Panic
I hate to be that person, and I so rarely am, but I liked the movie better than the book! Well, tv show, but the point stands. Who have I become?!
I'll blame it on watching the show on Amazon Prime before listening to the book on Audible. This has only happened a few times: Gone Girl, Beautiful Creatures, and To All The Boys I've Loved Before. Again, all times I saw the film adaptation before reading the book. It's something about the performances that entrance me in a way the book didn't. And with performances like this, can you blame me? 👇
Since Lauren Oliver also created the tv show, I think I get a pass on this one. Maybe that's the point behind, 'kill your darlings.' Kill them, and resurrect them as something better. If that's the case, she nailed it.
Panic follows the lives of recently graduated seniors in a going-nowhere-town as they embark on the not-so-secret tradition of playing Panic. A game created as a way to ease the boredom and guarantee at least one player will get the hell outta Carp. Panic's a lot like fight club; the number one rule? Don't talk about it. To the adults, Panic doesn't exist. To the kids, it's nothing; a way around feeling nothing, being nothing, having nothing.
Panic is about fear. Less spiders and snakes and more deep-seated, existential dread, type fears. The ones that only seem to pop into your mind when you're alone in the dark and straining for sleep. Those "what if" scenarios. What if I'd leaned a little further over that ledge? What if I ended up adrift in the ocean? What if I could change that thing that happened that one night? Scary thoughts, primeval fears, the kind of terror you'd expect from a novel loosely based on the Grimm tale The Story of Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was.
The book focuses on two main characters and their offshoots; Heather and Dodge. Both are players in that year's game, and have vastly different (secret) reasons for playing. The game starts as it always does: an entry-earning jump from the cliffs at Pilot's Point. To everyone's surprise, Heather Nill, jumps. But what else was she supposed to do? Her boyfriend had just dumped her...cue the eye roll...
Within minutes of starting I was already wondering I was too old for YA novels. Like, come on Heather, you're really going to throw yourself off a cliff and into a dangerous "probably won't kill you" game all over some guy? Who are you, Bella Swan?
Granted, as someone currently writing a book about her ex-boyfriends, I'm not above the drama. This is definitely something high school Micha would have done. But high school Micha isn't the one listening to the book. That would be 30-something Micha (ðŸ˜), and she requires more than a girl whining over the shitty boyfriend who dumped her for another girl.
By the second half of the book, I'd gotten it. Heather matures, has more drive and becomes an overall more sympathetic/relatable character. I mean, the girl at one point says she doesn't like dogs...what kind of monster says stuff like that?! Before Heather's change I found myself struggling to like any of the characters. Maybe like is the wrong word? I found myself struggling to care about them.
A lot of the book felt like teenagers just trying to figure their shit out while playing a high stakes game for money. Completing challenges that felt like something Houdini might try. Things that aren't necessarily dangerous unless something goes wrong. And then there were the challenges that were blatantly meant to hurt you even though everyone acted as if it was NBD. Ah, the folly of youth. Being able to drink without being crippled by a hangover and shrug off someone trying to burn you alive in a decrepit house. Smoke inhalation is the real killer, people! Google it!
Even the narrator seemed in on it. Her voice amplifying the melancholy and hesitancy of the characters. The sluggish development of kids stranded in a place where very little is expected of them. And another pet peeve! The same metaphor being used throughout multiple narrators. Unless it serves a bigger purpose it just seems like lazy writing.
But Lauren Oliver, I just can't quit you, because then there's the Novella. Do you like ghost stories? Were you obsessed with Are You Afraid of the Dark? If you answered yes to either of those or both or even neither, listen to Panic: Ghosts and Legends an Audible original. Lauren Oliver wrote this as a supplement to the show and its narrated by three of the main characters. It's divided into three parts to the tell the legends, or ghost stories, of Panics past. A game that dangerous is bound to have a few casualties worth hearing about...just don't listen to it alone at night in your garage like I tried to or else you'll find yourself constantly looking over your shoulder and getting spooked by your cat.
Ultimately, the novella and show drive the overall book message home. Embrace what you fear, or, like Heather says, "as long as you keep moving your fear always stays behind you." Boy, don't I know it. Hi, I'm Micha and I have severe anxiety. 👋 For years my go-to coping mechanism was to never stop moving. Who woulda thought that would be so exhausting! Lately, I've been trying to retrain my brain and part of that is a bit like playing Panic. I have to embrace some of my fears. Which is why I'm currently forcing myself out of my comfort zone and trying new things, scheduling appointments I've been putting off, and generally just trying to unstick myself from that super fun COVID rut.
And as things open back up, I can genuinely say, Happy Fourth of July! I hope you are out there (safely) celebrating with your friends, family, strangers at the bar, etc. to make up for the year+ we've missed. But do me a favor and take time to celebrate the way our forefathers intended...by watching teens battle it out for $50,000 on Amazon Prime. Then listen to the Novella on Audible. Skip the book. The show's better. If you need further incentive, there are multiple scenes featuring inferred oral on our female main character. So, watch in the name of normalizing female pleasure! Now if you'll excuse me, I have Panic bonus content to watch.
Overall ratings:
Show: A+
Book: C
Panic: Ghosts and
Legends: A Novella: A+
Audible Link: https://www.amazon.com/Panic-Lauren-Oliver-audiobook/dp/B00HWDF6PW/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1623801476&sr=8-1
Audible Link for Panic
Novella: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094DVNXJV?plink=B3b54CjSV5bu7uUH&ref=adblp13nvvxx_0_0_im
Currently Pondering: Bo Burnham's Inside
Trying to: Survive the unprecedented heat in the PNW
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