloane's terror towards her dad. I felt her fear of the dead. I felt her hopelessness. I felt her despair over Lily. It was a very devastating, beautiful book. A zombie book but so so much more than that.

Character development: ★★★★★ This is a zombie book, but it's not really about zombies as it is about the people surviving them. Sloane is broken and needs a reason to live. Grace and Trace are twins who recently lost their parents and desperate need someone to blame. Cary their sort-of leader is who they blame. Harrison is the freshman who cries. And Rhys is the one person who keeps pushing Sloane to keep going.

Plot/Story development: ★★★★ Since most of this story takes place in the high school building the survivors camp out in, much of the plot evolves as the people learn more about each other. The antagonists of this book are internal and external.

Message/Theme: ★★★★★ Summers explores concepts of abuse, domestic violence, suicide, depression, survival, murder, ethical dilemmas (ie: do the ends justify the means? sacrifice one to save another?), family, and hope in this novel. It doesn't offer definitive answers as much as lay the questions on the table. I will say the ending is a kind of poetic justice, and I appreciated it even if it was sad and painful.

Overall: ★★★★1/2 I devoured this book in one day. Couldn't put it down. It was amazing. It was devastating. It was raw. It was a zombie book and so much more. I highly recommend this.



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Dan In Real Life | Friday Fave

Happy Friday the 13th, world.

As it turns out, I am not a superstitious person. So I barely thought about the oh-no-iness of the whole thing. I am, however, a dates person. I like dates. Of the year. I'm really good at remembering birthdays (of people I like, don't get cray...). I have a favorite day of the year (don't worry, I'll tell you when it gets here). And when the numbers look cool (01/01/01, or 02-04-06, most recently 06.09.12), I celebrate with an overly cheerful Facebook status acknowledgment and special attention to my penmanship when I write in my journal before bed.

So, that said, Happy Friday the 13th, world!!! (<--- observe overly cheerfulness)

In honor of this momentous occasion, I am ushering in a new tradition that I like to call Friday Faves. I think this is self-explanitory. But for those common-sensically challenged, I will write about a new favorite thing of mine every Friday. This Friday, the thing is:

Dan in Real Life.

Let me just say, I considered seriously changing the name of this blog to "Dana in Real Life" following my second ever viewing of this delicious theatrical morsel. (In case you're wondering, the current name of this blog is unofficial. I change it like every three days. I can't decide what I want to call my Home On The Web, but I know I want it to be snazzy and snappy and not my name. So until I learn how to write HTML code - which, given that I have Web Design for Dummies on my living room floor, should be soon - and actually pimp out my Web Crib, consider my blog name Unofficial.)

Dan in Real Life is a movie. It's a tall frosty glass of frozen strawberry lemonade in 100 degree 100% humidity South Texas weather. It's a beanie baby in the shape of Mother Theresa with the softness of a newborn Beagle's ears. It's heaven wrapped in babies wrapped in bacon. Which is to say, it's awesome.

The movie, starring Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, and Dane Cook (among others), was released in 2007 and I'm pretty sure I watched it on a plane to England that Christmas. But I was in and out of sleeping and I didn't have my glasses on. I apparently remembered I loved it enough to give it five stars on Netflix - which turned out to be a disappointment because I went to Netflix all excited to bump up my rating on it only to discover it could not be upped any further. Sad day. IMDB succinctly summarizes this movie: "A widower finds out the woman he fell in love with is his brother's girlfriend." And while the description is apt, it is not enough.

Dan in Real Life is about a man who, by day, is a "parenting expert" but, by night, is a lonely man with three daughters he has no clue how to deal with and an achy breaky heart. Dan is such a human character, you can't help but love him. He is trying so hard to be the right guy. The right kind of father. The right kind of brother. The right kind of son. The right kind of driver! But has his youngest daughter Lily says early in the film: "You're a good father, but sometimes bad dad." Throughout the course of the film, his parenting skills only worsen as he falls for The Wrong Girl, his brother's girlfriend, Marie. Marie is obviously the perfect match for him. She's beautiful, wise, funny, charming, well-cultured, well-read, adventurous. Dan's daughters all find something inspiring in her. And he begins to really heal after his wife's death. 


My watching this movie must have been torture for my upstairs neighbors, because I laughed so. very. loud. so. very. often. But as they say, great comedy is founded in great pain. And there is so much pain! And so much comedy. This is by far my favorite Carell film. And after enjoying every second of the feature and every bonus feature, I've determined I must own this movie and its soundtrack (which is the most intense and intentional scoring process I've ever seen for any movie!) as soon as humanly possible.


So this Friday, I offer you the gift of Dan and his very Real Life. Go watch it. It will make you feel irreparably human in the best possible way. 

Happy Faveday!