When I finished Delirium, I couldn’t stop thinking about this world and its characters. On our left, just off the highway, is the city: billboards and dismantled streetlights and ugly apartment buildings with purple-gray faces, bruised complexions turned toward the horizon. She includes poetic descriptions and sensory details that heighten the emotion of a given scene, as when Lena finds herself on the run: She avoids clichés in her writing (even if she succumbs to clichéd ideas of love), and her dialogue feels fresh and natural. Oliver cleverly sets up one surprise within another you’re so focused on the first development that you’re off-guard with the second, bigger twist-great timing.Īs in the first book, Oliver’s prose is fantastic. But the ways in which these twists are presented are exciting.

The twists themselves are not surprises-it would have been disappointing if they hadn’t happened, since that is the direction clearly set up in the first book. Does Oliver think that’s what all readers are looking for in YA, or was it just a horrible coincidence?ĭespite these weaknesses, Pandemonium did not lack suspense. Speaking of borrowing a bit too heavily from other books… I was distracted by the many traces of Hunger Games: navigating a love triangle, resisting a dystopian world, finding oneself to be a pawn of the Resistance, even hiding out in the sewer. Why throw this in? It felt cheap.” Farrah also points out the similarity of the prison sequence to V for Vendetta-a very good point. Oliver’s writing is strong, the plot is strong, and both Alex and Lena are strong. As in, remember Alex?Īs Farrah at I Eat Words points out: “I thought it was quite unnecessary to create a love triangle type of thing. Sure, there are no long walks together on the beach in the Wilds, but love isn’t just butterflies in the stomach it’s a commitment. In fact, Oliver propagates traditional romance-novel ideas of love. Their romance is rushed-they are pushed together in prison-and their “love” is a hothouse flower. I suppose you need a love interest in a book about the danger and power of love, but it just didn’t work for me. The romance between Lena and the new man, Julian, seems a little contrived. That means Oliver needs to rely on the strength of her characters and plot-and there were some definite misses for me there. But in the second book, the conceit began wearing thin. Part of what appealed to me about Delirium was Oliver’s creativity-the very concept of love as a disease, and how that would affect society. So, with all of the build-up, maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I wasn’t crazy about the second book. The buzz around its release didn’t help School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews both gave Pandemonium a starred review, with Kirkus naming it one of the best books of the year. I read a review copy of the first book, and had to wait more than a year for the next installment-as my appreciation for Delirium deepened and my hopes for Pandemonium rose perhaps too high. I loved Delirium-it was one of my favorite books in 2011. But what will Lena do when she’s confronted with a new love interest? And what will happen when her old and new worlds collide? Her new friends aren’t as friendly as they may seem, and Lena finds herself in deeper and deeper trouble.ĭespite losing Alex-in fact, because of it-the idea of a world without love is impossible. But as she dives deeper in the cult-like world of the Resistance, she finds a world that is threatening in new and unexpected ways. She’s no longer a dewy-eyed teen but a lean mean rager against the machine. In the Wilds, I start to build, and to climb. It is hard and deep and angular, a system of blockades. It will feed you and at the same time turn you to rot. In the fraught months after losing Alex, Lena explains: In a world where love is a disease, hatred is a tempting alternative.

It’s not long before she has bigger things to think about, though the resisters who have taken in Lena begin plotting their next mission, and Lena wants in.Įach chapter alternates between “then” and “now,” and the juxtaposition emphasizes how Lena evolves and hardens. Dehydrated, thirsty, and injured, she’s on the edge of defeat when she’s rescued by a small band of those whom she used to fear: Invalids.Īs Lena recovers, she quickly learns how to survive in this new world-one where the memory of Alex constantly haunts her. He was gunned down, caught in flames, unable to cross into the Wilds with Lena, and now she’s on her own. For more on that book, check out my enthusiastic review.Īlex is gone.

Warning: This review contains spoilers for Pandemonium ’s prequel, Delirium.

Pandemonium lauren oliver alex