The Quick Cut: A small town girl who has never shown interest in her town's secret game decides to participate at the last minute. Chaos ensues as lives are put at risk the longer the game goes.
A Real Review: What would you do for a large stack of cash? It's a question that many of us have probably thought about at one point or another. Depending on who you are, the amount of cash may be bigger or smaller though. Also, depending on what resources are available to you, the possibility of getting that much cash may be more or less likely. For Heather Nill, the chance of making a lot of money was once in a lifetime - with the town game of Panic. Panic is a secret game that everyone in the town of Carp, New York knows about. Everyone who goes to the local high school has to pay a dollar for every day they are in class and at the end of the year, everyone who has graduated has a chance to participate. The judges are a secret and each year, the next year's judges are picked by the current ones. The person who wins gets all the money collected and can use it how they wish. It can buy you a new life or upgrade your current one. Everybody has their own reason for playing the game, but when Heather decides to defy the odds and join the game - she finds that Panic is less predictable of an experience than she thought it would be. Can she win or will she not live to see the end of it? I saw the Amazon series first and found out it was based on a book after. I know, that's practically a crime against the book community, right? It happens though and on this rare occasion, I'm actually happy I saw the TV show before the book. Why you may ask? Because it made me fall in love with the characters and the general story first, so that I could appreciate the plot changes later. Overall, the book is much darker than the TV show and if I read it first I probably wouldn't have finished it. The biggest difference between the book and the show is that the book is almost entirely focused on the game Panic and the TV show spends more time developing the world & characters outside of the game. There is a much stronger subplot around the dark and seedy part of the game in the TV show as well. Also, Heather's mom plays a bigger part in the show where she is nothing more than a distraction in the book. Nat is also different in the book versus the tv show in a significant way. The TV show made her a more complex character where the book made her more of a stereotypical girl who wants to break into the modeling business. Heather's life is one I can't really relate to because I've always had the opportunity to do more and be more. I went to college and have a career - none of that has ever really been an option for her. All she's trying to do is make it to the next day and do what's right for her younger sister. While I can't relate to her struggles, I empathize with her and can't help but want to see her win. Maybe take the cash and make a name for herself? The romantic angle is also significantly different between the TV show and book. The book again takes the darker angle here, which makes me enjoy the romantic entanglements in the TV show better. Nothing done in the rage of a breakup is a good idea and the book reinforces that. I did enjoy seeing how those romantic entanglements complicated the story. An enjoyable story that is made better by the TV show based on it. My rating: 4 out of 5
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