Lauren Oliver is an amazing writer and her books have a certain feel to it that I can not explain. Nobody writes like she does, that's for sure.
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.
Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.
My Review:
Beautiful,heartbreaking, heart stopping, and action packed. Pandemonium did not disappoint as we follow Lena through the Wilds. I felt so much pain and emotion throughout the whole entire book.
"Alex is alive. Push,push,push. I run until my feet are swollen, until my toes bleed and blister. Raven screams at me even as she is preparing buckets of cold water for my feel, tells me to be careful, warns me about the dangers of infection. Antibiotics are not easy to come by here.
The next morning I wrap my toes in cloth, stuff my feet into shoes, and run again. If you can...just a little bit farther...just a little bit faster...you'll see, you'll see, you'll see. Alex is alive.
I am not crazy. I know he isn't, not really. As soon as my runs are done and I am hobbling back to the church basement, it hits me like a wall: the stupidity of it all, the pointlessness. Alex is gone, and no amount of running or pushing or bleeding will bring him back.
I know it. But here's the thing: When I'm running, there's always this split second when the pain is ripping through me and I can hardly breathe and all I see is color and blur--and in that split second, right as the pain crests, and becomes too much, and there's whiteness going through me, I see something to my left, a flicker of color (auburn hair, burning, a crown of leaves)--and I know then, too, that if I only turn my head he'll be there, laughing, watching me, holding out his arms.
I don't ever turn my head to look. of course. But one day I will. One day I will, and he'll be back, and everything will be okay.
And until then: I run." (Pandemonium pg. 51 on nook)
That whole page was so powerful to me. It overtook everything and I just broke down and cried. You see, what Lena has is hope. It is all any of us could ever have. But Alex died saving her life and yet, she still has hope that she will see him again and that he isn't dead. Which if you have read the book, you know what REALLY happens. I will not say to those who have not read the story, but let me tell you...that ending...wow! Oliver knows how to keep her readers begging for more.
While I loved the new and fierce Lena with her new life. I found myself missing her old and "simple" life. Such as Hana and of course Alex. If they could see the way Lena is now, they would probably not even recognize her. You do get to meet some new people in Pandemonium but I honestly was not at all attached to them. One of the first girls Lena meets in the Wilds, Raven, really irked me. I know she had to be strong to survive but, she still annoyed me with the ways she would treat Lena.
So Lena has a new love interest...
...enough said about that...
Overall thoughts:
If you do not enjoy the cliff hangers at the end of books, I suggest you wait to read until the third book comes out. Anyways this is a lovely second book to a wonderful series(or trilogy). I enjoyed seeing Lena change into an independent bad*A. I can' WAIT until the next one:)
