This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

This Is Not a Test is a zombie novel on the surface, but it is also so much more than you would expect from this type of novel.  Yes, this book has zombies in it, but no, they are not the main focus of this book. I know that sounds weird, but this book focuses more on the unique, flawed characters as they try to cope with their situation. The main character, Sloane, is caught up in the zombie apocalypse on the day she planned to commit suicide to escape her abusive father. Her father has physically abused Sloane and her sister Lilly from a young age, after their mother's death.  Sloane and Lilly planned to escape him when Sloane turned 18, but since Lilly was older, she left Sloane behind.  She left Sloane a note telling her that she couldn't handle everything anymore, and she disappeared, even knowing that Sloane needed her desperately.  Sloane has been on a downhill spiral since her sister abandoned her, and she finally decided that the only way to truly escape the pain of the abuse, and the pain of her sister's abandonment is to kill herself.  Then, everything changes.  Zombies start attacking people. Sloane has given up on living and she is more than happy to just lie down and die, but a group of survivors find her.  She, and five other students, take cover and barricade themselves into the high school, where many of them start unraveling and becoming unpredictable and sometimes violent.  Sloane still does not want to live, but the others do.  She doesn't want to put them at risk, because she doesn't want to be selfish like her sister.  She is not the typical survivor of an apocalypse, but just as everyone else is losing everything, she starts to find things that make life worth living.
I read this book in one day.  I could not put it down.  The character development is excellent, the action scenes are exciting and memorable, and the ending is not predictable.  I really enjoyed this book from start to finish.

The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

After a war with China, the United States has been almost totally destroyed.  Two-thirds of the population were killed by a plague released by the enemy.  Fifteen year old, Quinn, was born after "the collapse" to two survivors of the war.  His family has become salvagers to survive.  They salvage items and trade them at a survivor colony.  The one rule is to always keep moving to avoid slave traders, who would capture them for profit.  When an accident forces Quinn and his father to rely on a group of survivors who have built their own remote village, Quinn begins to undestand that there are more important things in life than just surviving.  He begins to make friends, but he also accidentally brings danger to the group. 

I liked the book, but I did have a little trouble getting into it at first.  I think that there were some parts that were a little slow.  It could be that I have read too many of these apocalyptic survival stories lately, and this one just didn't measure up to some of the other ones I've read recently.  Still, it was an interesting story that could easily happen in our future.  It was recommended to me by a student who loved it.  At the time, I was trying to hurry and finish it, so I could start a different book, so that could have played into my initial lack of enthusiasm for it. 

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

So, it hasn't been that long ago that I blogged about Anna Dressed in Blood.  It was an excellent creepy book, that kept me on the edge of my seat.  It also really surprised me (in a good way) that a YA author would be willing to gruesomely kill off some of her characters.  I know that sounds weird, but as a diehard fan of Stephen King, in my book, the more out there it gets, the better. 

Warning:  If you haven't read Anna Dressed in Blood, then you might want to skip the last paragraph. 

Girl of Nightmares is Anna's sequel, and while I wasn't disappointed, I felt that for once, a trilogy would have served Blake better. I know it seems to be the trend in YA literature to have trilogies pop up everywhere. It has really become way over used. However, I think that Blake wrapped up this series too quickly. SInce I went into the book thinking that it would be a trilogy, I kept expecting it to leave me hanging. Although I was glad that didn't happen, I felt that Blake wrapped up the ending the way too abruptly. I'm hoping that she will change her mind and we will get to see Cas again from her somewhere down the road.

Girl of Nightmares, like the first book, has some seriously creepy moments, but they are fewer and farther between. The book opens six months after Anna dragged the Obeahman to Hell and saved Cas and his friends. However, Cas can't move on. He can't let Anna go. What's worse is that he begins to see and hear her everywhere. She is being tortured constantly because she didn't cross over to where she was supposed to go. She is trapped with the Obeahman and he is still feeding off of her pain and fear. Cas knows that he can never move on while she is suffering. He decides that he has to go after her and bring her back. This decision sparks tension between him and his friends, and starts Cas on a journey that will take him far from home.... in more ways than one.

An Abundance of Katherines

I read An Abundance of Katherines a while back, and actually blogged about it, but I'm now maintaining two separate blogs with basically the same posts.  Since blogspot is essentially blocked to students at school, I've created my own blog on my school website.  But, I really prefer blogspot, so I'm keeping both up and running. 

I have found that I really enjoy John Green's books. His characters are quirky and fun, but usually just normal teenagers struggling with various issues. An Abundance of Katherines fits into his usual category, but I think I expected too much from this book. I loved the premise, and I liked the book, but I felt like he could have taken it in a different direction at times.

Colin Singleton, a recent high school graduate, embarks on a road trip with his best friend Hassan, in order to get over his latest breakup with Katherine XIX. Yes, that's right, Colin only dates girls named Katherine....K A T H E R I N E, not Catherine or any other variation. He also has been dumped by all nineteen of his former Katherines. Collin was a child prodigy who wants more than anything to reach his potential and become a genius. He fears that he won't matter and that his abilities in languages, codes, and anagrams will be the only thing that he will ever be good at. Hassan has been out of high school for a year, but has yet to do anything with his life. He has taken off a year....or two, or more from going to college. Their road trip leads them to a small town in Tennesee called Gutshot, where the two boys make friends, get a job, and learn that there is more to life than they originally thought.

Ashes by Ilsa Bick

Ashes is a book full of non-stop action. I really enjoyed reading it, and I think most teenagers would enjoy it as well. However, since it is a zombie book, eventhough it has its own twists, I know it won't be for everyone. It does have some pretty gruesome details in places. 

Alex is a 17 year old girl with a brain tumor. She knows that her life is at its end, so she decides to hike into the wilderness to spread her parents' ashes, while she is still healthy enough to do so. However, everything changes in an instant when an electromagnetic pulse flashes, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions. Alex joins forces with Tom, a young soldier on leave, and Ellie, an 8 year old girl who lost her grandfather to the pulse. Alex, Tom, and Ellie soon discover that the pulse changed some of the survivors for the better, while others were turned into ravenous zombies. Not only do they have to protect themselves from the changed, but they also have to protect themselves from survivors who will ruthlessly do whatever it takes to survive, even if it means killing and stealing from other survivors.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

I really enjoyed Unwind. Like Article 5, it deals with some prety serious issues. The story takes place in the United States many years after a civil war called The Heartland War. The Heartland War was fought over the right to life between Pro-Choice and Pro-Life supporters. The war ended with a horrifying compromise. They decided that children have the right to life until the age of 13. Between the age of 13 and 18, the child's parent can choose to retroactively abort him or her, as long as 99.4% of the child stays alive. If a parent chooses to unwind the child, he or she is sent to a harvest camp, where every part of the child is harvested for transplant. The book is thought provoking and tense in places, but it is also hard to read in parts. Unwind focuses on three very different teenagers who are set to be unwound. Connor is a rebellious teenager who is able to escape and go on the run. In the process of his escape, he causes a bus wreck, and a great deal of chaos, which allows Risa, a girl from a state home, to also escape. Risa is a good student and a talented piano player, but she is a victim of budget cuts. The government just can't afford to support all of the children who are unwanted. In the process of Connor's escape, he takes Levi hostage. Levi is a 13 year old boy who was raised by his family as a tithe. His family tithes 10% of everything, and since Levi is the 10th child, he has been marked since birth as a tithe. Levi sees his unwinding as something that God wants and he accepts it....almost. The story focuses on the very different paths these three teenagers take to try to prevent their unwinding

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Okay, since it seems that even though this blog has been opened up so that the filter at my school won't block it, it is still giving many students problems when they go there. Therefore, I am going to try to put my posts here and on the school website. I'm hoping it will be as easy as copyng and pasting, but we will see.
Cinder was an interesting take on the Cinderella story. I looked forward to reading it, but it took me awhile to really get into it. The story is set in New Beijing during a time where a plague is quickly killing large part of the population. Cinder is considered a second class citizen because she is a cyborg; therefore, she knows it is silly to have a crush on the prince when he comes to her to fix his android. Cinder is one of the best mechanics in New Beijing, and she uses her skill to keep her adopted mother off of her back to some extent. However, when her adopted sister, her only human friend in the world, catches the plague, her cruel adopted mother signs Cinder over to the government for plague research. No cyborg has ever survived the research