Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Pandemonium (Delirium #2)

Author: Lauren Oliver

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: February 28, 2012

Source: Purchased 

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

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.

When I read Delirium last year I fell in love and the ending left me completely heartbroken. So you can imagine I was eagerly anticipating the release of Pandemonium. When it came out, I rushed to the bookstore and started reading right away. And once again I fell in love and was left completely heartbroken.

Now that she is in the Wilds, Lena has to learn how to survive on her own. And without Alex. But Lena isn't completely alone and soon enough she is sent to New York City on a resistance assignment. But that assignment doesn't go exactly as planned, and Lena finds herself getting kidnapped and locked in a room with Julian Fineman. As she tries to find a way to escape, Lena finds herself once again questioning everything he has been told. And the more time she spends with Julian, the less she seems to be thinking about Alex. But Lena isn't sure if she can go back to being a person who can love.

I've probably said it before, but I'll say it again: Lauren Oliver is a master of her craft. Right from the first page of Pandemonium I was taken back to the world I had come to love in Delirium. Not only that, but I was also thrown into the story, at first not really knowing what was happening. In this book, Lauren Oliver chose to write two storylines: one taking place immediately after Lena escaped to the Wilds and one that takes place in Lena's present. These two storylines alternate from chapter to chapter and it only served to make me want to read more of the story. And of course this wouldn't be a Lauren Oliver book if the ending didn't leave me completely heartbroken. Because it did. And now I have to wait a year to find out what happens next.

Once again, I loved seeing Lena's growth over the course of the book. Much like with Delirium, Lena was a completely different person by the end of the book. I loved seeing the transformation happen in her. But Lena wasn't the only character to go through a transformation, there's also Julian. And Julian is someone I didn't really know what to make of at first. But the more I got to know him, the more I liked him--more than I ever thought I would. And more than anything I loved the person he became by the end of the book. The addition of new characters was definitely something I enjoyed about Pandemonium, though I wish I could have gotten to know some of them better.

Pandemonium most definitely didn't disappoint me, and I may have loved it even more than Delirium. Lauren Oliver really knows her stuff, and she once again left me completely heartbroken yet I would have begged for more.