#panic - Luke Jennings

Escaping online is easy. In real life it won't be so simple.Jaleesa, Kai, Ilya and Dani are online best friends, and superfans of the hit TV show City Of Night. Fantasising about the show in their chatroom, they find an escape from their troubled small-town lives. Everything changes when Chloe, make-up artist to the show's star Alice Temple, enters the chat. When Chloe tells them Alice is in danger the four resolve to save her, and make their way to California. But fantasy is quickly overtaken by reality. Alice's troubles, they discover, will shine the spotlight on all of them. And not in a good way. On the run across the American South with one of the most famous actresses in the world, the fans must evade the police, the Russian mafia and the Legion, an absurd but terrifying new far-right movement. Can they keep running for long enough to uncover the truth about Alice, and discover themselves in the process?#PANIC is a thriller, a love letter to fandom, and an empowering tale of young adults embracing their identities and fighting back in a world that has always tried to marginalize them.

Review

Buckle up for a roller-coaster ride in this adventure form the mind that brought us the Villanelle books . . . Exploring fandom, identity and far-right movements, this is a richly imagined, character-driven thriller ― Bookseller, Editor's ChoiceA story about the allure of A-list TV stars, the pleasure of group fandom, and the perils of catching the eye of the Russian mafia, far-right cults and American cops. All the expected high-octane thrills and spills are there, but with a focus on the kids looking for excitement and escape from their small-town troubles, #PANIC also has a big heart ― Big IssueThe action comes thick and fast . . . What he has delivered is a story about friendship and the importance of being true to yourself that is powerfully topical . . . Luke Jennings might just have another cult hit on his hands ― Shots Mag

About the Author

Luke Jennings is a London-based author and journalist who has written for the Observer, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker and Time. He is the author of Blood Knots, shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson and William Hill prizes, and Atlantic. His Killing Eve books, of which Die For Me is the third, have been adapted for television in a series starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer.