PennyG

I'm not going to lie: I've been avoiding Lauren Oliver since Delirium.

She single-handedly made a mess of many social situations over the past few years. Every time a well-meaning friend suggested the Delirium series to me, adding an explanation as to why they think I'd totally love it, I had to pretend everything was still good between me and Ms. Oliver and thank the friend for the recommendation. There were a few times when I couldn't hold my tongue and I'd go off on some crazy rant about how the whole premise of the series was probably the dumbest I've ever heard of. I'd tell them that I already wasted some of my time and money on the first book in the series and I couldn't even force myself to get past the second chapter.

What's worse is I'd silently judge these people, question why I'm even friends with them. I mean, they clearly don't even know me if they think I'd be into a series about a dystopian society that decided 'Love' was the cause of all society's problems. And anyway, why is anyone even attempting to write dystopian? Pretty much every single offering to the YA dystopian genre is so awful I can't even. That's how bad it is.

So, yeah, Ms. Oliver and I haven't been on speaking terms. She started it.

That said, [b:Before I Fall|6482837|Before I Fall|Lauren Oliver|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1361044695s/6482837.jpg|6674135], Ms. Oliver's first published book, was so good I couldn't erase her from my life completely. I love that book so much that I've read it several times.

Anyway, when I saw that she had a new book out, a contemporary YA fiction novel with an intriguing premise, I had to give it a shot.

To be honest, Panic is good. Is it 4-stars good? Not exactly. I mean, yeah, there is much to like in this story but it's not something I 'really like'. That said, I like it well enough to round the the 3.7 stars up to a solid 4.

Lauren Oliver should stick to contemporary lit, she's quite good at it. I cannot wait to see what's up next for Ms. Oliver.