Pandemonium (Delirium #2)

This was a great sequel to Delirium. I really enjoyed how the story flipped back and forth between 2 different times after the events of Delirium took place: "Now" and "Then". It kept the pace going and ensured something exciting was always happening.

I also liked how this book focused more on how Lena was living in the Wilds and helping in the Resistance and less on the romance. There was still plenty of romance, but it wasn't as prominent. This allowed the actual dystopian storyline to grow and take center stage, which was my favorite part of the book.

Lauren Oliver's writing blew me away again. Don't need to say any more other than that.

As for the romance, I like Julian. I think he and Lena had pretty good chemistry. It was interesting seeing their relationship play out because it was kind of a role-reversal for Lena. Before, she was the one all about the cure until Alex came along. Now she is the one convincing Julian that what society says isn't true.

I can't say I the end shocked me, but that doesn't make me any less anxious for the next book.

Overall: With the same brilliant writing and unique world, the author will blow you away with this superb sequel.

I really enjoyed this book. It was completely different from the first. I liked how it was written, it allowed the reader to watch the character grow without any of the boring stuff. The END!!!!! Omg the end has left me dying for more! If you loved the first one, this is better and I'm sure the book after this will be even better. I can't wait to read it!

This is a book worth reading and re-reading. . . It has caught me completely with its charm. . . I salute Oliver for this tremendous book. . .

Could do without the crazy cliff hangers

A forewarning: No amount of reviews will equate to proper preparation for the sheer emotion, as bloody and gaping as any severe wound, and as equally striking, living in Pandemonium. The beauty of this sequel is so horribly, tortuously perfect, as sweetly poignant as letting go of someone important, or watching a younger sibling standing up on his or her own two feet, no longer needing a guiding hand, or leaving behind family to catch one's dreams. Necessary, exhilarating, and painful. Pandemonium is a never-ending punch to the gut, a beating we continue to beg for because it's the only way to keep the story alive and close, to peel away what bars us from the heartwrenching truth. The tears are relief from the intensity, soothing the grief coiled tight inside. And then joy slips in as well, surfacing in fresh love and purpose for our wonderful heroine, but sorrow is never too far behind in tribute to the tragedy that brought us all here, a deadly, flourishing seedling that began in Delirium's end.

We remember being sick and angry, hurt swelling in staggering, destructive tsunamis at our core for the shattering final moments of Delirium, so we are rightfully wary of what flavors we'll taste in this next chapter of Lena's life. Will we find sweetness, bitterness, sourness, saltiness or a combination of the lot? Will we be able to bear savoring the journey that brought Lena to the present and the one that helped her escape the past without fighting the urge to toss Pandemonium across the room? Reasonable questions that instigate the darkest thoughts of our minds, projecting images of the horrors that could potentially unfold, though we attempt to ignore the warnings.

Alternating between chapters of then and now, we are privy to Lena's rebirth, like watching a snake shedding its old skin, the new skin vulnerable at first, then toughening over time. Even after all her loss and hurt, however, Lena never drifts away, the person she is refusing to flee and leave behind an empty, impenetrable shell incapable of anything light and beautiful. Instead she takes her pain, her anger, her needs and morphs them into the driving force that brings her to where she is today. Pushing away her old life, burying the blockage of dark memories, and shifting into a stronger girl, Lena now embodies what it means to survive—the hard voyage and the end result. The plot never suffers for all the switching to and fro Pandemonium does; it serves as the perfect frustration, wonderful, trying, and inescapable. The story veers and flies and trips, catching on a heartwrenching moment at just the right time, pinwheeling into an emotional freefall and sucking us down with it as it drops.

Questions, questions, questions, beating, beating, in our heads, on our hearts, breathing all over every turn of the story. And the romance: revival, a new breath, a desirous need, happiness after wallowing in the forever black of our—ours and Lena's—shared sorrow. We fall in love anew, unable to compare two stories, two souls, two Lenas because they're both so lovely, delivering different feelings, tearing us in jagged bewildered halves. Bleeding, always bleeding, for Lena, for extra characters essential to her life, for the ones in her past that have no place in the now. For devastating choices, heart-numbing deaths, the emotionless herd of civilians that can't care, zombies that don't eat flesh but the love of their children, the untouched youth, the dying and deformed, the incurables.

Lauren's words, so fragile and flowing in a hardened world, with heartless people, are throbbing feelings that seep in and find room in our stuffed, close-to-brimming hearts. The importance of this fight for love, for choices and freedom, so profound in the stories of each new person we 'meet,' in relationships just formed. Hearts battered, souls weary, expressions seemingly immune to shock now, hope lifted, we stumble into the ending and shock once again takes us, punches us, pushes us to our knees, because the unthinkable drains us of thought, breath, and heartbeats.

Once, Lauren Oliver damaged us in Delirium, not quite destroying, but with those final sentences in Pandemonium, she masterfully wields a dagger of distress and impact, targets what's left of us, and becomes the perfect murderer.

Originally posted at Paranormal Indulgence, 3/6/12

Phew. Lauren Oliver really had her work cut out for her in this follow-up to, Delirium. Not only do we see Lana's character grow immensely and really come into her own, but we also see the introduction of an almost entirely new cast of characters.

There are so many things that I would love to go into about Alex, Julian, and Lana's mom...but that would be giving away just too many potential spoilers; and it would totally ruin the experience for anyone about to read the book.

The book is written in Lana's present reality, but it also flashes back to scenes from her past. Take your time reading this book as it follows Lana from "Now" (as a member of the Resistance in NY) to "Then" (as she rediscovers who she really is in the Wilds). Lauren Oliver packed a lot of punch in this book and, at times, you can almost feel the emotion rolling off of the pages like a thick fog. You will feel the weight pressed against your chest at times during this book because poor Lana is put to so many tests, both emotionally and physically.

Let me just say that by the end of the book I was (literally) sitting on the edge of my bed, wide-eyed, and by the last words, I was cursing out loud (and, I will admit I wanted to smack Lauren Oliver - sorry Lauren, I love you!, but that was my first reaction) because the book was over and I cannot believe that Lauren Oliver expects us to sit and wait until February, 2013 for Requiem to come out so we can find out what happens next!!!!!

Pandemonium was an enjoyable, exciting, fast-paced book. I did find it a bit predictable - I wasn't nearly as surprised as Lena at the twists and turns of the plot - but that didn't lessen my enjoyment of it at all. And as much as I loved Alex in Delirium and I wasn't sure initially if I would be able to accept if Lena moved on, I found that I loved Julian just as much as Alex. I appreciated how the evolution of Lena and Julian's relationship mirrored that of Lena and Alex - but with Lena's role reversed.

Ultimately, I thought Pandemonium was a great set-up for the third book in the trilogy. I anticipate the conclusion to the Delirium Trilogy will contain lots of action, a likely love triangle (which is overdone in YA books, but in a world where the entire plot focuses around the benefits and drawbacks of falling in love, it probably can't be avoided), and Lena's deeper involvement with the resistance. It answered some questions set up in Delirium while asking several more. And it introduced us to some great new characters.

My frustrations with the book were minor. I missed the characters from Delirium (but I suspect some of them will pop up in the 3rd book). I couldn't understand how just a couple days lost in the woods resulted in Lena needing weeks to recuperate, considering how physically fit she was at the end of Delirium. And several of Lena's great plans just seemed far too simple (especially in the couple parts where she has to deal with key codes).

But overall, none of that was enough to take away from my enjoyment of the book. The storytelling was excellent, and I found myself completely immersed in the characters and world that Ms. Oliver created. I'm intrigued and excited to see how she wraps up Lena's story in book 3. Highly recommend!

Lauren Oliver's Pandemonium follows hard on the heels of its prequel, Delirium. For those who haven't read the first book, read no further. In fact, do yourself a favor and wait to read the first till the whole series is done. Because you will not be satisfied with Pandemonium's conclusion. It requires more, and still more. The end of the book is so quaking with the need for more, in fact, that it's hard to write about the rest of it without mentioning the book's final moments. But we will try.

Lena has escaped over the fence of her home in Portland, Maine. She meant to escape with Alex, the one who first taught her about the Wilds outside of the only world she knows. The one who first showed her that even if love is a disease, the deliria is worth it. But he was wounded, left behind to the fire, the guns, to death. And so she has shut her heart off from her old life and any memories that might linger. After days of running, she is found half dead by Raven, an Invalid who has been leading a group of uncureds in the Wilds, moving from homestead to homestead just to survive.

Lena becomes one of them whether she wants to or not, and hardens, growing more and more like Raven and the other fierce survivors on the far side of the wall. They join the Resistance, and Lena finds herself faced with the daunting task of living among the cureds, pretending to be one of them, following the dictates of the Resistance without question. It is not the life she was looking for when she crossed to the other side, but it is the only one left to her. She crossed for love, but love has been lost.

Maybe.

The first third of this book is slow. Painfully slow, though that may have been my general exhaustion toward dystopia in general and series in particular. Then all of a sudden, just over a third of the way through, everything gets kicked up a notch and you're on the edge of your seat with curiosity and tension and a foreboding that tells you precisely what's going on even though you really, really don't want it to be true. This isn't remarkably descriptive, but let's just say there are explosions and sickness and fire and hidden codes and aliases and kidnapping and torture and secrets whispered in the dark. Lena hardens and then unhardens and then hardens again, and you feel for her the whole way through.

That doesn't change the fact that when I closed this book I made a half-hearted vow never to begin a series again before the entire thing has been released. It had only been a few months since I read Delirium, but I had still forgotten much. Most importantly, I'd forgotten the love I had for the characters, and that's something very hard to revive en media res. The slowness of the first part was probably due in large measure to the fact that I had forgotten to care. It is my fault, of course, but it certainly didn't help Lena much.

With the NEW Lena comes new adventure. This books turned me on my head and tugged at my heart. Literally making my heart race during times I thought she was going to meet her mother. I cried when people were lost and I laughed during the few happy times that surfaced during the time of Pandemonium.
I grew close to many of the new characters and have downloaded the new eBook of Hana. I miss her as a BFF too. Lauren Oliver has brought out so many different emotions in me throughout Delirium and Pandemonium, that is rarely done.
I will be on the edge of my seat waiting the third installment.

I can't wait for the third installment!