Review: Panic

Panic by Lauren Oliver

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



So, I went to this book thinking it was a dystopia, but that's not what I got. This book was a contemporary novel with a touch of thriller. Bad thing is, the thriller part didn't work for me.

First, the plot bored the hell out of me. I don't think there was a single moment in which I felt anything besides sheer boredom. There was never anything going on. It was too slow to the point I almost dnf-ed it. But I managed to get through it.

The last half picked up a little, but it was already too late for me to care about this book. And besides, I had lost all interest in it by the 30% mark.

Another thing that didn't work for me was the characters. Let's say, I neither liked them nor connected with them. Both of the main ones (Heather and Dodge) could have been intriguing characters, but they got dull and I couldn't stand neither of them after some time reading.

Also, as I said, I didn't connect with them. When reading a book, feeling something for the characters may be the reason why I can fall in love with a book, or even the reason why I hate one. For example, see The Monstrumologist. I love that series with all my effing soul. I loved it not necessarily because of the gore but because of the characters and the writing.

See? So what do you do if you feel nothing for the characters? You don't care about the book. And not caring about it leads to boredom and boredom leads to low star ratings.

I've heard that Lauren Oliver's books have gone downhill in quality, but I don't really know if that's true. It was true for the Delirium trilogy. However, I've just read that series and this book by her, so I can't really tell you if that's just a coincidence.

Anyway, maybe this book worked well for you, but it didn't for me. It was not because of thinking it was dystopia when it really was contemporary that left me so let down. It was all the previous reasons that I mentioned in this review what disappointed me.



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