Review: Pandemonium (Delirium #2)

Pandemonium (Delirium #2)

Lauren Oliver

Published By: Harper Teen

Publication Date: February 28, 2012

Date Read: May 19, 2020

Genre: YA - Dystopia

Source: Bought

Format: Hardback

Pages: 375

 

From Goodreads:

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. In this electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller Delirium, Lauren Oliver sets Lena on a dangerous course that hurtles through the unregulated Wilds and into the heart of a growing resistance movement. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

"The flip side of freedom is this: When you're completely free, you're also completely on your own."

Pandemonium was a great sequel to Delirium. I had heard a lot of mixed things about this one and that is probably one of the reasons it took me so long to pick this one up. I didn't think it was anywhere near as bad as some people made it out to be. It's very different to Delirium and I felt it had a different vibe than the first book did and maybe that's why people didn't like it. I personally really enjoyed this one.

Pandemonium picks up right where Delirium left off, with Lena alone trying to make it in the Wilds after Alex was captured and presumably killed at the end of book 1. One thing I really enjoyed about this one was that we got a whole host of new characters in this book. I really enjoyed getting to know these new characters who were on the side of fighting for love. They aren't perfect characters and they really straddle the line between good guy and bad guy. They are good because they want people to be free and have the freedom to love... but they're also willing to do some really bad stuff for their cause. I personally loved these morally grey characters and I was so taken away on their journey. 

One thing I loved about this book was the amount of character growth that Lena goes through in this book. She is definitely not the same girl that we saw in Delirium. Being thrown into the Wilds by herself really changed her and she is much tougher and stronger for it. Everything she went through in this book should have made her crumble but instead she persevered and grew stronger throughout it. I really loved the introduction of Raven in Pandemonium as well. She is as tough as they get and she definitely gives Lena the tough-love approach. I really enjoyed seeing her in this one and I can't wait to see more from her in the next book.

I really missed Alex in this book. He is absent for pretty much the entire book and it killed me seeing Lena mourning for him and believing he is dead. I'm not totally crazy about the love triangle that I can see developing but I am looking forward to seeing how it all ends in the third and final book. If you enjoyed the first book then I recommend that you give this one a go. It was really enjoyable.

"It occurs to me, then, that  people themselves are full of tunnels: winding, dark spaces and caverns; impossible to know all the places inside of them. Impossible to even imagine."