

I guess the first part of the book that struck me as unrealistic is that there is absolutely no way on this earth that the police wouldn't have shut this game down years ago. And the winner of this year's Panic pockets $67,000. Players have to push themselves to the extremes and do crazy challenges, such as conquering their biggest fears, running across six lanes of traffic blindfolded, jumping off of a cliff, and balancing on a beam between two water towers. As the summary explains, Panic is a kind of betting game that graduating seniors of this small, upstate New York town play over the summer with nothing better to do.

I guess I just went into Panic expecting more than I ended up getting out of it. I didn't dislike this book by any means, so that isn't why it received four stars. For 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. 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. Summary: Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.
