Review for Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

WARNING
This is the second book in the Delirium series and so there are spoilers from the first book in this series.

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Release Date: 1st March 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Romance
Rating: 4/5 stars
Source: Received from the publisher for review

Amazon Summary:
"Love, the deadliest of all deadly things.
It kills you when you have it.
And when you don't.

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.

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
Pandemonium felt like an entirely different book from the first book in this series Delirium. Delirium ended with Lena escaping Portland to go into The Wilds heartbreakingly without Alex after he is captured. Pandemonium is told in alternating chapters beginning with Now, in the present time Lena is in New York City as an undercover member of the resistance scouting for information on the DFA (Delirium Free America,) a pro-cure organisation, to help the resistance discover their plans and bring them down. In the alternative Then chapters we get to go back to where we left Lena in Delirium in The Wilds and follow her journey to see how she ended up where she is today.

In Pandemonium everything has changed completely since Delirium most importantly Lena. At the beginning of the book Lena talks about being reborn in The Wilds and I completely agree with that statement. Lena has evolved completely from the well behaved law abiding citizen she was when we first met her in Delirium and is now strong and hardened after her time in The Wilds. To go along with this new Lena she has a new home in The Wilds and new friends and family too in particular Raven who’s like a mother, sister, best friend and mentor all rolled into one for Lena and who I absolutely loved. Like Lena we leave her old life behind the fence and emerge into a new chapter of her life.

Whilst Delirium had a very romantic feel to it Pandemonium is more of a survival story with more action. This was a nice improvement for me as despite loving Delirium I did find it a little slow at times but Lauren Oliver really picks up the pace with this book.

The only thing that I didn’t not necessarily not like but which drove me a little bit crazy was the lack of Alex. Alex is presumed dead and this book sees Lena grieve and come to terms with that and slowly move on and discover a new love. This part of the book broke my heart for Alex, for Lena and for what should have been and whilst I liked Lena’s new love interest and that surprising twist to the story I couldn’t help but think he’s not Alex.

Despite the action and suspense this book at its heart remains a beautiful tragic love story this time dealing with lost love. Like all of Lauren Oliver’s books Pandemonium is gorgeously written and moving and whilst it’s very different to Delirium I enjoyed it just as much. One thing that Delirium and Pandemonium have in common though is that they both have world shattering endings. Just like at the end of Delirium my heart broke all over again leaving me in painful need for the next and final book to this series Requiem. I have no idea where Lauren Oliver’s going to take us next after that ending I really don’t, but I am excited to find out.