Reviews with content warning for Addiction - Panic

The author appears to have done zero research about the climate of places in the US. There's a point where a character asks about living in Chicago, and the other person in the conversation says it's "freezing 10 months of the year, and nice the other 2", or something to that effect. What? No. Not even kind of. The book is supposed to be set in New York state, which should have a pretty similar climate to Illinois, maybe even a little colder on average.

CW: there's a character that has a disabled sister and he routinely refers to her as broken, damaged, etc., and insinuates that her life is barely worth living due to her disability. It was gross. There's also a plot point of child abuse and homelessness.

The writing was okay at best, though the plot itself was alright. I had to push through at some points and probably won't read this author again.

Content Warnings

cdoubet's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

chaptersonapage's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Panic by Lauren Oliver follows a group of teens who have just graduated high school. They live in a small town where, after graduating, you have a chance to enter a game called Panic. Panic is dangerous and only played by those brave enough to face scary and sometimes deadly tasks. At the end, the winner takes all, a pot of money that usually averages around $50K.

We follow Heather and Dodge’s points of view through the book, two contenders in Panic. They’re both playing for vastly different reasons, but the result they want is the same - to win the game.

Heather is not sure where her life is going. She lives with her mother and little sister, but they don’t have much money. She also has a boyfriend that she’s ready to tell she loves, but is devastated when he breaks up with her for another girl. Heartbroken, she decides to take the plunge and joins Panic on a whim, which will change her summer forever.

Dodge is all to familiar with the repercussions of Panic. It’s the reason why he’s playing - revenge. A few years prior, his sister, Dayna, played the game and nearly won. She was beaten by Luke Hanrahan, who sabotaged her car in the last leg of the competition, which left her unable to walk. Now that it’s his turn to play, Dodge is determined to beat Luke’s little brother, Ray, and make them both suffer for the pain Dayna has gone through since.

Though they play for different reasons, Dodge and Heather come together during the challenges and form a friendship, along with Heather’s long time friends Bishop and Natalie. Though they have some bumps in the road, they learn to work together and help one another.

This wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t anything special either. I could have done with or without it. The characters were okay, but nothing special. Still, I did find myself liking them a little by the end, which is a plus for the book. The premise is interesting enough too, and I enjoyed reading about the different challenges.

The downside of the book was that it was predictable. Everything seems very formulated, and I feel like from the start I knew how it would go. This takes away some of the excitement of the book, as I feel like something like this should have twists and turns that keep you on your feet. Instead, I found myself knowing what would happen next before it even happened.

Overall, this was a decent read, solid 3 stars, and I can see some people enjoying it a lot. On the flip side, I can also see how people don’t like this book too. It really all depends on your tastes and what you look for in a book. I’m interested to finally watch the show on Amazon and see what they changed and how it plays out in a TV format. I could see myself liking it in a visual format for sure

Content Warnings

bardic_llama's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious relaxing tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I'm definitely one of those people who read a book after seeing it's film adaptation and this is one of the few where I'd say the film adaptation is better. Like Heather wasn't as likable since her reason for doing panic was a dude cheating on her and not her mom's neglect
which was it later becomes. Also the whole tension b/t Dodge & Ray is developed further in the show then it is in the book, in this version, I couldn't get behind him trying to sabotage and bomb Ray's car
. Not that I could in the show but it was at least more understandable, his (Dodge's) rage. Furthermore it does seem like they switched Heather & Nat's characters in the show, Nat being scared of everything.

Content Warnings

More...