Pandemonium (Delirium Series #2)
In Delirium, the goal was to get out, now in Pandemonium, the goal for Lena is to survive. Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver, the second book in the Delirium trilogy, answers the question “What do you do after escaping the dystopian government?” and the answer seems to be “Just keep running.” This fast-paced dystopian YA tells the story of Lena learning how to fight against the government that took everything from her and tries to just keep taking.
As you may recall, I started the Delirium trilogy because the first two books were available on audio from my library, and it’s a fairly limited selection ;-). This review is for the second book, Pandemonium, so it will have major spoilers for the first book, so instead you should go check out my review of Delirium here. Now that that’s taken care of, let’s get down to the good stuff :D
Goodreads | Amazon
Title: Pandemonium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Length: 10 hours 34 minutes (9 discs)
Genre-ish: Dystopia YA
Rating: ★★★★☆ - mostly epic, ending stumbled
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. – Goodreads
Strengths:
- I really liked the Wilds and Resistance setting in Pandemonium better than Lena trying to fit in in Delirium, they just made for a much more interesting story.
- Lena has become so much stronger and a much more likable character for me. I think the growth was completely reasonable as well, given what she has gone through…. Yey for kick-butt girls :D.
- Given the plot of Pandemonium, we learn a lot more about the world outside of the borders and the Resistance, which was pretty awesome, since it was a bit dreary within in the controlled lands ;-).
Weaknesses:
- Delirium and Pandemonium have the same narrator, but she has switched the pronunciation of Hanna… probably to the correct pronunciation, but still, gah!
- The female narrator just didn’t pull off the male voices very well, making the love interest less appealing to me than I think he would be if I read the books without the annoying voice in my ears….
- Pandemonium is actually two story-lines “Then” and “Now” that switch every couple of chapters and don’t really have any epic connection that warrants their separation that I could see. I think it would have worked just fine for the story-line to proceed in chronological order….
- Wow, that ending was so melodramatic *twitches* I’m so much less excited for Requiem now because of the last few pages of Pandemonium… seriously…. For those of you who have read Pandemonium, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, and I honestly like the outcome of the ending, but it just felt so ridiculously contrived and “HEY LOOK PLOT TWIST” to me…. Like a Vader is your father moment….
Summary:
Pandemonium is way better than Delirium in my humble opinion ;-) but that could be because of the setting and type of story that interests me (in fact I’m pretty sure that’s main reason). That still means that Pandemonium, while having some strange flaws, is awesome and you should keep reading the trilogy and eagerly await Requiem with me even if the ending also makes you go WTF?? I’m just hoping Requiem isn’t too much like that ending >.>
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