Pandemonium (Delirium #2)

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

Could do without the crazy cliff hangers

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

On the brink of death, crawling through the dirt on her hands and knees, Lena has lost everything. Alex was dead, she saw them kill him, the red blooming over his shirt. Just as she is about to die, Raven, an Invalid, saves her. They nurse her back to health and teach her the ways of the Wild.She pushes the thought of Alex and the rest of her past life away, push, push, push. The old Lena is dead, the new Lena has just been born.

Pandemonium is written in two different times, then and now. Then as in the days just after Alex's death. Now as what she is now and her new self. The way this book is written is quite interesting as while she is living her life in New York she flashes back to the past where she was being reborn in to what she is now.

This book is way more exciting yet it feels lonely without Alex and Julian can't fill all of this space. This book is full of hardships, resisting, forgetting the past and living in the now. The past is dead, there is only now and the future.

I added exclamation points because I can't even stress how much I love this book. This is one of only two instances in which I loved the sequel more than the first book.

I loved the fact that we get to explore the wilds in the book and see what life's like outside of the fence. Lena meets some interesting characters, and of course gets herself in a sticky situation. I fell in love with Julian,a boy who plays a bit part in Pandemonium.

The end was a major cliffhanger, even if I saw it coming. I can't wait till Requiem so that I can see what happens. Amazing novel!

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!

Oh. My. God! This book is awesome!
1. The characters developed a lot. There were new characters, and old ones disappeared... Sometimes I missed them, it seemed like I wasn't reading Delirium #2 but Pandemonium #1... Still, the new characters were as good as the 'old' characters.
2. The story was great. It was told in Now-Then style. I had to get used to that, because you were reading 2 stories at once, but once I got used to it, it was easy to read, and it kept the stories interesting.
3. The writing style is great. In all of Oliver's books you can see that her writing style is great. It's easy to read, but it doesn't make you feel like you're reading a MG book. There weren't lots of mistakes and editing errors it in, which was super because they always keep on annoying me...
4. The ending is torture! I need to read Requiem NOW! This is the worst type of cliffhanger, the time I have to wait is so long. I might need to invent a time machine...
5. the cover is gorgeous! It represents the book very well. But I can't really explain it, because that'd be too spoilery
6. page was superb! It wasn't too quick so I did not have to re-read parts of the book, but it wasn't too slow either.


It's not easy to find a book you love as much as this one! A page-turner filled with romance, action, friendship and lots of problems.

I will stop reviewing this book right now, because I just can't really tell you about it without spoiling... *sigh*
Go read this book now. It's worth your time!!

I can't wait for the third installment!

I’m sure by now you’ve probably read quite a few reviews for Pandemonium that go something like this “I couldn’t possibly put my feelings for this book into words” or “What in the world just happened?!” And that pretty much sums it up. I’m not going to write my usual review for this one since I feel like basically anything I say would be a spoiler, but I will say that Lauren Oliver has written a solid sequel.

Everything about Pandemonium is a journey. There’s literal journeys and emotional journeys and every last one of them are spectacular. Almost everything feels entirely real, like it actually could’ve happened on its own without too much luck.

It did feel a little stagnant at some parts, but I know that it can’t always be about action and life-risking.
The Nutshell: Pandemonium is a fantastic sequel that is likely to satisfy (at least for the duration of the book) lovers of Delirium.

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!!!!!