Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Series: Delirium, Book Two

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Format: Hardback

Published: 1^st March 2012

Number of Pages: 336

Book: For Review*

Genre: Dystopia, Romance, Science-Fiction, Thriller-Suspense, Mystery, Action-Adventure, YA

Recommended Age: 12+

Contains: Violence, Death, Swearing, Alcohol References

No Drug References

Author's Blog: Lauren Oliver

Love, the deadliest of all deadly things.

It kills you when you have it.

And when you don’t. humour

“I’m pushing aside the memory of my nightmare, pushing aside thoughts of Alex, pushing aside though sot Hana and my old school, push, push, push, like Raven taught me to do.  The old life is dead.  But the old Lena is dead too.  I buried her.  I left her beyond a fence, behind a wall of smoke and flame.”

Pandemonium is a poignant, explosive, recklessly romantic and utterly heartbreaking novel.  Like Delirium, the first in the compelling trilogy, it will take you to the very edge.  That’s all you need to know.  We’ll let Lena do the rest of the talking…

                                                                   Review:

Lena Haloway had a plan.  She would run away from the loveless society with her true love, Alex.  Only, he didn’t make it, and Lena is all alone in the Wilds.  Feverish and close to death, Lena is taken in by Raven, an Invalid and member of the Resistance.  She tries to stay strong, to forget about her old life, as she struggles to adapt to life in the Wilds.

But that was then.

Now Lena is an undercover part of the Resistance.

But leaving your old life and love behind is harder than Lena ever imagined, even when you have a whole new purpose, a whole new life and perhaps more as well…

I adored Delirium.  I felt so much throughout the book and was left desperate for more.  And, my God, did Pandemonium lives up to all my expectations – exceed them, actually!  Once I started reading, I just couldn’t stop.  It was amazing, beyond words.  I felt every moment, saw every single thing and was left going out of my mind, desperate for more, more, more!

And Lena, oh how I’ve missed you!  I loved seeing the two sides of Lena – the “Then” and the “Now”.  The “Then” Lena seemed so vulnerable, yet unbreakable.  Meanwhile, the “Now” Lena was impossibly strong and determined.  She just surprised me completely with her resilience, her hardness, her new-found unshakable strength, her dedication to the cause.  While she loved so much, she hated equally.  Both Lenas were so strong, yet so lost…  I love this girl, seriously!

Julian Fineman, son of the head of DFA – Deliria-Free America.  He was so strong.  And so sweet! He had this feeling of vulnerability, of innocence, that just made me want to protect him.  I don’t know why.  And as much as I loved and missed Alex, I really did love Julian too.

I loved the relationship between Lena and Julian: how Lena was now the one opening Julian’s eyes, as Alex once did for her.  I loved seeing how their relationship changed from mistrust and loathing on Lena’s part to friendship and trust, maybe more…  The pressure, the chemistry, the heat just built up and up and man, I felt it!  Yet despite this and how much I loved Julian, I was just screaming: ‘But I want Alex.  I miss Alex…’

Even more than that, I loved all of the new characters to pieces; they gave the story a whole new feel, a whole new dimension.  I loved all the Invalids, the resistance, especially little Sarah and Blue, Hunter, Tack and most of all Raven.  Raven was kinda brash and to-the-point, totally in command of everyone and the homestead and one of my favorite characters ever!  She was firm, yet fair and sweet – and I really loved all of her mantras and protectiveness, and the way we slowly got to know the real Raven. 

Again, I must say: My God, how amazing this world is!  It’s so three-dimensional; it’s real and alive in my head.  So beautiful and so horrible.  I still haven’t gotten over the whole love-as-a-disease thing.  I mean, how did Lauren think of that?  It’s so brilliant, ingenious.  And I loved all the different aspects of the world we get to see, all the different people, even if it wasn’t all nice! 

I adored the writing in Delirium and I loved the writing in Pandemonium even more.  Beautiful, raw and powerful; once more I felt everything Lena felt, saw everything she saw.  There was just non-stop action and I loved every second.  And the gorgeous writing was made all the more brilliant by the split narratives – Now and Then.  It was confusing to begin with, but I quickly came to love this double timeline, eating it all up, unable to put it down.  This split POV made the plot even more amazing!  It was intense, action-packed, amazing.  And the ending?  Oh.  My.  God!  I NEED Requiem.  I’ll go INSANE if I can’t read it soon!  Miss Oliver?  Man, you’ve done it again!

Yet, despite the intensity and new storyline, I found Pandemonium just as emotional as Delirium, which made me laugh as I cried – something I did a lot.  Pandemonium was emotional, but in a whole new and wonderfully powerful way.  I loved every second, hated who Lena hated, loved who she loved, missed everyone she missed until it hurt.  And God, it was amazing…

Addictive, powerful, emotional, intense, compelling and beautiful, Pandemonium is a book you must read.  Even if you only read two books, ever, read this and Delirium!

Star Rating:
5 SQUILLION Out of 5…  Ok, 5 Out of 5.

Read this book if you liked:

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Matched by Ally Condie

Heart-Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year ReadingChallenge 2012 (Hosted by Book ChickCity)

Happy Reading

Megan

* This book was received from Hodder & Stoughton in exchange for an honest review

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Series: Delirium, Book One

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Format: Paperback

Published: 2011

Number of Pages: 400

Book: Bought

Genre: Fantasy, Dystopia, Science-Fiction, Romance, YA

“They say that the cure for love will make me happy and safe forever.  And I’ve always believed them.

“Until now.

“Now everything has changed.

“Now I’d rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years suffocated by a lie.”

There was a time when love was the most important thing in the world.  People would go to the end of the earth to find it.  They would tell lies for it.  Even kill for it.

Then, at last, they found the cure.

Now, everything is different.  Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen.  Lena Haloway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured.  A life without love it a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But then, with only ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable...

Review:

Wow.  I really don’t know what else to say. 

Well, maybe this:

Have you ever read a book so beautiful it physically hurts?  A book that has you laughing one moment, crying the next?  A book that makes you feel every single emotion the character does?

Delirium is that book.

As I read, I found my eyes were prickling with tears, even as I felt like smiling at some little thing in the plot.  It’s left me with an ache, a longing, a need for the next in the series.  I have to know what happens. 

I’m not sure how to explain everything Delirium made me feel.  All I can say is that all the emotions Lena felt, I felt.  And, more importantly, they all felt real, like they were my own.

Plus, the whole world is extraordinary: Love is a disease: amor delirium nervosa.  It’s something that has to be cured, eradicated no matter what.  And everything is set for you – the government decides everything.  They choose jobs, partners, whole lives, and you get no say.  It’s a horrible world.  No love: parents without emotions; no love for their children; some even killing their own child.  There are raids, regulators, phone taps, always searching for the same thing: sympathizers, Invalids, love.  And worse: you’re trapped.  There’s America, and then there’s the Wilds, where sympathizers flee to, and Invalids live.  It's forbidden, and you can get killed, even if there's only the smallest chance you're a sympathizer.  It’s just the fact that being in love, having feelings, makes you an “Invalid” that gets to me.  I said it before and I’ll say it again: horrible.

All the characters were absolutely unforgettable; I feel like I actually know all of them.  The book is told from Lena’s point of view, and I have to say the writing was beautiful.  Lena started out as a good, perfect citizen, before slowly turning around into a rebel, breaking every rule.  She was told from a young girl that without love, you’ll be safe, there will be no pain, and she longed for the day she’d be cured.  But then, she began to realize the truth, and I really liked seeing how love changed everything for her, how she grew as a character.  She’s so strong and brave – especially compared to how she was at the beginning – and by the end I loved her.  Her past was intriguing, and it was something that had weighed heavily on her for all her life.  It was pure genius from Lauren Oliver how she let everything slowly unfold, and I didn’t see any of it coming.  The way Lena looks at everything was interesting - after all, in a world where ‘love’ is a killable offence, everything is completely different, and far, far more dangerous.

Alex... I fell in love with him.  Of all the characters, he was the one that really jumped out at me.  He was amazing, strong, beautiful, perfect.  And his past was even more fascinating than Lena’s was – so much so that I found myself racing to find out more about him – about everyone.  The love between him and Lena was stunning and pure: real.  The bond they shared was just incredible, and so beautiful.  I honestly believed in their love, unlike the romance in a lot of YA books nowadays.

Oh, and I have to mention Lena’s friend Hana: she was truly the best friend a girl could ever have.  I loved her sense of humour, her bravery, her loyalty.  She’d do anything for Hana, and was even better for it.  I think she must have been the one that made me laugh most.

Delirium was another emotional-rollercoaster, and so compelling I was up until three-something in the morning just so I could get to the end and know what would happen.  Plus, the whole world was amazing, and so imaginative it’s untrue.  A place without love?  Who else has thought of that, who else has thought to use love as a disease?  “The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it when you don’t.”  No book I’ve ever read has spoken of love like that.  It was so new, so unusual, so horrible, so real.  I cried bucket loads throughout the story; the writing was so full of emotions it was almost overwhelming, but in a good way.  The pace is perfect, the suspense grew with every chapter, and I literally sped through the book at break-neck speed.

I must have felt everything possible reading Delirium: love, fear, devastating sadness, chills, shock, scenes that were so touching I know they’re going to stay in my mind for a long time.

This whole book will stay with me, actually, and so will the characters.  I’m praying for the next in the series, and am going to be counting down the days until it comes out.  This is an amazing book that I honestly can’t recommend enough.  This is a book for a “Have To Read” list. 

Someone said that they mourned this book once they’d finished, and I finally understand why. 

P.S. Can I just say how much I love the cover?  I didn't get the birds on it at the beginning, but after reading the book it makes perfect sense.  And the slogan: "What if love were a disease?" had me hooked.  You can see the girl through the letters, and she looks sad, lost.  It's beautiful.  The colours really suit the story as well.

Star Rating:
5 Out of 5

 

Read this book if you liked:

The Decleration by Gemma Malley

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Matched by Ally Condie

XVI by Julia Karr

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

A-Z Reading Challenge (Hosted by Book Junky)

Teaser Tuesday (#4)

Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•  Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser this week is from Delirium by Lauren Oliver... and one from Before I Die by Jenny Downham.  Probably against the rules, but technically I'm reading them both...  Anyway, here are my teasers:

From Delirium by Lauren Oliver, Chapter Fourteen, Page 205

"Free.  They were totally free.  I'd thought that nothing was free in Portland, but I was wrong.  There were always the birds."

From Before I Die by Jenny Downham, Chapter Twelve, Page 77

But the moment of forgetting makes my heart beat fast as a rabbit's, because I actually forgot who I was for a minute.  I became no one, and I know it'll happen again.

 

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Synopsis From Goodreads:

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.
But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

I am loving this book so much.  And the cover?  Gorgeous. 

My review should be coming soon!

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Synopsis From Blurb:

"It's really going to happen.  They said it would, but this is quicker than anyone thought."

Everyone has to die.  We all know it.

With only a few months of life left, sixteen-year-old Tessa knows it better than most.

She's made a list though - ten things she want to do before she dies.  Number one is sex.  Starting tonight.

But getting what you want isn't easy.  And getting what you want doesn't always give you what you need.  And sometimes the most unexpected things become important.

Uplifting, life-affirming, joyous - this extraordinary novel celebrates what it is to be alive by confronting what it's really like to die.

This book is so beautiful so far, and I has made me laugh more than one, as well as want to cry. 

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.