Panic

I loved this book! It was emotional and thrilling. The characters were really well rounded, wonderful in their flawed ways. The challenges built in intensity. I genuinely enjoyed this one and fully recommend. Go, read, enjoy!

I'm seriously annoyed at every single person in this book.

At first I thought: “Oh, it will be like the Hunger Games, won't it?”
Then I read it and when I finished it I though “Wow, this was nothing like the Hunger Games!”

The book is written from two POVs: Heather and Dodge. Both are very realistic characters, flawed and struggling in their own way. Then there's Bishop and Natalie, Heather's best friends. Natalie is the kind of girl that I would never get along with in real life, but I found that I sort of liked her in the book.

Panic (the game) was cruel and merciless and very interesting to read about. And wow, do I hate Heather's mother...

Anyway, very rambly review, but read it! This was my first Lauren Oliver book (omg I know) and I definitely want to check out more of her books.

I waffled a bit between 3 and 4 stars on this and I ultimately went with 4, and here's why: yesterday my library holds on the 3rd and 4th Fast & the Furious movies came in, and I opted to finish this before watching Vin Diesel & exploding cars. That's solid, dudes.

It's not a perfect book, and there are definitely some plot holes, but it's overall so engaging that I, for one, was willing to overlook a lot just to find out what would happen next. I thought Oliver did a great job setting up the parameters of this small, boring town such that their dedication to Panic would make sense.

I'll prob write a longer review of this later, but most importantly I think a lot of teens will LOVE this book. It is, essentially, a “real life Hunger Games,” with a solid core of relatable, interesting characters. And a lot of dramz! SUCH DRAMZ

realism really is lauren oliver's strength in YA.

The premise was sincere – I enjoyed the portrayal of the dead-end-poor-rural-town. The setting was built thoroughly. Characters fell flat for me. None that I wanted to sympathize with, but none that I hated either.

At first, I thought this story was going to be very Hunger Games-esque... but ended up being much different. It follows Heather and Dodge, two high school seniors who both come from broken, dysfunctional families. They enter a game that graduating seniors can play, called Panic. Panic is a series of dangerous challenges, and the last person standing gets the pot, which is a whopping $67,000.
I really liked Lauren Oliver's writing, but the story, especially the character relationships, were really predictable. A quick, enjoyable read.

I finished it because... I wanted to see if there was a point to it all.

There wasn't.