Author: Lauren Oliver
Series: #2 - Delirium
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: February 28th, 2012
My Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
I'm pushing aside the memory of my nightmare,
pushing aside thoughts of Alex,
pushing aside thoughts of 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.
Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.
My Review:
Pandemonium was a slight let down. I was looking for more information about Lena and Alex, and it was almost completely left out of this book. I was furious with this, and the world brought into frame, was completely different. I was happy for this change and it’s probably the best redeeming factor in the book.This time around, Lauren Oliver decides to go a different route then traditional chapters; she uses a Now – Then setup for the “chapters.” At first it took me a bit to get used to the jumping back and forth and trying to catch the small little time lapses between the jumps in the timelines. However, I think this was done rather well. The world in the past when Lena deals with the loss of Alex and moves on slowly as the group of Invalids or Wilds lives everyday life, and is forced to move due to winter and other extraneous factors, mirrored with the hidden lifestyle and the new Lena in the current timeline. I enjoyed it in the end, but I wouldn't do it again in Requiem.
Lauren Oliver does a great job creating a world, the Wilds kept me asking for more. The inner workings of the city-scape wowed me with every turn. I believe that’s what Lauren Oliver does best, take the world we see in everyday and pretty much take for granted, and manages to get it down to paper in such a poetic and imaginative way that everyone understand the hustle and bustle of the city. The betrayal and torturous world Lena and Julia were involved in, and the harsh and unforgiving wilds both kept me going, more so than the relationship did this time around.
Lena, her character in this book was hard to discern. I've said this over and over, I HATE LOVE TRIANGLES. Julian I really disliked, and wanted Alex to be the one and only. Julian was too easy, he is just too off. There is something there with Julian that makes him too weak, to unrealistic to be a real character. Lena despite my wishes and desires does go into this love triangle, well I guess you wouldn't call it one cause she is under the impression that Alex is dead, but still... I disliked the relationship between Julian and Lena, it just seemed to... easy I guess. There was something off with it that didn't get me involved or want them to be together.
Overall it was a great book, the book ends in a cliffhanger. Giving Requiem a good base to start on; I can't wait. But... I hate the ending to Pandemonium, for obvious reasons.
