Panic by Lauren Oliver

Title:
Panic
Author:
Lauren Oliver
Rating:
4/5

Bestfriends Heather, Natalie and Bishop were at the panic game. The annual game with a jackpot of $50,000. Natalie was determined to play while Heather and Bishop gives support. The game started with a jump from a cliff. Rage and frustration triggered Heather to make the jump. Plus, she could use the money to bring her sister Lily a better life. 

Bishop was frustrated that Heather decided to join but he supported his bestfriends anyway. The game has gotten more attention this year as the jackpot is $75,000; the highest in history of the game. The game itself is a mystery. No one knows who the judges are. No one knows who holds the jackpot but one thing they know for sure is someone is watching them.

Most participants had to face a near-death experience. They kept on playing with 1 player eliminated in every round. Everyone has their own objective being the game. The game unfolds what's underneath a friendship, family and other people in their surroundings. There were broken hearts and kids who ran away from their mother. There are also newfound love. Or rather, an acknowledged love.

The judges had to keep going with the challenges. The players keep daring themselves into facing their fears. Cops and hospitals were involved. There were fire and deaths. Will the players keep playing til the end?

p/s: If there is anything I love about Lauren Oliver, it has got to be the realism elements and how love, family and friendship intertwines in her story. This is one of her standalone novel. My previous reads were her Delirium trilogy. I will most probably move on to Before I Fall when I'm done with a few books in my TBR pile. More about panic? Think fear factor. Think teamwork. Think maybe...Hunger Games? A little bit of all but in a very real settings. It is not called realism if it is not real . ;)

Lauren Oliver in Malaysia

Fell in love with her writing when I started reading Delirium series. If you have not read this, stop wasting time. Pick it up. It will definitely be hard to put down! (Atleast, that’s what happened to me.) I simply love it when stories are enveloped and “blended” with reality. It makes more sense that way. It makes it more real in its own way.

There was a book fair hosted my MPH earlier this year which I decided not to go because I simply have too many books waiting to be read. Apart from that, I do not have that much space for my books here in the attic. :( Got to start figuring out how to manage all these books. Else it will take up more space than anything else.

Back to Lauren Oliver. She was most probably invited by MPH for meet the fans session. There were 2 venues; the book fair itself and MPH Mid Valley Megamall. Since Mid Valley is much nearer to my last project site, I ran to see Oliver there. Session was quite short but it was enough to cover all the fans’ book with her autographs. There was probably a little overview talk by Oliver but I guess I missed it; had to grab lunch!

When I got to the bookstore, it was not easy to miss where Oliver is as there was already a swarm of school kids lining up with books in their chest. I was hoping someone was there to help take few pics of me with Oliver. After few minutes, my wish came true. A friend got there to get her books signed as well. Yes, I am lucky to have friends who loves books as much as I do. That way, my addiction is not that severe and sniffing books is totally fine.

While we were lining up, we overheard the kids complaining “What are old people doing here?” lol C’mon! It is young adult and since when there are age limits for genres? Ok, you kids can’t be reading new adult. :p And guess what? We also wondered. “What are the kids doing here? Shouldn’t they be in school? Furthermore, they are from the International School and their school session ends at 3pm.” 

Anyway, I only brought 1 book to be signed. My precious little paperback Delirium. Oliver commented that she feels like eating it. It is very small. It is a version not available in the States apparently. Guess what Oliver? We don’t get much hardbacks! :( Most of the time, we only have tall paperbacks. I was lucky to have a few hardbacks on my shelf. The bookstores are probably making sure the books are affordable for the local market as well. As for me, I don’t mind hardbacks especially if the author is my favourite! 

Here are some shots with Oliver.

Here is Li Zan. Made her pose with her book. haha Pop to her blog here. Our love for books are almost identical. We can go all day talking about books but that might drive other people around us crazy so we don’t.

If there is anything to say about Oliver, she is very friendly and if you were to talk to her about writing, she is very encouraging! :) Looking at her makes me feel like she is just the right creator for Alex, Hana and the rest of the characters in Delirium. I somehow placed her in the series together with all of them. My imagination is something, right? ;)

A little show off moment. She said "Ruzanna? That's a cool name." hihihi If only she would name one of her characters with my name. (*dreamy* tralalalala*)

p/s: This happened in March. I didn’t get the chance to blab until now. Gotta pick up Oliver’s other books. Next book is definitely Before I Fall. I know…I know…I will get there. Just can’t keep buying anymore books for the time being. Atleast not novels coz there are just too many that everyone in the house might kill me. haha