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.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Delirium (Delirium #1)

Author: Lauren Oliver

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: February 3, 2011

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

Dystopians are well on their way to becoming my favorite genre, especially within YA. I had already read Lauren Oliver’s debut Before I Fall and thought it was amazing. Now after having read Delirium, I am even more blown away by this fantastic author and her books.

Lena has always been told that love is dangerous, a disease that can result in destruction. She saw what it did to her mother and then to her sister, but the cure makes it all better. Now Lena is counting down the days until she gets the cure and then start the peaceful life that comes with being cured. But just weeks before Lena was supposed to receive the cure, she meets Alex. Now Lena questions everything she has ever been told about love and a day she was looking for has become one she dreads. But what should Lena do when she realizes she has been lied to her whole life. Will she give up everything she ever wanted all for love?

Lauren Oliver is a phenomenal writer and knows how to write a story that will really move her readers. Delirium was no different. Right from the beginning, I was riding an emotional roller-coaster and it was a ride I didn’t get off of until I read the last page. As for the world without love Oliver created, it was at the same time amazing and terrifying. Personally, I don’t think I would be able to live in a world without love because that means there are basically no other emotions, and for me that’s quite terrifying. And that leaves the ending. I didn’t see it coming and it left me crying like a baby. It was amazing.

I love Lena. She is an amazing character and one that grew and developed in the best way possible. She was a completely different at the end of the book. I loved the way she went from a good girl who followed all the rules to someone who broke out of her chains and stood up for what she believed in. A lot of the change in Lena came from her relationship with Alex. Normally I am opposed to a girl losing her head over a boy but in this case it was just perfect. And Alex was the best boy to do that over. I don’t know how to explain Alex other than to say he was a genuinely good guy and there was never a doubt in my mind that he loved Lena. The relationship between these two made the book for me.

Delirium was absolutely incredible and just reinforces that Lauren Oliver is an amazing writer. I can’t wait to see where she takes the story next in Pandemonium. Waiting until next February will be difficult. 

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Title: Before I Fall

Author: Lauren Oliver

Publisher: Harper
Release Date: October 25, 2010

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

They say to live every as if it’s your last--but you never actually think it’s going to be. You always think you have more time.

That’s what I thought. But I was wrong.

The thing is, you don’t get to know when it happens. you don’t remember to tell your family that you love them or--in my case--remember to say goodbye to them at all.

What if, like me, you could live your last day over again? Could you make it perfect? If you whole life flashed before your eyes, would you have any regrets? Are there things you’d want to change?

I had heard so many good things about Lauren Oliver and her debut novel Before I Fall but didn’t pick it up until quite recently. Let me just say that I was completely blown away by the story. I just couldn’t get enough and kept wanting more even after I was finished with it. Not only that, but the story had me feeling a whole range of emotions, going from wanting to laugh one minute to wanting to cry the next.

When Sam wakes up on Cupid Day, everything is looking up. She’s going to be with her friends, getting plenty of roses, and most important she’s finally going to be doing IT with her boyfriend. As the day goes on, everything seems to be normal until the very end. Driving home from a party with her three best friends Ally, Elody and Lindsay, Sam gets into a car accident and as far as she knows she’s dead...until she wakes up the next morning and finds out she’s living the same day over again. Maybe this time she’ll be able to save herself.

At first I really didn’t think I was going to be able to like Sam. She was pretty much the girl I would have hated had we gone to the same high school. She just came across as really superficial and liked she only cared about herself and her own little world. But that quickly changed. As she found herself reliving the same day over and over again, Same changes and evolves. I found myself liking her more and more and by the end of the book, I really loved her. Her friends I really didn’t take to on the other hand. They had their moments but for the most part they just annoyed me. Same goes for Rob. I’m not exactly sure what Sam saw in him. Kent I was rooting for all along, he was just genuinely a good guy. Too bad it took so long for Sam to realize it.

The story itself wasn’t entirely what I had expected it to be. I knew going in that I would be reading the same day over again but it still surprised me. Even though I was always reading about the same day, it was never actually the same as there was a different storyline going on each time. Throughout the whole book I never really had any idea as to how it would all turn out at the end of that last day. I was constantly surprised by what was happening and my heart broke at the end of every single one of those days.

To be honest, this book took me entirely by surprise. Despite everything I had heard about it, I still had my doubts just because it would be very difficult for the book to live up to my expectations. Lauren Oliver is a phenomenal writer and I never would have guessed this was her first novel had I not been told. I very much look forward to getting Delirium and being able to read more of her wonderful stories.