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A review by stuckinafictionaluniverse
Panic by Lauren Oliver
1.0
My theme for February was to read books by authors I have enjoyed in the past and see if I still enjoy the rest of their work. There were a few hits - [a:Marie Lu|4342215|Marie Lu|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1285032806p2/4342215.jpg] and [a:Holly Black|25422|Holly Black|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1589911274p2/25422.jpg] seemed to be at the top of their game - and misses - [a:Courtney Summers|1487748|Courtney Summers|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1589039294p2/1487748.jpg], [a:Ruta Sepetys|3407448|Ruta Sepetys|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1344869981p2/3407448.jpg], [a:Melina Marchetta|47104|Melina Marchetta|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1277655889p2/47104.jpg] (Sorry, I still love you all!)
Panic falls in a completely different category, named Why on earth did I pick this up? I’ve given this author two, three, four chances.. why do I keep going back to her books? This was the last straw. I thoroughly enjoyed Oliver’s debut [b:Before I Fall|6482837|Before I Fall|Lauren Oliver|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1361044695l/6482837._SY75_.jpg|6674135], disliked the first two books in the Delirium series but figured this would be fun. Now I wonder if my sixth sense was on vacation that day.
There is an extremely slow-moving plot where unnecessary drama gets in the way. There’s ridiculous insta-love, and poorly developed relationships. There are frustrating characters with very little personality. Dodge ruined the whole story from me, he slapped the reader in the face with his insta-love and cringe-worthy inner monologue. Heather shifted from pale and uninteresting to a character with a strong backstory. There’s so much wasted potential here.
The whole book felt vague, and it was difficult to picture it in my head. The game itself was a little silly and confusing. It was oddly plotted, and we found out rather essential character background in the last 25% of the book.
And lastly, the writing. There are some truly awful passages here, and every chapter made me cringe. Could this really be by the same author who wrote Before I fall, the tender and realistic novel that was such an emotional journey to read? With writing that had a natural flow and wasn’t too flowery but effective. Even Delirium had its moments. Panic on the other hand, drove me crazy with its metaphors, and many passages are just… way too weird for me. I can’t tell whether it was supposed to be comical or poetic. Either way, I loathed it.
It seemed somehow surprising that Nat Velez, with her thick, perfect hair and slicked lip-gloss lips, would speak so frankly about a subject most people avoided. It was like hearing a supermodel fart: surprising and kind of thrilling.
Um… TMI much?
Her hair was fixed low, in a side ponytail, and she was wearing a ruffled yellow jumper-type thing, with the shirt and shorts attached, that would have looked stupid on someone else. But on her it looked amazing, like she was some kind of life-size, exotic Popsicle.
LIFE-SIZE. EXOTIC. POPSICLE. I refuse to even comment on this.
(..)A two-story structure, all dark, that might have been nice one hundred years ago. Now it looked like a person whose soul had been sucked out through his asshole.
Thank you for the imagery, Lauren Oliver.
To top it all off, the third person past tense disturbed me and made the characters very distant.
Unless I feel masochistic and pick up the conclusion to the Delirium series, this is the final book I will read by Oliver.
Panic falls in a completely different category, named Why on earth did I pick this up? I’ve given this author two, three, four chances.. why do I keep going back to her books? This was the last straw. I thoroughly enjoyed Oliver’s debut [b:Before I Fall|6482837|Before I Fall|Lauren Oliver|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1361044695l/6482837._SY75_.jpg|6674135], disliked the first two books in the Delirium series but figured this would be fun. Now I wonder if my sixth sense was on vacation that day.
There is an extremely slow-moving plot where unnecessary drama gets in the way. There’s ridiculous insta-love, and poorly developed relationships. There are frustrating characters with very little personality. Dodge ruined the whole story from me, he slapped the reader in the face with his insta-love and cringe-worthy inner monologue. Heather shifted from pale and uninteresting to a character with a strong backstory. There’s so much wasted potential here.
The whole book felt vague, and it was difficult to picture it in my head. The game itself was a little silly and confusing. It was oddly plotted, and we found out rather essential character background in the last 25% of the book.
And lastly, the writing. There are some truly awful passages here, and every chapter made me cringe. Could this really be by the same author who wrote Before I fall, the tender and realistic novel that was such an emotional journey to read? With writing that had a natural flow and wasn’t too flowery but effective. Even Delirium had its moments. Panic on the other hand, drove me crazy with its metaphors, and many passages are just… way too weird for me. I can’t tell whether it was supposed to be comical or poetic. Either way, I loathed it.
It seemed somehow surprising that Nat Velez, with her thick, perfect hair and slicked lip-gloss lips, would speak so frankly about a subject most people avoided. It was like hearing a supermodel fart: surprising and kind of thrilling.
Um… TMI much?
Her hair was fixed low, in a side ponytail, and she was wearing a ruffled yellow jumper-type thing, with the shirt and shorts attached, that would have looked stupid on someone else. But on her it looked amazing, like she was some kind of life-size, exotic Popsicle.
LIFE-SIZE. EXOTIC. POPSICLE. I refuse to even comment on this.
(..)A two-story structure, all dark, that might have been nice one hundred years ago. Now it looked like a person whose soul had been sucked out through his asshole.
Thank you for the imagery, Lauren Oliver.
To top it all off, the third person past tense disturbed me and made the characters very distant.
Unless I feel masochistic and pick up the conclusion to the Delirium series, this is the final book I will read by Oliver.