Panic: Ghost and Legends

Panic #0.5

by Lauren Oliver, Cameron Jones (Narrator), Ray Nicholson (Narrator)

Before Panic was our game, it was our secret. Before that, just a rumor. And before that? A ghost story. Listen close—but don’t believe everything you hear.

Panic is a legendary game played by graduating seniors in the middle-of-nowhere town of Carp, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher: after a series of challenges ranging from sleeping in a haunted house to running across a highway blindfolded, one winner takes home a cash prize in the tens of thousands at the end of the summer. Participating players are sworn to secrecy, which means little is known of Panic’s history. Until now.

Each of these three stories follows a former player connected to one of the game’s lingering mysteries—a ghost of Panic past, a legend. In this spellbinding novella, you’ll meet the quiet, unassuming kid who may have started it all; the golden boy who’d do anything to win; and the underestimated cheerleader who brought decades of family history into this dangerous game.

Panic: Ghosts and Legends is set in the world of the Amazon Original series Panic, available only on Amazon Prime Video.

©2021 Lauren Oliver, LLC (P)2021 Audible Originals, LLC

Genres: Young Adult, Audiobook, Contemporary, Fiction, Short Stories, Horror, Thriller

Audible Audio

First published January 27, 2014

About the author

Lauren Oliver is an author, screenwriter, and media entrepreneur. She is the author of the upcoming novels THE GIRL IN THE LAKE (May 5, 2026) and its sequel, THE SLEEPWALKER (May 5, 2027). Her previous works include multiple New York Times bestselling novels for teens, including Before I Fall (which spent seventeen weeks on the list and was adapted into a feature film released by Open Road), the Delirium trilogy (a two-million-copy-selling dystopian series translated into thirty-five languages), and Panic, which she later adapted into the streaming TV show on Amazon Prime of the same name, for which she wrote every episode and served as Executive Producer. Along the way, Lauren founded the IP company StoryGiants and helped to package and edit nearly one hundred other novels. She is also the co-founder of Incantor AI, a self-scaling digital media engine built on a new and proprietary foundational model of artificial intelligence that respects copyright by providing both IP attribution and royalty shares to contributing sources. Raised in Westchester, New York, Lauren attended the University of Chicago and got her MFA from NYU. She now divides her time between Maryland and Los Angeles. Subscribe to my Substack! laurenoliverbooks.substack.com

Reviews

[Booktastically Amazing · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since I'm not going to have a second season of the show. I might as well stew in silence and in pain.

BECAUSE IT'S REALLY FAIR TO ALL OF US THAT LOVED THE SHOW. SO FAIR.

[Rebecca Crunden]

❧ audiobook review

Panic turns danger into death.

I loved this show so much, so of course I want to hear the audiobook narrated by the cast! This one is narrated by Camron Jones, Ray Nicholson and Olivia Welch i.e. Bishop, Ray and Heather! They are all great narrators!

☆ Book Reviews | Bluesky | Twitter | Threads ☆

[lorena · Rating 3 out of 5]

This as a nice backstory on why Panic happened in the first place, but it would be great as a prologue in the original book.

[Gabri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Major spoiler!! Although I think most of the people have read Panic (original book) first :)

Meh. Didn't like this either (see my review of Panic). I agree with the people saying it could/should have been added to the original book. It would have explained the story a bit better I think.
However, I don't understand why Lauren Oliver chose to let all these challenges end well. It would have been so much more powerful if some challenge would have gone wrong.

[Denisse · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 meh! But I have to admit the talent Oliver has. She is a good writer.


No sabia que había publicado esta historia corta.

Y tal vez me quejaría sobre que en realidad no aporta nada a el libro de Panic, pero es gratis entonces si alguien lo quiere leer pues lo busca y ya. Si se tuviera que pagar por el ahí si diría que es una tontería.

Este bien pudo haber sido el prologo del libro original, de hecho hubiera sido un muy buen prologo.

La verdad tiene lógica como se formo el juego, literal no tenían nada mas que hacer...y ya. Aunque no me gusta mucho la tendencia de Oliver de sobredramatizar a sus personajes.

Demasiado corto como para una reseña real, pero bueno. Recomendado para los que ya leyeron Panic. Saber de donde nació ese juego es información extra pero si te interesa en la descripción de la historia están los links desde donde puedes leerla. Si no te has leído el libro, ni te molestes, no le hallaras sentido, lee mejor Panic primero, aunque tampoco es algo que yo super recomendaría :/

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine. I don’t think it was necessary at all to add to this “world” but whatever. I did find the three short stories interesting and I really like how they ended because they’re going to give me the chills. I think if you enjoyed panicked the book or the TV show (which I haven’t watched) it’s worth checking out this.

[♡Julalicious Book Paradise♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

rating: 2.75/5

It could have been easily added to the book without a doubt as a prologue or something. It's nice to have a better idea how it started, but once again, the idea that it started to impress a girl is so overdone, but still.

[Leigh F · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and fast paced listen about other years of the game Panic. Made me want to know more about the Greybill house and the story behind it. Interesting characters and different points of view through the years.

[⋆ kim ୨୧ · Rating 2 out of 5]

i miss this show sm and i love that it was narrated by the cast but this was average at best

[Nickie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit pointless to read after the fact. Would have been more beneficial to add to the original story. It was a TERRIBLE idea that no one should encourage. Idk why every challenge is successful when that isn't realistic at all.

[Oksana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story, in my opinion, should've been added to the original book, because it explains when and why the Panic game was created and the book really needed that.

[Mehsi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like others said, this could have easily been added to the book itself. It would have been great as a prologue, now it falls short. Also too much talk about sex/boobs and such.

[Joey (theboywho_reads) · Rating 2 out of 5]

You get to see how Panic starts...that’s basically it. Was it interesting? Not really. Why did it all start? The same reason all trends and challenges are created: out of stupidity and boredom 🤷‍♂️

[Louisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

These were so fantastic to read, loved this background information, and now I need to reread Panic!

[Emmy-Ann Lortie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

La première histoire ne m’a pas vraiment marqué

[Micha Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lauren Oliver, I just can't quit you. 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 Panic book message home. Embrace what you fear, or, like Heather says, "as long as you keep moving your fear always stays behind you."

Panic: Ghosts and Legends: A Novella: A+
More at: michawriteswell.blogspot.com

[Anastasiya M · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three short stories were interesting but I enjoyed the last one the most compared to the others.

This short audiobook gives an inside look at the backstory behind how everything started, and it took me some time to figure out what everything was since I'd never heard of the series before and had no idea about what I was getting into. While it was interesting enough, it may have worked better if I had started book one in the series before jumping into this one.

Read more here: https://sincerelyyoursannie.wordpress...

[Naomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh...told in first person perspective from three different viewpoints. I think it would help to read the first book in the series first or minimally watching the Amazon Prime show. It was free, a quick listen though and helped with my Goodreads Challenge.

[Avid Reader and Geek Girl · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Kyle Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

"See, the problem with small nowhere towns, in big nowhere counties, is that life happens in the spaces between people. In the cities and suburbs its the people that matter. The houses and lit up windows, the apartments and the driveways and everything in between them. Grass and trees, empty lots and allies. It's just like the blank space bracketing the words in a sentence. A framing device, meant to refocus your attention on the next house, apartment, driveway. But in Carp Texas, the towns are the framing devices.the houses are the interpretations. Between them are the sprawling works that look like sky and land. And tell the same story over and over: people don't matter as much as they think. In places like Carp, people can disappear even when they're standing right in front of you. We're all just the sum total of the space we have to cross before anybody's listening."
Panic: Ghosts and Legends by Lauren Oliver

"in a school as small as ours your friends are limited to people you can stand for small amounts of time. Affection is secondary."
Be Not Far from Me by Mindy McGinnis

"You have to understand this about living in a small town like Edgewood: boredom made for strange bedfellows."
Chasing the Boogeyman By Richard Chizmar

"That kind of fear is so deep that it doesn't even feel like fear anymore. It feels like boredom. It feels like emptiness. It feels like the texture of a grey morning full of fog."
Panic: Ghosts and Legends by Lauren Oliver

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wasn't in love with Panic when I read it, but it was nice to read this and to understand why the games started in the first place. However, this could have quickly been an intro to the book to give every reader a little more background before jumping head first into the real story. Glad it was a fast read.

[Juan Quiroga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Habiendo visto la serie de Amazon, este "intento de" libro/spin-off funciona claramente como prólogo porque nos contaría, de alguna manera, el origen de este juego macabro conocido como Pánico.
Pueden leerlo en SCRIBD.

PD: después de tanto tiempo, llegó el momento de darle una oportunidad a esta historia a pesar de su supuesto final abrupto. Veremos...

[Sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could definitely be added to a re-printing of the original book as an epilogue or prologue or just a bonus. I think it's a great beginning for how the game started, because it is a bunch of stupid stuff that teens would do! ;)

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way way short. Probably shouldn't count as a book towards my challenge, but it's listed as a book so it's a book.

Though technically, it's not a book. It's a short story. Almost flash fiction. I think it would do better to be added to the prologue of Panic, as others have said.

[Carla (There Might Be Cupcakes Podcast) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent narrators for the three sections. Incredibly dark, violent and eerie prequel to Panic. Trigger warnings for fire, claustrophobia, heights, etc. It's in the title--this is a much more intense and dark look than the original. It reads like an adult horror novel.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just ok for me. An interesting storyline for this short story. Good narration for the audiobook. Was not really what I thought it was going to be based on the title. I expected it to be more spooky, but it fell flat for me.

[Laura Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I short and quick passage about how the panic games began. It all started with 5 teens and some train tracks. Panic is one of my favourite books, and to be able to see where it all started was great.

[JeniReadABook · Rating 3 out of 5]

To see my review of the Panic series

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a neat enough backstory but, like others have said, it should have been included in the book.

[Linda Qunbar · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short story or backstory of how panic started ~
Yeah Sophia is crazy~!!