Name: Nessa Luna's review of Panic by Lauren Oliver
Item: Panic
Rating: 5
Author: Nessa Luna

Lauren Oliver

From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver comes a captivating, thrilling novel of fear, friendship, courage, and hope that will leave readers gasping for air. Now a television series on Prime Video, starring Olivia Welch, Mike Faist, Jessica Sula, Enrique Murciano, Camron Jones, and Ray Nicholson! E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars, calls Panic "a thrill a minute." Kirkus says: "Will have readers up until the wee hours," School Library Journal raves: "Fast-paced and captivating." Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a poor town of twelve thousand people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do. Heather never thought she would compete in panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors. She'd never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought. Dodge has never been afraid of panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game; he's sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he's not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for. For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most. Read the book that inspired the series, which the New York Times described as “Reminiscent of ‘The Hunger Games’ but grounded in the real world.”

Panic

Sarah S

Nessa Luna

Read this review and more on my blog October Tune!

When I first heard about Panic, a book written by one of my favourite authors Lauren Oliver, I might have freaked out. I seriously loved her Delirium series, and I loved Before I Fall as well, so it was kind of a no-brainer for me when I heard about Panic; I had to read it. And I did. Almost a year after it got released.. Why did I wait so long? No idea. Maybe I was afraid it wouldn't be as I had expected.. But now that I've read it, I want to slap myself for waiting so long. It was so AWESOME!

Panic tells the story of a game that has been going on in the little town called Carp, a very dangerous game. All seniors (and only seniors) can participate and play to win money, a lot of money. In this book we follow Heather and Dodge who both participate in the game, both for their own (very different) reasons.

At first when I heard it was going to be a dual POV I was a tiny bit reluctant; though I really enjoyed it in Requiem, I wasn't really sure if I was going to like it again. But luckily, both characters had their own chapters (it didn't just change POV in the middle of a chapter) and their names would be on top. And the fact that it was in third person made it a bit easier as well. There were some minor parts from other people's POV, but that added something exciting to the story rather than make me reluctant to read more (wow that's probably a first?!). And besides the whole story around it was way too thrilling to be annoyed by POV's.

Because the game, wow it was really nerve-racking. I couldn't stop reading some of the chapters, and I wanted to know what was happening every time so I just read and read and read. The first couple of rounds were kind of innocent - or well not innocent, but not as thrilling as the last rounds. I remember just sitting on the edge of my seat while reading about those last rounds and hoping nothing bad would happen to certain characters. Oh god I could NEVER participate in Panic.

The book wasn't all about the game though, there was enough happening outside of the game so the book was still interesting. There was Heather who had just been dumped by her boyfriend, Natalie and Dodge who had a 'thing' going on, Bishop and Heather, Heather and Lily (her sister) and their horrible mother; I loved reading about their lives as much as I loved reading about Panic. It made the characters so much more complex than just idiotic daredevils who wanted to throw away their lives by participating in a reckless game.

At some points, the story took some unexpected turns that made me freak out, but there were also some minor things that I had guessed already, but still I was kind of surprised that they turned out to be true. But in the end, I just loved Panic a lot, so much even I can't really think of anything I didn't like about this book (apart from the fact that the summary makes it sound a bit like the Hunger Games rather than a completely different sort of game, I don't know - I've seen a lot of people ranting about how the summary was similar to THG's?!). But I just loved Panic. And I will certainly purchase a physical copy asap (yeah I decided to go for an ebook version for some reason, I don't know what had gotten into me).
One tip: Don't read those last chapters when you're supposed to sleep, because they will keep you up past your bedtime because you really want to know what is going to happen next! Seriously. Don't do it.


  My opinion on this book in one gif:


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From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver comes a captivating, thrilling novel of fear, friendship, courage, and hope that will leave readers gasping for air. Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a poor town of twelve thousand people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do. Heather never thought she would compete. She'd never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought. Dodge has never been afraid of panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game; he's sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he's not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for. For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

Anna Cashman

Better than I expected! I was annoyed with the characters for the first 50ish pages but I quickly got sucked in to the game and the thrill and by the end I was fully invested in all of the characters. I liked the ending even though its a bit unbelievable and/or too neat.

Soon to be a major Amazon Prime Video series. An utterly gripping thriller from bestselling author Lauren Oliver. Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a poor town of twelve thousand people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do. Heather never thought she would compete in panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She'd never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought. Dodge has never been afraid of panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game; he's sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he's not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for. For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them-and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most. In this gritty, spellbinding novel, bestselling author Lauren Oliver delivers a gripping narrative of friendship, courage, survival, and hope.

Soon to be a major Amazon Prime TV series

Melissa Clark 

The show was actually better than the book which is the first time I have ever made a statement like that. While it was still a good read, a lot felt like it was lacking 

Jaylene Guerra

I plan on reading all of Lauren Oliver's books and this just happened to be the one I "picked up" next. I enjoyed most of my listening of this but I think it was a pretty overused premise.

Chelsea Hunter

This is the fourth book by Lauren Oliver that I have picked up, but it is the first book that I really enjoyed - not that the other books I read were bad but I didn't enjoy them to the extent that I enjoyed Panic. Mostly because I was able to like some of the characters in this novel, and I found it to be fast-paced after the first handful of chapters which were hard for me to get into.

Panic is about teenagers in Carp, who compete in Panic. Panic is a dangerous game filled with many challenges that must be completed to continue for the ultimate goal of winning the money at the end. Told in the alternating perspectives of Heather and Dodge, two very different characters, the novel unfolds as the game progresses.

Out of the two characters whose perspectives you get to see, I only really liked one of them: Heather, mostly because I liked her personality, and I sympathized with her throughout the novel, and I liked her reason for competing because I felt it was selfless, compared to Dodge who's reason for the playing the game was more selfish, and it made it difficult to relate or agree with why he was doing it, although I did sympathize with his reasoning also.

I also liked Bishop and Lily. I definitely picked up on Bishop's secret early on, definitely before it is exposed in the novel, but I also really enjoyed his personality. I'm not sure how I feel about the relationship between Bishop and Heather, because I don't think you get to really see the chemistry between them, rather you are told how they feel, but at the same time, I love that not getting into the relationship between them allowed for more focus on the plot of the story rather than the side romance. Lily was adorable, and I absolutely loved and enjoyed her character.

Like Dodge, I didn't really enjoy Nat's character much. I just was easily annoyed with her throughout the story, not to say I wasn't at times frustrated with Heather, but there wasn't anything about Nat that I really connected with.

Overall, I thought it was an amazing novel, and it has definitely convinced me to read more by her, and give her other books a chance (because this was probably going to the last book I read of Lauren Oliver's if I hadn't enjoyed it). I would highly recommend it if you are looking for something with excitement, but also not overwhelming.

An utterly gripping thriller from bestselling author Lauren Oliver. Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a poor town of twelve thousand people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do. Heather never thought she would compete in panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She'd never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought. Dodge has never been afraid of panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game; he's sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he's not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for. For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them-and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most. In this gritty, spellbinding novel, bestselling author Lauren Oliver delivers a gripping narrative of friendship, courage, survival, and hope.

Hayley 📖🌈💜🌸

Really well written, I love how real this book seemed. It didn't try to sugar coat small town life for some teenagers.
And I genuinely enjoyed the ending.

Gretchen Gomez

I really enjoyed this book. Lauren Oliver has this way of writing that makes me feel internally really good. I loved how realistic she made it seem. The characters were real and raw. Heather, Nat, Bishop, and Dodge are wow, amazing. I didn't expect the love that bloomed between certain characters. It ws shocking but just a great read. Definitely recommending to my book nerd friends.

Lindsey Davis Blanchard 

Samantha Ridge

An utterly gripping thriller from bestselling author Lauren Oliver. Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a poor town of twelve thousand people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do. Heather never thought she would compete in panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She'd never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought. Dodge has never been afraid of panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game; he's sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he's not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for. For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them - and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most. In this gritty, spellbinding novel, bestselling author Lauren Oliver delivers a gripping narrative of friendship, courage, survival, and hope.

Oliver Merryweather

YA. TEENAGE ROMANCE. Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a poor town of twelve thousand people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do. Heather never thought she would compete in panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors. She'd never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought. Dodge has never been afraid of panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game; he's sure of it. Ages 14+

Sarah S &
Panic by Lauren Oliver

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