The Messenger Reviews

Obviously, this is a book review blog. I mostly read Young Adult books, but I try to branch out every once and a while as well!

Panic (Panic #1)

Panic - Lauren Oliver

Some books just don't grab you. There's nothing necessarily wrong with them, but they just don't grab you. For me, this was one of those books. I would blame it on the writing style, but I've read books from this author before and really liked them, so I credit my dislike of this book to other factors. For me, this Hunger Games/Scorpio Races mix lacked a lot of things, which kept it from being the book that it had the potential to be. 
My major problem with this book was the characters. It wasn't that I had a problem with their personalities per say, but more of how they were written. I didn't dislike them, I just felt absolutely nothing towards them. I felt absolutely no connection to them. There was nothing that made me feel sympathetic for them and their plights, or anything that made me rejoice in their victories. One of the main reasons that I think that I didn't connect with them is because we were told almost nothing about them. Characterization was basically nonexistent. I still have no feel for who these characters are. There were no quirks that made me feel like these people were real. There was one factoid given, but even then, it was only to move along the plot at another point in the story line. Not only that, but the characters failed to grow at all throughout the story. 
Another thing that I had a problem with was that I felt like that Panic was way too chill. It didn't seem nearly as dark and ominous as I think it could have been, and I felt that if Panic had been made more imposing, it would have been far more intriguing and influential. But Panic was often shown as lighthearted despite the fear and violence, which made it difficult for me to take it seriously. 
Overall, I just found this book as kind of sloppy. I felt like far too much was put into the plot, abandoning other things that were just as, if not more important. This book had the potential to be great, though admittedly, not at the height of originality, but that potential was practically wasted. To me, this was just a book that was designed to be a moneymaker, what with it's Hunger Games-esque plot and the fact that many things weren't really thought through as much as they should have. 
One Point Five out of Five stars

Source: http://themessengerreviews.blogspot.com/2014/06/panic.html