Panic by Lauren Oliver.
One word, engrossing. Lauren's beautiful and descriptive writing catches you from the very first word.
“The rules of Panic are simple. Anyone can enter. But only one person will win.”
Panic is about a game that those just graduated play every year in a town named 'Carp.' They play for money, this year the pot is worth 67,000 dollars, the most it has ever been. It is all a matter of finding out who is desperate enough for that much money to put their life on the line.
Heather - a girl with no real home yet surrounded by people who love her. The only way she'll realise this is by entering a game that she never planned to be apart of, Panic.
“No one had ever told her this basic fact: not everyone got to be loved.”
Dodge - Money is what they all play for but to Dodge the money means nothing. Panic is the name of the game and revenge is his true reason for risking everything.
“This was what true fear was--that you could never know other people, not completely. That you were always just guessing blind.”
The moment I layed my eyes on this book, down in my local Easons, I just knew I had to read it. I don't know if it was the simple cover that drew me in at first or the glimpse I took at the first few pages but something got me hooked on the need to read this book as soon as I got the chance. When I finally got my hands on it, I had no idea what was in store for me.
I had read reviews on 'Goodreads' about this book being like 'The Hunger Games' and was surprised to find 'Panic' and 'The Hunger Games' have very little in common if nothing. This book is original and creative. I was happy to find it was not set in the future; it is placed in today's time. Everything that happened in this beautiful book could happen in this world without fail.
The book is split into two different point of views yet written in third point of view, which I found mesmerizing.
There is a love story in this book which just draws all us romantics straight in but isn't mentioned on the blurb.
“They had their own language, their own jokes. They were constantly touching each other too – pushing and shoving, pinching and hugging, like kids flirting on a playground.”
Bishop I fell in love with straight away, the way he made Heather feel from the very beginning had me wanting to read scenes and scenes of them just being themselves around each other. There just wasn't enough of those scenes for me. I also found that Lauren doesn't like to describe the kissing scenes as much as I like to read them, which always left me wanting more.
"Once , at the homecoming bonfire last year, she'd even called him Dave. He'd gone just because he was hoping to see her."
As for Natalie, I found her the tad bit annoying. She was meant to be Heather's best friend yet when was she really caring about Heather and her feelings? She made me mad at the best of times yet I still loved the scenes of her and Dodge because I am a hopeless romantic since the day of my birth.
“It was so strange, the way that life moved forward: the twists and the dead ends, the sudden opportunities. She supposed if you could predict or foresee everything that was going to happen, you’d lose the motivation to go through it all. The promise was always in the possibility.”
Both Heather and Dodge also had their obstacles to overcome throughout this book. Lauren Oliver tackled each obstacle in the right way, yet never leaving behind the elegance of her writing. The message in this book shows the difference between hope and fear yet just how close the two feelings are.They are like black and white, different yet the exact same. Like Ying and Yang, one can't survive without the other. I loved the message of this book most of all.
This book gets 5 out of 5 without fail from me, its now number one fan that shall fall asleep thinking of this story for a long time to come. Lauren Oliver did nothing but impress me from her storytelling to the words she used on the pages and the layout of the book. I would recommend this book to annoying that wants to not sleep, eat or drink for the length the book takes for you to finish it.
“She knew, now, that there was always light – beyond the dark, and the fear, out of the depths; there was sun to reach for, and air and space and freedom.”
