Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver Series: Delirium #2
Published by HarperTeen (2.1.2012)
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 375 pages
Source: Library
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"So what was your name before?" I say, and she freezes, her back to me. "Before you came to the Wilds, I mean."
For a moment she stands there.
Then she turns around.
"You might as well get used to it now," she says with quite intensity.
"Everything you were, the life you had, the people you knew... dust."
She shakes her head and says, a little more firmly, "There is no before. There is only now, and what comes next."
After falling in love, Lena and Alex flee their oppressive society where love is outlawed and everyone must receive the "cure" - an operation that makes them immune to the delirium of love - but Lena alone manages to find her way to a community of resistance fighters. Although she is bereft without the boy she loves, her struggles seem to be leading her toward a new love.
My thoughts
The storytelling was great (of course), switching back and forth between Now and Then. I liked that they were broken up, giving you only a little of the story at once to keep you guessing. Lena’s journey was difficult, desperate, and sometimes heart-wrenching as she fought for survival.
The characters were great too, they each had their own individual personalities and felt very realistic. I didn’t really form opinions about a lot of them, only Raven and Julian. I had mixed feelings about Raven. While I think she had good intentions, there were times when she could have executed those intentions a little better. Most of those times I just wanted to slap her. I really liked Julian, though…he was a very pleasant surprise and an unlikely companion. While I liked Lena in Delirium, I had mixed feelings about her this time around. And frankly, after finishing it, I’m not sure I liked her at all. I feel like she kind of betrayed Alex’s memory.
I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to spoil anything, but Pandemonium was definitely a gripping and realistic story filled with action, danger, and betrayal.
Favorite Quote
Grief is like sinking, like being buried. I am in water the tawny color of kicked-up dirt. Every breath is full of choking. There is nothing to hold on to, no sides, no way to claw myself up. There is nothing to do but let go.
Let go. Feel the wight all around you, feel the squeezing of your lungs, the slow, low pressure. Let yourself go deeper. There is nothing but bottom. There is nothing but the taste of metal, and the echoes of old things, and days that look like darkness.
Overall Assessment
Previous Books
I just finished reading Delirium a couple weeks ago and loved it. I can’t wait to read Pandemonium! It makes me a little nervous that you felt Lena “betrayed Alex’s memory.” As I haven’t read it yet, I don’t know why that is, but if it is because she has feelings for someone else, well she is young and anyone we truly love would want us to move on. However, I have a theory that Alex isn’t really gone (maybe just wishful thinking on my part) so if this is true it would make a possible annoying triangle in the third book. If it is because she doesn’t fight or live in the way he would want her to, that would make me sad. Thanks for the review!