Denise

Nobody believed that Panic would stop, of course.

The game must go on.

The game always went on.

I have read all of Lauren Oliver's previous work and enjoyed them so when this book came out I knew I was going to add it to my tbr pile. This book mainly follows two teenagers (Heather and Dodge) living in small town Carp, New York. For the past fear years after graduation the seniors take place in a game called Panic. The game is very dangerous at times and people have died or been seriously injured while playing it. The risk may be great but so is the reward as the pot this year is $67,000. Money isn't the sole motivation for everyone playing the game, sometimes a person's motivation is more sinister than that.

I felt like Heather and Dodge were great main characters for this book. Both have their hardships and both have different reasons for playing Panic. I connected a bit more with Heather because I felt like Dodge was a bit too annoying and naive at times. Both Heather and Dodge become close to Heather's best friends (Nat and Bishop) during the game but Panic, as it usually does, threatens to tear their bonds apart.

I have a few problems with this book. My first problem with it was that the major twists in the book were obvious from pretty early on in the book. I'm not even sure you could really call it a twist since it was so obvious. Also how in the hell were these kids able to raise $67,000? It briefly explains how they got the pot but quite honestly it seemed like with the amount of people in their graduating class that $67,000 is completely unrealistic. If Panic is such a dangerous game then how come the parents and police didn't shut it down? The police tried a bit but it just seemed like they were stumbling around. I can't believe that a dangerous game where people have been killed would have been allowed to continue on.

While I did enjoy this and read it really fast I still had my doubts about the plausibility of some of the plot. If you've liked Lauren Oliver's previous work then you will enjoy this book.