This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

Cover via Goodreads.

Rating: 4/5 stars.

I like to read books before I go to bed. It helps me fall asleep.

This is Not a Test is not a book you want to read if you want to fall asleep. It is subtle, yet brutal. Contained, but devastating. It will break your will to sleep before you’re able to put it down.

“This must be what Dorothy felt like, I think. Maybe. If Dorothy was six scared teenagers and Oz was hell.”

Six teenagers stuck in a dark and desolated high school. The living dead desperate to find a way in. Their resources are not renewable, and their struggle to survive escalates to epic proportions when the fight for life and death finds its way inside. For Sloane Price, this is the perfect chance to purge herself of her past – or, to give up, and give into the ghosts that continue to haunt her.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Cover via Goodreads.

Rating: 3/5 stars.

I encountered my first issue on page four. It was intense enmity at first sight.

“He thought the month was October but he wasnt sure. He hadnt kept a calendar for years.”

Apostrophes!? What happened to those magical things? Then, on page five…

Blackout by Mira Grant

Cover via Goodreads.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars.

“Sometimes the hardest thing about the truth is putting down the misassumptions, falsehoods, and half-truths that stand between it and you. Sometimes that’s the last thing that anybody wants to do. And sometimes it’s the only thing we can do.” – Georgia Mason.

When I write book reviews, I usually save my recommendation of the book until the end. But Blackout, and the Newsflesh trilogy itself, should not be put off until the end. Feed, the first book in the series, is a novel that I would recommend to almost anybody – the book and the entire series encompasses zombies, blogging, politics, and a gamut of themes and morals. It’s absolutely amazing. So, before I get into Blackout, I highly recommend that you check out Feed, if you haven’t already. It will blow your mind.

Mira Grant does not lose any steam in this final installment of the Newsflesh trilogy.

Deadline by Mira Grant

Cover via Goodreads.

Rating: 4/5 stars.

“I just find it interesting that kids apparently used to cry when Bambi’s mother died. George and I both held our breaths, and then cheered when she didn’t reanimate and try to eat her son.”

Who needs to study when you have a book containing zombies and corruption and cloning to read? Not me!

Well, actually, I do need to. But instead of studying, I spent all of yesterday reading Deadline by Mira Grant! Someone shower me with sympathy, because I’ll definitely need some of it after failing staying up past midnight to study for my exams.

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Cover via Goodreads.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars.

Thomas noticed the spider silently treading across the carpeted floor of his bedroom. He froze. Oh snap, he thought, this could be the end of me. He knew that taking innocent lives was sinful, but fear forced him to kill the terrifying creature with his phone book. Then, spiders began to emerge from literally everywhere – out of the windows, the walls, the dresser – and they crawled toward him. Their hairy, black bodies enveloped him and ate him alive.

As most of already discerned due to my lack of activity on Goodreads and WordPress, I’ve been busy. I have resorted to reading right before I go to bed now for ten to fifteen minutes. The Book of Lost Things is not something you should read before going to bed.

John Connolly’s writing in this book feels like a darkened fairy tale. He captivates readers with an entertaining plot and takes them on a journey that includes a variety of allusions to stories such as Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood. There are moral lessons aplenty, centering on loss, grief, and the irreversibility of one’s actions.

While I liked the book, I did not love it. I never felt compelled to continue the story after putting the book down. I understand Connolly’s intention of using fairy tales as part of the plot, yet his inclusion of them became overbearing and detracted from the originality of his own story. And, of course, a myriad of disturbing events took place – that’s more of a personal qualm, however.

I recommend this book to fans of dark stories or fairy tales. If you’re like me and run after sighting a spider… well, there are plenty of books in the literary sea.