Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Pandemonium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Series: Book Two in the Delirium Series
Published By: Harper Collins (Feb. 28, 2012)
Source: Mindy's ARC Tour
Genre: YA Dystopian
My Rating: 5 Solid Stars!!


Goodreads Description:

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:

Heartbreak.

That is the first feeling, not word but feeling, that shot through me as I read the first chapters in Pandemonium.

Heartbreak.

I think my heart is breaking.

For Lena.

For Alex.

Maybe even a little for me because I don't want it to be so. I want a do over. I want things right. I want Lena to be happy. I want Alex to be....well, you know if you have read Delirium. I want things to magically be okay again like they only can in books and fairy tales.

I am so unbelieveably sad.

All the emotions and feelings I had at the end of reading Delirium have come rushing back and I feel my heart break in two and my eyes well. No. NO! It can't really be. Say it isn't so.

I am right there with Lena, running and chanting her chant and hoping. Always hoping.

This book is a little different than the first.

It alternates between the “then” and the “now” which took a little bit to get use to.

This is definitely a book that is filled with a lot more despair and fighting and destruction than Delirium had. It doesn't necessarily have those wonderful warm and fuzzy feelings Delirium did.

This book is more about moving on and survival and the raw truth of what Lena's life is like now and how and what she must do to survive in the world that she is now a part of.

Lena grows a lot in this book and in ways it is sad that she lost some of that innocence that she had before but in a lot of ways I think it is good too that she is becoming more strong and brave and that despite it all, she can still love and be loved and have hope.

Hope. I think that is what Lena comes to realize is most important in the Wilds. To never give up hope, and she doesn't. She is a fighter.

This book was great. Every bit as good and intriguing as the first and the ending?

Oh. My. Gosh. The Ending.

I wanted to cry out, “Really! Really! Now you through that out there? Really?”

Gah!

Oh no Lauren didn't.

But yes she did.

She gave us all a curve ball and left the ending so up in the air that you will be frustrated beyond belief and utterly sad that you don't have the next book right then and there in front of you to devour and find out what happens next.

Ballsy Ms. Oliver and so so frustrating and you know I will love every agonizing minute of waiting until the next book comes out and I can do it all over again.