This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers

Title: This Is Not A Test
Author: Courtney Summers

Release Date: 19th June 2012

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb:

It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up.

As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

In A Nutshell:

This Is Not A Test is a compelling novel that looks at the psychological state of 6 teenage survivors as they fight to live during what appears to be a zombie apocalypse. A story of hope and finding a reason to live.

My Review: 

This Is Not A Test is a compelling novel that looks at the psychological state of 6 teenage survivors as they fight to live during what appears to be a zombie apocalypse. Although there is some action, the story isn’t based around the teens as they constantly battle the undead. Instead we look at each person’s state of mind and how they evolve during their time holed up at their now empty high school.

Sloane had planned to end it all after a lifetime of being a punching bag for her father. But before she could, the apocalypse started. This could have been the perfect opportunity for her life to end but while sitting in the middle of the street waiting for a zombie to come and munch on her (that wasn’t supposed to sound comical), two guys she went to high school with stumbled across her and helped her to ‘safety’. Sloane has no desire to ‘take anyone down with her’ so while she waits for the perfect moment when she can surrender to the banging on the otherside of the wall, she spends her days surrounded by people who want to live and are struggling to adjust to suddenly being faced with death. But perhaps what is even more significant is that without realising it, Sloane begins to form a type of bond with some of the others, possibly giving her a reason to fight, if not for herself, then maybe another.

It was a gripping novel with a message of hope but I finished it feeling rather blasé. For some reason, and I can’t quite put my finger on what or why, but it just wasn’t enough for me.

 

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Title: Alice in Zombieland
Series: The White Rabbit Chronicles #1
Author: Gena Showalter

Release Date: 1st October 2012

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb: 

She won't rest until she's sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that's all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real.

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn't careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies.

In A Nutshell:
I loved Alice in Zombieland and was drawn into the story right from the beginning. I couldn't put it down and would love to fall into the metaphorical rabbit-hole with Cole any day, and maybe kick some zombie butt in the process!

My Review:

I admit I was slightly apprehensive before starting Alice in Zombieland as I had heard mixed reviews from other bloggers. But, I was drawn into the story right from the beginning and couldn't put it down.

Alice is a very likeable character who takes everything in her stride and wants to fight and stand up for herself, no matter who she is facing, whether it be someone at school or something that goes bump in the night. After her family is killed suddenly one evening, Alice moves in with her grandparents and starts at a new school. There she finds a loyal and sassy friend in Kat and unlikely shadows as the roughestest boys at school pay her extra attention. Too bad she seems to be having waking dreams about their 'leader' Cole.

The whole novel is filled with punchy language and attitude, but it doesn't over do it, and was thoroughly enjoyable. Showalter has created an amazing world that pulls you in and holds tight as Alice becomes immersed in a whole new life she never believed existed. What Alice soon finds out is that Cole and his motley crew are just as involved in what goes on after dark as she is. As she learns to harness the skills her father taught her before he died, Alice falls deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole to a world that threatens to show her what her father feared the most.

Cole is the kind of bad boy that girls drool over. He's dangerous but protective, damaged but worthy with looks that leave a girl speechless and the ability to demand control. The chemistry between him and Alice sizzles and you will completely fall for him. I also love the background issues that go on with Kat and Frosty :)

For Alice, living with her grandparents is tough at the beginning but they are very sweet people who just want the best for her. It's funny reading their parts because they try to talk to Alice using what they think is cool and hip 'teen-speak'. They are adorable.

Many of the reviews I have read seem disappointed that the novel doesn't seem to be a reworking of Alice in Wonderland. I'm not sure if maybe it was marketed this way or if people just assumed but I didn't expect it to be a retelling. I can find ways it reflects Alice in Wonderland symbolically, but I don't think it was ever meant to be a literal reworking of it. Anyway, I loved it and I hope you do too.

I read this just before I disappeared on a month-long holiday to Europe and now that I am back and have written this, all I want to do is read Alice in Zombieland again!

Taste by Kate Evangelista

Title: Taste
Author: Kate Evangelista

Release Date: 1st May 2012

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:
At Barinkoff Academy, there's only one rule: no students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soon finds out why when she is left behind at sunset. A group calling themselves night students threaten to taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluring boy. With his pale skin, dark eyes, and mesmerizing voice, Demitri is both irresistible and impenetrable. He warns her to stay away from his dangerous world of flesh eaters. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and playful Luka has other plans.

When Phoenix is caught between her physical and her emotional attraction, she becomes the keeper of a deadly secret that will rock the foundations of an ancient civilization living beneath Barinkoff Academy. Phoenix doesn’t realize until it is too late that the closer she gets to both Demitri and Luka the more she is plunging them all into a centuries old feud.

In A Nutshell:
Taste is a reworking of the zombie mythology in a medieval setting complete with swords, corsets, a deadly virus and a government conspiracy. Throw in some smouldering-hot boys, sexual tension, a mad scientist and a hidden city, and you have one unputdownable novel.

My Review:
Taste is dark, hot and sexy, and I’m not just talking about the guys. If you’ve read the samplers then you know it is an enticing story that pulls you into the world of those who yearn to taste flesh. Don’t worry, this isn’t another vampire or werewolf story, it’s a zombie, sorry Zhamvy, novel.

I’m warning you now, there is quite a bit of talk about flesh eating so if that’s something you don’t want to hear about, then this probably isn’t the book for you. I wouldn’t classify it as horror, but it’s not Disney either.

There is, however, a secret city hidden from human eyes, and a reworking of the traditional zombie mythology in a medieval setting complete with swords, corsets, a deadly virus and a government conspiracy. There is also a love triangle but it doesn’t leave you hating either of the guys and the book finishes with a satisfying outcome concerning them both.

I love the Zhamvy world that Kate Evangelista has created. It is beautifully imagined and made me want to be part of the story. I love that our main character Phoenix is gutsy and stubborn, but smart, and it really made me want to be best friends with her. I love the mad-scientist, the ex-princess who likes to fight in lace and ribbons, and god did I love the sexual tension between Phoenix and Demitri. Yikes I blushed a lot.

I discovered Kate almost two years ago and have been following her progress as she found an agent, got herself a publishing deal with Crescent Moon Press, and finally released her debut novel Taste. I am so happy for her and can’t wait to read her future books.

You can buy Taste at The Book Depository or on Amazon in a paperback edition or as an eBook.

Ushers, INC by Rusty Fischer

Title: Ushers INC
Author: Rusty Fischer

Release Date: 22nd June 2011

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:
When the streets are full of bloodsuckers, werewolves, zombies and ghouls, where will you turn? The cops don’t know how to stop them, the Army’s pretty much given up and even the Marines are stumped when their bullets and grenades fail to stop the onslaught.

Have no fear, Ushers, Inc. is here! Four high school movie ushers, who collectively have seen over 42,000 hours of B- and C-horror movies know just what to do.

Did you know copper pennies can stop a zombie in its tracks? Abby Cooper, Head Usher, does.
Did you know garlic paste is twice as effective on vampires as garlic cloves? Abby Cooper does.
Did you know werewolves are absolutely petrified of seeing a Hershey’s kiss? Abby Cooper does.

Unfortunately, the monsters aren’t too happy about four geeky ushers beating their butts all over creation. Now the League of Associated Undead (LAD) is converging on Cypress Cove, determined to stop Ushers, Inc. once and for all.

In A Nutshell:
If you like zombie, werewolf and vampire stories that still have the undead being bad, but with plenty of humour and sarcasm thrown in, then Ushers INC is for you.

My Review:
Ushers INC is the story of four relatively normal teenagers; Abby, Zach, Tracy and Cliff who all live together at the Meriwether Home for Wayward Boys and Girls (they are not actually wayward, just orphans). Outside of school hours, they spend every waking moment at Flickers Cinemas, where they not only work as ushers, but also spend hours upon hours watching B and C grade horror movies. The story is set in the future when the undead are known to exist and are allowed to roam the streets, but go pretty much unrecognised to the majority of humans, except when they choose to show their true nature (in the case of vampires) or are forced to (full moon for werewolves).

Our heroes are unwittingly thrown into the spotlight one night when a zombie uprising disrupts Theatre 6 and the four ushers use their collective knowledge from their favourite movies to stop the carnage from spilling out onto the streets. It just so happens that when the police were called, the reporters followed and managed to catch four normal teenagers taking out a bunch of zombies. In a split second decision, ever the opportunist Cliff, declares they are ‘Ushers INC’ and so their little monster fighting team is born.

There is all the usual highschool trouble such as the mean girls, hot boys, crush dramas and who is going to take who to the fall formal, but with that comes the hilarious situations that the ushers get themselves into and the unique ways they manage to pull themselves out of them!

Usher’s INC features lots of humour and sarcasm and a great bunch of friends that stick together, no matter what. There is also a cool female lead in Abby who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty if she has to and who somehow always has lady-luck on her side.

Rusty’s stories revolve around the undead, but with a new spin. The zombies still want to eat your brains, vamps will still suck you dry in the locker-room and werewolves are still going to rip you to shreds, but more often than not, they just want to get on with their lives, even if their true nature does get in the way some of the time!

Rusty Fischer is the author of countless short stories (my current favourite being Zombies Don't Sleep) and poems, as well as newly released novels Zombies Don't Cry and Ushers INC. Many of these are available to download for free on his website and I found that being able to read some of Rusty's work before buying was really helpful and I was left craving more.

I’ve really been quite taken by Rusty's tales of the undead. If I didn’t have so many books sitting on my shelf waiting to be reviewed, I would honestly love to curl up and devour every single one of Rusty’s stories (although I’ve already made quite a dent!). I love them, they’re like comfort food.


Buy Ushers INC on Amazon or Smashwords
Rusty’s website: Zombie’s Don’t Blog

Vampires Drool! Zombies Rule! by Rusty Fischer

Title: Vampires Drool! Zombies Rule!
Author: Rusty Fischer

Release Date: July 2010

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:

The Vampires and Zombies at Barracuda Bay High School have a long-standing truce: don’t mess with us, we won’t mess with you.

Of course, if the human kids at Barracuda Bay High knew they were sitting next to the Living Dead in homeroom, well… all bets would be off.

So when Lucy Frost tries to use the fancy heat-sensored paper towel dispensers in the C-wing girls’ room during a busy break from classes, Fiona Rutherford, the nosiest reporter on the Barracuda Bay Bugle, just happens to witness it. But when she jokingly refers to Lucy as a “zombie,” in the next day’s paper, Fiona unknowingly sets off a chain of events that will change Lucy’s life forever.

Now the vampires want to do away with Fiona, and the only zombie who wants to save her is Lucy. Suddenly Lucy is the only hope Fiona and the rest of her friends have of surviving!

In A Nutshell:
With plenty of zombie humor and sarcasm, Rusty Fischer has adapted the general zombie lore to make way for zombies to have a proper place in YA fiction. Very cool.

My Review:
Lucy is just a normal high school girl trying to get through classes, avoid drawing attention to herself and hope that her crush asks her to the Fall Formal. She's also a zombie. The freezing cold, eat your brains, strong as steel kind. After one tiny little mistake, Lucy has one school day to try and defuse what a Normal decided to publish in the school paper before the zombie and vampire equivalent of the secret service pay her a visit.

Written with plenty of zombie humour and sarcasm, Lucy must come up with a plan to avoid a zombie-vampire apocalypse, go up against the absolutely repulsive vampires that also attend the school, try to avoid getting her new AV Club human friends killed, not freak out the boy she likes and save her own zombie self. Is that too much to ask? Maybe...

I must say, Lucy is one crafty zombie. Unlike a lot of zombie folklore, these zombies are actually pretty smart and fast moving. I mean, they eat brains, shouldn't that make them smart? Lucy comes up with some sneaky plans to avoid the vampires and then attack them but can she count on her zombie friends not to stab her in the back when she tries to save not only the person who outted her, but a human?

I really like the way Fischer has adapted the general zombie lore. It's very cool and makes way for zombies to have a proper place in YA fiction (rather than the mindless drones that are usually featured).

Rusty Fischer is the author of countless zombie short stories (my current favourite being Zombies Don't Sleep) and poems, as well as the newly released novel Zombies Don't Cry. I found that being able to read some of Rusty's work before buying his new novel was really helpful and I was left craving more of his zombie stories.

To download the ebook of Vampires Drool! Zombies Rule! or to read it online, click here.

For information on where you can find Rusty's stories and poems, some of them for free, head to his blog.

To buy Zombie's Don't Cry, head to Amazon or The Book Depository

The Enemy by Charlie Higson

Title: The Enemy

Series: Fourteen Book1Author: Charlie Higson
Release Date: 28th August 2009 (Australia)
My Rating: 5/5

Imagine a world were everyone over the age of fourteen, gets sick. Those that don't die, become zombies, and all they want to do is feed, on the surviving children....

I loved this book! Zombies are not usually what I would be interested in reading about but the concept of kids trying to survive without adults around is great. There is so much suspense! The character building is great and it's not some nice little story where everyone lives in harmony; kids die, characters you come to like die and the grown-ups literally want to eat them. The book starts one year after all hell has broken loose. There is fighting amongst the surviving kids, and a whole new way of life that they need to adjust to, as well as how they will survive in the long term. London is also the perfect setting for this story, with so many well-known locations used in the book, it makes it even easier to picture everything that is happening.

Thankfully the book doesn't end on a cliff-hanger so you're not left waiting for the next book to find out what happens. I however, still can't wait to read book 2!

Ages 12+. For fans of Michael Grant's "Gone", John Marsden's "Tomorrow series" and "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins