ARC Review: Panic - Lauren Oliver

Title:Panic
Author: Lauren Oliver
Pub Date: March 4th, 2014
Publisher: HarperTEEN
Page Count: 416

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 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.

Buy Links

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My Thoughts

I really wanted to like this one. With Lauren Oliver, I usually have an intense love for her writing style, but not her plotting. With Delirium (trilogy), I questioned some of the events that happened. I have a bit of an "issue" with her books, but usually the love and the hate balances out.
Dude... I really wanted to love this one. When I first read the synopsis, I had full confidence it wasn't going to be a Hunger Games knockoff. It wouldn't be fair to compare everything that involves a game with heavy stakes to THG. Fortunately for me, it really wasn't that similar, but that and her writing are about the only good things that I can draw from this novel.

My main problem is how stupid this game of Panic is. The game of Panic is not explained in the synopsis and even after reading it, I don't know if I get it completely. It's a game in which everyone gets challenges to complete. You complete it, you stay in the game. And then there are challenges that everyone has to do and the last to finish is eliminated. Unfortunately, these challenges are not creative and plain stupid. Examples would be staying in a burning house and playing Russian Roulette. It's supposed to put you in situations of "panic" but for me, I was bored and tired of the players' stupidity rather than focusing on their "thrilling" panic. And what you win... money. I don't see why this was such a big deal or why the stakes were so high. 67,000 dollars to your life? Are the people that stupid?
Plus, there was absolutely no justification for Panic. "Panic was started because the people were bored." That is literally the reason for this life-endangering (idiotic) game. Because the people of this dingy town were...bored. *facepalm*

Another thing I didn't get was the worldbuilding or lack of it. This is a town that I'm getting has no law, people do drugs and no one actually cares about Panic. No way this is real. I had absolutely no belief this was a real world; even if it was Dystopian (was it Dystopian? I have no idea...)
Panic was apparently "banned" for being dangerous but there was absolutely no followup to anyone who we obviously knew was playing; does no one notice the burning building? And you've always got one person who can't keep their mouth shut. Unbelievable.

It doesn't help that the entire book was a blur. The plot was so dull. It was a girl who was reluctant to enter Panic (like The Selection... lol) and then ending up winning it. Panic wasn't even the major event in the plot; it was random teenage drama with an eyebrow-raising situations every now and then. I didn't connect with any of the characters and it took me half the book to even realize what was going on. It's horrible that while I'm trying to write a review, I'm drawing complete blanks to the plot and any points that I know I should include in this review.

I hated all the characters. That or I didn't know them. The entire beginning is us introduced to a whirlwind of characters in a matter of pages and I was like who's that? And even after so many characters were named, they weren't given personalities and mentioned only to progress the story, not to add to it or shape it. *facepalm* (again.)

So let's end this review with a good point, shall we? Lauren's writing. I still believe she has a prose that looks effortless. Unfortunately, she pretty much needs to work on everything else. The descriptions were beautiful and thoughts were carried out in a lyrical way, but I had trouble believing everything and trying to understand the characters that I still believe were poorly crafted.

Author Info

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Lauren Oliver comes from a family of writers and so has always (mistakenly) believed that spending hours in front of the computer every day, mulling over the difference between “chortling” and “chuckling,” is normal. She has always been an avid reader.

She attended the University of Chicago, where she continued to be as impractical as possible by majoring in philosophy and literature. After college, she attended the MFA program at NYU and worked briefly as the world’s worst editorial assistant, and only marginally better assistant editor, at a major publishing house in New York. Her major career contributions during this time were flouting the corporate dress code at every possible turn and repeatedly breaking the printer. Before I Fall is her first published novel.

She is deeply grateful for the chance to continue writing, as she has never been particularly good at anything else.