He doesn’t understand what people mean when they say they have shivers or goose flesh. Basically it’s about a boy who is so ‘simple’ - in the context of the time - he doesn’t know what fear is. “No, the inspiration originally came from a Grimm’s fairy tale, a comic one, which is kind of exceptional since none of them are very funny.

“I’m kind of a dark person, first of all,” Oliver says jokingly. But they have to complete some pretty gruesome tasks to get it, from cliff diving to haunted house visiting to Russian roulette. The game, aptly called the Panic, requires students at the high school to pay into the pot throughout their four years, and at the end of it, they have a chance to reclaim that money. And in Carp, N.Y., the setting of Lauren Oliver’s latest young adult novel Panic, the graduating seniors must face those fears during their last summer at home in a game to win $67,000. In this gritty, spellbinding novel, New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver delivers a gripping narrative of friendship, courage, survival, and hope.Everyone has them: those fears that paralyze you, freeze you in your tracks.

Everyone has something to play for.įor Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them-and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most. But what he doesn’t know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game he’s sure of it. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.ĭodge has never been afraid of panic. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. Heather never thought she would compete in panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. Video courtesy of HarperTeen: Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a poor town of twelve thousand people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Panic oliver