THE PANOPTICON: A REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

  

THE PANOPTICON

BY JENNI FAGAN 

ABOUT THE BOOK: 

A dazzling debut novel by one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists featuring an unforgettable young heroine

Anais Hendricks, fifteen, is in the back of a police car. She is headed for the Panopticon, a home for chronic young offenders. She can't remember what’s happened, but across town a policewoman lies in a coma and Anais’s school uniform is covered in blood.

Raised in foster care from birth and moved through twenty-three placements before she even turned seven, Anais has been let down by just about every adult she has ever met. Now a counter-culture outlaw, she knows that she can only rely on herself. And yet despite the parade of horrors visited upon her early life, she greets the world with the witty, fierce insight of a survivor.

Anais finds a sense of belonging among the residents of the Panopticon – they form intense bonds, and she soon becomes part of an ad hoc family. Together, they struggle against the adults that keep them confined. When she looks up at the watchtower that looms over the residents though, Anais knows her fate: she is an anonymous part of an experiment, and she always was. Now it seems that the experiment is closing in.

Named one of the best books of the year by the Times Literary Supplement and the Scotsman, The Panopticon is an astonishingly haunting, remarkable debut novel. In language dazzling, energetic and pure, it introduces us to a heartbreaking young heroine and an incredibly assured and outstanding new voice in fiction. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

JENNI FAGAN was born in Livingston, Scotland. She graduated from Greenwich University and won a scholarship to the Royal Holloway MFA. A published poet, she has won awards from Arts Council England, Dewar Arts and Scottish Screen among others. She has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, was shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize, and was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists in 2013. The Panopticon is her first novel.

PRAISE FOR THE PANOPTICON:

“Fagan has given us one of the most spirited heroines to cuss, kiss, bite and generally break the nose of the English novel in many a moon.”--The New York Times

“An exquisite first novel—Jenni Fagan has created a dark, disturbing, yet ultimately hopeful portrait of a young woman growing up alone in the Scottish foster care system.  To say it is haunting is an understatement—I kept wanting to set a place for Anais at the table with the rest of my children.”—Vanessa Diffenbaugh, author of The Language of Flowers

"The best debut novel I've read this year."—Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting

“Very literary and suspenseful. I like books set in an altered reality—one that feels familiar and yet also deeply unfamiliar, that embodies some of the dailiness of life, and yet slowly reveals itself to be a very different, much more sinister place.”—Gillian Flynn, O, The Oprah Magazine

“A heartbreakingly intelligent and sensitive heroine wrapped in an impossibly impenetrable exterior. Readers won’t be able to tear themselves away from this transcendent debut.”—Booklist, starred review

“This dazzling and distinctive novel has at its heart an unstoppable heroine…Fagan’s prose is fierce, funny and brilliant at capturing her heroine’s sparky smartness and vulnerability…Emotionally explosive.”—Marie Clair

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW: 
Jenni Fagan's debut novel, THE PANOPTICON, is definitely deserving of the praise and awards it has garnered. If for no other reason, the well fleshed out characters, especially the protagonist Anais Hendricks, will capture your heart and interest from the first moment she is introduced. Readers will become so involved in THE PANOPTICON that one will be looking forward hopefully to a sequel. I have just finished the book and hope to post a longer review later but will tell you I highly recommend Fagan's novel, THE PANOPTICON, and hope you won't miss any chance you can to get a copy in your hands. 

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO KAYLEIGH AND THE GOOD PEOPLE
AT CROWN AND RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHERS,
I HAVE A COPY OF THE PANOPTICON TO GIVE
AWAY TO ONE LUCKY FOLLOWER OF MY BLOG

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES, PLEASE
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ORDER TO COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE ENTRY
 

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT THE PANOPTICON THAT WOULD MAKE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS BOOK, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

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+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE OTHER CURRENT GIVEAWAY YOU HAVE ENTERED ON MY BLOG. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, YOU CAN COMMENT ON EACH ON SEPARATELY AND GAIN MORE ENTRIES THAT WAY

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE WAY YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU CAN COMMENT SEPARATELY AND EACH WILL COUNT AS AN ENTRY

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
 6 PM, EST, SEPTEMBER 12

 GOOD LUCK!