Panic

Super book, made me search out more books by this author

Muy contento con el regalo

Excelente historia

The Basics:Every summer in the small town of Carp, graduating high school seniors play a dangerous game they call Panic. Every student pays into the prize fund. Winner takes all. Heather wants to find out if she's more than someone's pathetic ex. Dodge wants revenge for what happened to his sister in her game. Nat will use anything at her disposal to get on her feet. Bishop wants to keep his friends safe.The Downside:There's a feeling throughout the book of elements coming together, everyone's agendas and half mentioned details of their stories weaving and building toward one explosive conclusion, and... they don't. Not really. The ending feels like an epilogue that was decided upon before the rest of the story was formed, and then was tacked on to cut things off when they started to run over 400 pages.A few pieces of the story along the way feel missing too, with characters fighting, disappearing, getting themselves into trouble, and then showing up a few chapters later with minimal explanation, leaving us to fill in the gaps after their earlier cliffhangers.The Upside:I swear this woman could write a nine part epic about people sitting through jury duty and never getting picked, and I wouldn't be able to put it down.No matter what tangible problems there are that would be infuriating in any other book, it's such a joy to read the descriptions along the way that it's hard to be too bothered. Everything from the atmospheric details (a car sounds "like an old man trying to choke out a belt buckle"), to the deepest emotional lives of the characters is spot-on and vivid enough to get lost in.Heather's fear of never being loved like the "pocket-sized" girls get to be is stunningly real without rendering her weak or annoying, an honest flashback to high school without the filter of adult hindsight, and the sad, conflicting, complicated mess that is Nat is miles beyond what you'd expect from the character who tries to sleep and flirt her way to what she needs.The juxtaposition of the high stakes game and the grounded contemporary setting also adds to the distinct and immersive flavor. When people first hear "YA" in conjunction with "dangerous game," it brings to mind yet another dystopian Hunger Games knockoff, but that’s far from the case here. The game Panic is not only voluntary but illegal. It's conducted underground by Carp's youth, players can opt out at any time, deaths associated with the game are unintentional (though not uncommon), and a lot of effort is put into ensuring secrecy, dodging the authorities, and keeping the game going to serve the players' various purposes.As big a Hunger Games fan as I am, in the wake of all the imitators, the completely different dynamic of Panic is a fascinating and refreshing change of pace.Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!

This book is everything one would except from a Lauren Oliver novel, beautiful writing, compelling characters, and then the tougher issues dealing with love, feeling unwanted and revenge. Revenge plays a big part in this book along with fear and panic. This book is everything that the blurb promises and in a way nothing more. I loved the idea of Panic but it turned out to be more barbaric and murderous than I originally thought it was going to be, which once you start the book you understand why but still. I guess it's my own fault that I thought the book would be more lighthearted and fun when it was a little more dark and twisted and that's not really the author or the books fault, it's my fault so please keep that in mind when reading this review. The problem with this book is it's based over the whole summer so every chapter is basically a week later and so you miss allot of the characters supposed "growth" and everything. When I originally heard of this book I thought it was supposed to happen all in one night and I think that would have been better, I mean for what it is it's great, it's interesting and easy to read and fun, it keeps you hooked from the first page but I guess in a way it wasn't quite as great as I thought it would be. Heather is a good character but not my favorite because while she's determined to play Panic and to win her reasons are all wrong and I didn't really like her until the end. One reason is at one part of the book it almost seems like she's contemplating suicide and so I thought this would play a big part in the book but it's really never mentioned again, maybe I'm wrong and that wasn't what the part was about but she's standing on a water towering and thinking about jumping so it seems like that would be what that means, right? And everything is kinda rushed and doesn't feel completely real, doesn't feel like it affects her even when she's living with her sister out of a car or when she accidentally releases tigers out of their cages, it doesn't feel like it affects her at all, it almost feels like she doesn't feel anything. I think maybe the author brushed over some issues that shouldn't be brushed over. I really liked Heather's relationship with Bishop(Heather's best friend) and all together I really enjoyed Bishops character. I also liked Heathers relationship with her sister Lily but I think it could have been developed a little, more same with Anne. Nat (Heather's friend and another Panic player) is another okay character but I would have liked to know more about her, like even her reason for playing Panic was kinda lame and didn't completely make sense, I think she was a big character forced into a minor characters role. I guess overall even with the background of these characters and their reasons for competing in Panic, I never felt like I knew the characters. Even Dodge you know he is competing for revenge because his sister got hurt in Panic, you know he loves his sister, you know he's in love with Nat but all you know are these facts nothing more. I guess one problem I had with this book is it's not quite all about Panic and it's not quite all about the characters and it struck a not great balance between the two. Overall it's a very original idea and great execution, too, it's just not what I thought it was going to be. It has a good underlying message and great writing like all of Lauren Oliver's books but I felt the characters fell a little short. I would recommend this book especially if you're a Lauren Oliver fan I don't think you'll be disappointed, I wasn't even disappointed, not really. I did enjoy this book overall I just have mixed feelings about it.