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    Pandemonium
    Pandemonium
    Pandemonium
    Audiobook10 hours

    Pandemonium

    Written by Lauren Oliver

    Narrated by Sarah Drew

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The second book in Lauren Oliver’s remarkable New York Times bestselling trilogy about forbidden love, revolution, and the power to choose.

    In this electrifying follow-up to Delirium, Lena is on a dangerous course that takes her through the unregulated Wilds and into the heart of a growing resistance movement. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateFeb 28, 2012
    ISBN9780062120779
    Author

    Lauren Oliver

    Lauren Oliver is the cofounder of media and content development company Glasstown Entertainment, where she serves as the President of Production. She is also the New York Times bestselling author of the YA novels Replica, Vanishing Girls, Panic, and the Delirium trilogy: Delirium, Pandemonium, and Requiem, which have been translated into more than thirty languages. The film rights to both Replica and Lauren's bestselling first novel, Before I Fall, were acquired by Awesomeness Films. Before I Fall was adapted into a major motion picture starring Zoey Deutch. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, garnering a wide release from Open Road Films that year. Oliver is a 2012 E. B. White Read-Aloud Award nominee for her middle-grade novel Liesl & Po, as well as author of the middle-grade fantasy novel The Spindlers and The Curiosity House series, co-written with H.C. Chester. She has written one novel for adults, Rooms. Oliver co-founded Glasstown Entertainment with poet and author Lexa Hillyer. Since 2010, the company has developed and sold more than fifty-five novels for adults, young adults, and middle-grade readers. Some of its recent titles include the New York Times bestseller Everless, by Sara Holland; the critically acclaimed Bonfire, authored by the actress Krysten Ritter; and The Hunger by Alma Katsu, which received multiple starred reviews and was praised by Stephen King as “disturbing, hard to put down” and “not recommended…after dark.” Oliver is a narrative consultant for Illumination Entertainment and is writing features and TV shows for a number of production companies and studios. Oliver received an academic scholarship to the University of Chicago, where she was elected Phi Beta Kappa. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from New York University. www.laurenoliverbooks.com.

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    Reviews for Pandemonium

    4/5

    1,174 ratings132 reviews

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    • 5/5
      So many sequels are hard to read because there's no action, it's just the author's way of bridging the gap between the beginning and the conclusion. This is not the case with Oliver's second book in the Delirium series.[Potential Spoilers:] Delirium ends with Lena making her escape into the Wilds, seeing Alex getting shot by guards. Pandemonium's beginning is a little confusing - we're abruptly shifted into the "Now," with Lena being a student in a high school classroom. The next chapter is a "Then," and starts with her rebirth after her escape. I usually don't look at chapter headings, so it took me awhile to realize the book was jumping back and forth between "Now," with Lena infiltrating the system, and "Then," as she adjusts to leaving her old life behind. It's easy to slip into this mindset though, and the two stories run parallel to each other nicely. There is a lot of suspense, but while her first book was more beautiful, Pandemonium is grittier and rougher, as Lena adjusts to life without rules. The ending is absolutely incredible, exactly what I had hoped would happen since the end of the last book, and it will be nearly impossible to wait for Requiem.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The ending was expected and unexpected at the same time!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I didn’t like this book as much as I did the first book Delirium. I’ve seen some reviewers say it was much better than the first book and some say that it was much worse than the first book. For the most part there does seem to be agreement that there is an inconsistency between the books. For me, it seemed like they had been written by different people. I will blame some of this on the audio version I listened too – the narrator’s voice rubbed me the wrong way. But I can’t blame it all on the audio. I wasn’t as engaged with this book. I’ve noticed some people liked the transitions between the ‘then’ and ‘now’s in the book but I didn’t like them as much. The same thing could have been said with all the ‘then’s together in the beginning and the now’s after. I think for me, that might have made it easier to read. I think some of this is my just be picky so if you enjoyed the first book I say yes, definitely give this one a try and see what you think. I thought it was predictable, and not engaging enough. But that’s just me. I still plan on reading the third book that just came out this month. Oliver has a talent for leaving the most intense scenes for the last chapter to hook the reader back for her next books. I’m interested in seeing what happens next, but I thought this book lost some of the flare the first book had.
    • 5/5
      Couldn't put the book down! Read in one sitting and still wanting more. And the end doesn't make yearning for the last in the trilogy to be published any less desirable. Wish I had access to a pre-pub! Answers are given in the sequel yet more intrigue and more love than one can handle all lead to a fast-paced read. You don't understand the true extent of the rollercoaster you hopped aboard until the last pages. And WOW! I am still amazed at what was seen and stunned by what happens. Read it.
    • 5/5
      This is the sequel to Delirium, of course. Lena's story continues in the Wild without Alex, who died at the end of book 1. I did enjoy the book. This book is told in alternating chapters of Then and Now - Lena's journey out of the Wild and her kidnapping and falling in deliria again. A surprise twist (not too surprising if you ask me) at the end...
    • 5/5
      I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this book! I was heartbroken for Lena. She's escaped to the Wilds, but things didn't go as expected. Now she's forced to learn a completely new lifestyle without Alex by her side. I really liked that she's becoming more independent. Lena is making much better decisions in this challenging new world and while she's grieving for a life and family left behind, she's finding that she has more strength than she ever realized. When she meets Raven and the others, she finds a new family and slowly begins to heal. My only complaint was her relationship with Julian. It seemed too soon for Lena. When she's thinking about Alex while kissing another, it's not love. She just wasn't ready.

      Loved all the twists and surprises and the action kept me glued to my Nook! The ending wasn't completely unexpected, but I really like where the series is going. I can't wait to read the next book!
    • 4/5
      At first..I was like: dafuq?

      Was I going to keep reading the book like this?

      Then I realized my stupidity :P
      Once I read it correctly I realized how good it was.

      I'm so glad I checked this and the third book at the same time.

      But Alex. Alex. I love Alex, and don't get me wrong but it feels like Lena is using Julian to me :P
      But Alex just randomly showed up out of nowhere - thanks for ruining a good moment for Julian.
    • 3/5
      In this sequel to Delirium, Laina is now living in the wilds and becomes part of the resistance. On an operation, she becomes invlved with the son of a man who is intent on changing the rules so teens will have their procedures earlier, even if there are adverse consequences.
    • 3/5
      Sort of like the Hunger Games, but less compelling. I liked the twist at the end, but I had a hard time staying invested in the characters through the middle.
    • 4/5
      WARNING: Spoilers for Delirium ahead.Pandemonium is the second book in Lauren Oliver's Delirium Trilogy. In the first book, Delirium, Lena lives in a future dystopian United States, where love has been designated a disease, and everyone is cured on their 18th birthday. Lena was eagerly anticipating her "cure" and her orderly, predictable life to follow, free from the "Deliria" that leads to mood swings, irrational behavior, violence, and death. That is, until she meets Alex, an "Invalid" from The Wilds - a boy who has never been cured and doesn't believe that love is something that needs a cure. Alex teaches Lena about love, and they plan to escape Portland to live in The Wilds together. But in the end, Alex sacrifices himself to allow Lena to escape.Pandemonium's narrative alternates between two separate time lines. The first picks up right where Delirium ends. It follows Lena in the days, weeks, and months after she has escaped Portland, losing Alex in the process. Predictably, she meets up with other Invalids living in The Wilds, and slowly assimilates to life with them. Away from the familiar comforts of the city. Away from fear of the Deliria. Away from Alex.The second takes place several months later. Lena is now an active part of the resistance, and is living undercover in New York City. Her cover is that she is part of a new political movement - the DFA or "Deliria-Free America." The movement's mission is for the cure to be administered to everyone in America before their 18th birthday. Lena's mission is to keep an eye on the DFA, especially its leaders: Thomas Fineman and his son, Julian. [Spoilers Ahead]But everything turns to chaos when Scavengers - a violent extremist group of uncureds - attack a DFA rally, and Lena and Julian are kidnapped and held hostage together. Their captivity forces them to question their preconceived notions about each other and about who their enemies really are.Pandemonium was an enjoyable, exciting, fast-paced book. I did find it a bit predictable - I wasn't nearly as surprised as Lena at the twists and turns of the plot - but that didn't lessen my enjoyment of it at all. And as much as I loved Alex in Delirium and I wasn't sure initially if I would be able to accept if Lena moved on, I found that I loved Julian just as much as Alex. I appreciated how the evolution of Lena and Julian's relationship mirrored that of Lena and Alex - but with Lena's role reversed. Ultimately, I thought Pandemonium was a great set-up for the third book in the trilogy. I anticipate the conclusion to the Delirium Trilogy will contain lots of action, a likely love triangle (which is overdone in YA books, but in a world where the entire plot focuses around the benefits and drawbacks of falling in love, it probably can't be avoided), and Lena's deeper involvement with the resistance. It answered some questions set up in Delirium while asking several more. And it introduced us to some great new characters. My frustrations with the book were minor. I missed the characters from Delirium (but I suspect some of them will pop up in the 3rd book). I couldn't understand how just a couple days lost in the woods resulted in Lena needing weeks to recuperate, considering how physically fit she was at the end of Delirium. And several of Lena's great plans just seemed far too simple (especially in the couple parts where she has to deal with key codes). But overall, none of that was enough to take away from my enjoyment of the book. The storytelling was excellent, and I found myself completely immersed in the characters and world that Ms. Oliver created. I'm intrigued and excited to see how she wraps up Lena's story in book 3. Highly recommend!
    • 4/5
      Lauren Oliver just keeps getting better and better for me. There hasn't been a book that I haven't liked from her, then again this is only the third book that I've read by her. But I think it's safe to say that I've become a fan of her work and writing.

      The Good:

      The plot was fantastic. Lena does change a bit from Delirium, but her change is expected and very realistic. The chapters went back and forth from "then", which takes place right after Lena escapes to the Wild, and "now", which happens many months after this when Lena is living in New York.

      Both show how Lena is adapting to her new world. In the wild, she experiences hunger, death, and survival. In New York, she's experiencing survival in a different form. One that is a lot more dangerous than battling the elements.

      At first, I was really into the chapters about the Wild, but after awhile the chapters taking place in New York got really interesting and I wanted to know what was happening.

      Since Alex is captured or dead, there is a new love interest and I was ready to hate him. I hate love triangles and knew that the new guy didn't stand a chance. But the more I read about Julian, the more I hoped Alex was dead.

      Alex didn't really have much of a presence. His role was to open Lena up to a world she never knew about, because of this he was a great guy without any flaws or hangups. Julian was so different. There was a childish quality, but also someone who was willing to stand up fight. He struggled, like Lena did, but his change was natural and their relationship made sense given their circumstances. He was also flawed and I liked that about him and surprisingly enough liked him with Lena.

      The Okay:

      I still don't think that the virus and love is explained all too well. There is a mention that passion is close to love, so people stay away from it. But for the most part, it still doesn't make sense to me. Unlike the last book, we don't really see much of the cured world, so this wasn't as big of a problem as before.

      I would like a better explanation though.

      The Bad:

      Sadly, the bad is due to the ending which is predictable, but something I wish didn't happen. It's a bit of a spoiler, so....

      In the end, when Lena and Julian are happy and promise to stay with each other you knew that Alex was going to show up. And like a boy scout he pops up. To be honest, I don't really care...I do, but not in the way you may think.

      When Alex was taken in the last book, it was something major that Lena had to get over in order to move on with her life. I felt like his supposed death would be grounds for her growing up a little bit more, and she did. Then Julian shows up and despite Lena thinking about Alex at first, she does fall for him. Not really, but she likes him enough.

      If you've read my reviews before, you'd know that I don't like love triangles. I don't know why many YA novels go this route, but it's something I truly despise. What's wrong with only loving one person? Especially in this world, when love is a disease, I find it hard for them to fall in love with another so easily.

      Lena doesn't and I don't think she will love Julian the way she loves Alex, which isn't fair to him since he's going to get lead on and get his heart broken in the next book. But she went to him because she was lonely and enjoyed his company, which is understandable and a very human thing to do. There is a lot of potential for this relationship, given that Lena still loves Alex and she could be shown trying to struggle with loving another person and not betraying the other. But then Alex shows up, clearly changed from his experience, and ruins this. *sigh* I dunno, I just really disliked it.

      It was also incredibly predictable. You knew he was going to come the moment Lena mentioned that Julian wasn't that bad to look at.

      ....looks like I kind of ranted there. Sorry.

      Overall, the book was fantastic. I enjoyed it a lot more than Delirium and loved how the characters were realistic and flawed. I hate the ending, but I'm hoping that the next book won't focus so much on it and instead on the resistance.
    • 5/5
      “Love may not be all you need, but sometimes it’s all you have.”-This may or may not be original, but I thought it up, Googled it, and couldn’t find it anywhere. Therefore, I’m stating that these are my words to describe the overarching theme of the entire book [possibly, series].This second installment in the Delirium series easily defies the “second book lull” that usually occurs within a series or trilogy. I was absolutely dreading it – waiting for that to happen, but I Pandemonium is fast-paced, full of heart-ache, the deliria, and absolutely packed with action. The beginning of the book threw me off because the settings and times switch back and forth between the Wilds and society, “now” and “then”. I got into the swing of things a few chapters in, but it was a bit disorienting at first.Ready for something shocking? A NEW [read: swoon-worthy] MAIN BOY CHARACTER. That’s right…and he’s pretty wonderful, no doubt. [I’m attempting to leave out spoilers so as not to ruin it for anyone who hasn’t read it yet!] Let’s just say that I was VERY happy with this book…the emotional ups and downs, Lena’s transformation from one of the “zombies”, she really came into her own in this book. I was ecstatic to see her express her own opinions and fight like crazy to make a difference in a world so oppressed, manipulative, and disfigured by hypocrisy.I am so excited for the next book, Requiem, that doesn’t come out until NEXT February. I think I will have plenty of time to re-read both books before then!! If you have read both, PLEASE leave comments telling us what you thought and if you’ve only read Delirium, tell us what you’re looking forward to in the second book or what you loved about the first. We love to get feedback from y’all and want to share our excitement and love for this series, the characters, and most of all, the author, Lauren Oliver!*Fair warning: This book will leave you emotionally drained and filled with even MORE questions than Delirium did! It’s entirely possible that you will be left sitting, staring, asking “WHY?”, screaming “No, no, no!”, sobbing quietly/hysterically, and perhaps cursing how far away the next book release is.
    • 3/5
      This book was good but incredibly frustrating. An author should not lightly kill off a main character's love interest, should not lightly introduce a new love interest and should be very careful of having the first love interest show up alive in the end of the book. It bothered me that Lena gave Alex up for dead so quickly. But it was a good follow up to the first book, all in all.
    • 4/5
      new structure with the ‘then’ and ‘now.’ of course we end on a cliffhanger. YA is annoying like that.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this second book in the Delirium trilogy. Because of how Delirium ends, it is clear Alex will not be with Lena for most, if not all, of Pandemonium, so I was unsure I would find Pandemonium as enthralling. Fortunately, I was wrong. This is a different book from Delirium, to be sure. The setting, for one, is different. Lena is now in the Wilds for half of the book, in New York City for the other half. The cast of characters also is completely different, as Lena now lives among the Invalids and is therefore an Invalid herself.

      In portraying the Invalids, Oliver really has done a fantastic job. I was impressed how each of them has a distinct character--although some we know more than others, with most of the Invalids taking a back seat to the main Invalid character of Raven. Raven is an intriguing character, and I think it is smart that Oliver has kept her mysterious. (No doubt plenty of fan fiction featuring Raven is out there and is being written as I type this.) There is so much I want to know about her. I think it’s a given we will find out more about Raven--and probably Tack--in book three.

      Also excellent about Pandemonium is Oliver’s description of the brutality of life in the Wilds. The reader really FEELS Lena’s difficulties not only in adapting to life there on an emotional level (and Oliver portrays this well), but it is more than clear how physically taxing and dangerous day-to-day survival is for the Invalids. Description of the burrow is particularly interesting, as is the terrain above the burrow, with its stone and brick ruins and scraps of twisted metal. The Wilds is depressing, overwhelming, and scary, and I felt it.

      But what I find most impressive is Oliver’s attention to Lena’s very fragile psychological state after losing Alex. It would have been easy for Oliver to gloss over that and rush along to the introduction of Julian and the set up for that all-important love triangle. Instead, she has taken the time portraying Lena’s grief over the course of almost the entire novel. To be more specific, six months later, as Lena is imprisoned with Julian, she has not moved on; she resists Julian for a good while out of loyalty to Alex. Her grief is still very much affecting her actions and choices. This seems realistic. Someone grieving over the loss of a lover is not going to feel instantly comfortable with the idea of a new romance, no matter how alluring that new romance may be. That Lena eventually does fall for Julian, however, is not entirely unrealistic because Lena does believe Alex is dead, and she wants so very much to be happy. I sympathized with Lena, and I understood her choice to get involved with Julian.

      Nevertheless, Julian is not the strong male character Alex is. He is fearful, and his personality reads little-boyish (he asks Lena to “tell me a story,” for instance, and I couldn’t help but envision a four-year-old). One would think a boy of 18, who is the head of the youth division of such a powerful organization would exude confidence and initiative, yet he doesn’t. At all. He is resigned to his imprisonment; it is on Lena’s shoulders to figure out a way to save them. Alex would not have acted this way. Oliver has set up a love triangle, but—and this, I feel, is one of the book’s biggest flaws and the reason I can't give the book five stars—has failed to flesh out Julian to the same degree as Alex. I simply know Alex better, and I also find him more interesting. His past certainly is more interesting, from what we find out about his father being imprisoned, and the fact that he was born and raised in the Wilds. By contrast, Julian has lived a charmed, materially comfortable life. That has made for a rather bland character. Oliver has tried to imbue Julian with some of the tragic qualities that she does with Alex by having Julian relate the story of his brother’s heartbreaking death, but somehow, it doesn’t quite work. That story illustrates the psychopathy of Julian’s father (and of the cure, for that matter), but it doesn’t do more than that. For a love triangle to truly work, the two competing love interests need to be equally fleshed out, equally appealing. I think Oliver should have devoted 100 or so more pages to developing Julian and Lena’s relationship so that it can rightfully compete with Alex and Lena’s relationship. An extra 100 pages also would have made Pandemonium roughly the same length as Delirium. I personally felt a little gypped out of those extra pages of story. The depth of Alex and Lena’s love is believable because of the length of its development. Julian and Lena’s is hurried and therefore too close to “love-at-first sight.” If anything, given ALL that Julian has to lose by “contracting the deliria,” Oliver should have devoted more, not less, time to the development of love between these two. Furthermore, the extremely dangerous, often jaw-dropping, risks Lena takes to rescue Julian at the very end of the story are not believable given how tentative their romance is.

      It is interesting that Oliver chose to turn the tables in Pandemonium and make Lena the “Alex” by having her take the lead and be the rescuer and resourceful Invalid. The Lena of Pandemonium mirroring the Alex of Delirium is striking, although at times I found myself not liking it. I found it hard to believe that Lena could have changed that drastically in only six months. On the other hand, I can’t truly judge since I have never been in Lena’s situation. Perhaps six months of wilderness boot camp would turn me into a bad ass who can attack burly bodyguards and has the guts to ride on top of a garbage truck in icy rain. Who knows? Lena’s transformation is just so dramatic that it is hard to accept at times, especially because she is such an obedient mouse in Delirium. If this series were all about Hana instead I could believe in this transformation wholeheartedly

      On the technical level, Oliver’s writing in Pandemonium is not as beautiful as it is in Delirium. Her prose in Delirium jumps off the page at points; it’s that breathtaking. In Pandemonium, though, Oliver seems to have been more focused on action and character. In a way, this difference is good, because it can be argued that Oliver may describe TOO much in Delirium. At times that story can feel bogged down by description after flowery description. Perhaps Oliver thought this too and therefore avoided it in Pandemonium. Or maybe she was trying to achieve something else; Delirium has a slightly more leisurely feel to it, which echoes the lazy days of its summer setting, whereas Pandemonium has an urgent feeling, as it should, given the urgency everyone in the Wilds feels trying to survive day to day.

      All in all, this is a superb follow-up to Delirium, as much of a page-turner as that book, although vastly different in so many ways. I am looking very forward to the third book. Of course, like Delirium, Pandemonium ends on a major cliffhanger, so waiting for the third book will be agony. The Young Adult literature market is over-saturated these days, and a good many seem to be throw-away YA series, but the Delirium series is not one of those. Oliver knows how to write and how to craft one heck of a story. These books do not disappoint.

    • 3/5
      Book Nook — Young Adult book reviewsPandemonium and I have a rocky relationship. It took me like two days to get through 150 pages. Finally, about halfway through the book, things started to pick up, and at least become more interesting, but at the end of the day, I'm still not crazy about the book.The story switches between two different time periods: "then" (immediately after book two) and "now" (a few months later). At first I didn't really like all the jumping back and forth, but I quickly grew accustomed to it. It is interesting to be able to compare and contrast Lena from then and Lena now, and see how she grows and changes.I have two big problems with Pandemonium. My first problem is that I feel like nothing happens until the last 50 pages. The first part of the book is just a bunch of travelling, waiting, meeting a few new people, more travelling, clawing through the Wilds, waiting in some sort of underground holding cell, more waiting, a bit of talking... You get the picture. To be blunt: it was boring.And my next big problem is Julian. The author didn't make me fall in love with him. Somehow Lena did, but I didn't. And honestly, I don't even know why Lena thinks she loves Julian. If you ask me, she only "loves" him due to 1) a lack of options and 2) she so desperately misses Alex and wants that emotional closeness that she's clinging onto the first new guy her age that comes along. I feel like there wasn't even a falling in love phase; Lena just woke up one day and decided she loved Julian. They had like 5 half-mumbled conversations throughout the whole book and suddenly they're in love? Okay, they saved each others' lives once.. but there wasn't that sweet, passionate, slow-brewing romance that we had in Delirium. In Delirium, Lena and Alex had 'moments'. They had cute scenes where they fell in love. They shared poetry, adventure, stories, memories. With Julian, I felt like Lena just shared two nights with him in a prison cell and one night in a bed and then suddenly they were head over heels for each other... Where did that come from?Pandemonium does end on a huge cliffhanger, but it didn't totally wow me for the sole reason that I saw it coming. It is pretty easy to guess what happens. Although I am really curious to see how the story progresses, I was missing that big *BANG* of an ending because I wasn't shocked or shaken.Ultimately, Pandemonium felt very much like that second-book-in-a-trilogy filler book. It was all about biding time until we can wrap things up in book three. To be fair, the last quarter of Pandemonium was entertaining—it wasn't boring like the first half was. My main problem with the book is just that I got zero passion from Lena's relationship with Julian, and that was the biggest part of the book.
    • 5/5
      Pandemonium is a fantastic sequel, well worth the wait. It is a well-crafted page-turner chock full of action, survival, rebellion, emotion and romance. The new characters introduced in this novel are interesting and have just the right amount of depth. Lena's development is fierce and believable. She forges ahead, strong and determined to figure out who the real Lena is after everything that has shaped her. Just when she thinks she's about certain, life throws another giant wrench in her way. The cliffhanger at the end of this novel is to die for.One storytelling technique I really like when it is well done is that of alternating between the past and the present. I think it can be a very efficient, exciting way to tell a backstory. Oliver uses the technique seamlessly in this novel. Pandemonium begins directly where the events of Delirium left off. These chapters form the "then" chapters. The other half of the story begins with Lena on a mission, forming the "now" chapters. The events that take place during these chapters still occur in chronological order. The threads of this story are braided, each alternating to come forth and tell a part of Lena's story. The transitions are well-timed and make a lot of sense.I'd recommend Pandemonium to anyone that read Delirium. This sequel is well worth your while.
    • 4/5
      I remember this book was so hard, and so gritty, like dirt and sand in your teeth, after getting punched into the ground. And how hard it was to stand back up, to move forward, making a new life in a new world, with a new family, having to earn every single inch of who you could be from the tatters of who you were. Having no choice at all, while being ripped apart.

      This book was like a shot in the heart, perfectly placed after what happened in book one, and then, of then, those last pages happened, and I'm *dying* for the next book in this series, too.
    • 4/5
      3.5 starsThis is the 2nd book in a dystopian series where people are given a surgery to turn off any remnant of love; this is called “the cure”. After the first book, Lena has escaped into the wild, but has “lost” her boyfriend Alex (he died) along the way. Meanwhile, back in the “regular” world , there is a teenaged boy with a health issue that has prevented him from getting the cure: Julian. Julian has become a spokesperson for the cure. When Lena is sent to follow Julian, they are both kidnapped. I liked this and am happy to continue the series. I listened to the audio and it was done well, kept my attention for the most part. It was a bit confusing at first, though, as the narration went back and forth in time between “Then” and “Now”, and with listening to the audio, it’s not easy to back up to see where we were. I knew, based on what was happening what was going on (I wasn’t confused there) and we were in one or the other, but in all honesty, it took me a while to figure out which parts had happened first, as I kept missing if we were “then” or “now”. I liked where this book went, but there is a surprise cliffhanger ending.
    • 3/5
      I think I would give this a 3.5. I liked the first book more than this one and I totally predicted the ending from the very beginning. I do still intend to read the next one though.
    • 4/5
      Leaving Alex behind was the hardest thing she ever had to do. She was not sure how she could go on without him and indeed she almost doesn't, more then willing to join him in death when her first few days in the wilds leave her starved, exhausted and on the very brink of death. However it is Raven who finds her, Raven who saves her, and Raven who gives her a new life.She is starting again, in a new school within the protected boundaries of the city, only this time she is starting as someone else, the procedural mark on her neck to prove it. She is the new cured version of herself and she is on a mission. With the demonstration in the city rumoured to be hijacked by invalids, scavengers, Lena is forced to fight to protect all that she believes in.Pandemonium and chaos ensue as lives are ripped apart. Hardships are born to those on both sides of the fence and despite best intentions, someone is going to get hurt. A story that flips from one side of the fence to the other, a telling of what is happening now, and what went on then. An absorbing and exciting follow-up to Delirium.
    • 2/5
      book 2 syndrome, screw this book. lena alex 4 ever.
    • 5/5
      I have read both Delirium and Pandemonium within the last week and am greatly anticipating Requiem in the spring of 2013! I didn't think that the second book could be any better than the first but I enjoyed it even more. Lauren Oliver is a very talented author and I look forward to reading more from her. Highly recommend the Delirium series and Before I Fall!
    • 4/5
      Better than the first in a lot of ways, and a little bit worse in others.

      But you can build a future out of anything. A scrap, a flicker. The desire to go forward, slowly, one foot at a time. You can build an airy city out of ruins.
      I originally rated this 5 stars after finishing it, but upon reflection, it really was more of a 4 star read for me.

      But it was still awesome!

      Grief is like sinking, like being buried. I am in water the tawny color of kicked-up dirt. Every breath is full of choking. There is nothing to hold on to, no sides, no way to claw myself up. There is nothing to do but let go.

      Let go. Feel the weight all around you, feel the squeezing of your lungs, the slow, low pressure. Let yourself go deeper. There is nothing but bottom. There is nothing but the taste of metal, and the echoes of old things, and days that look like darkness.
      Honestly, this felt like a different series a little bit. Part of that was definitely the lack of chapter epigraphs (which I briefly mourned) and definitely the fact that the only character shared throughout was the Lena herself (and she made a bit point about that) and definitely the fact that the chapters alternated between past and present - "now" and "then".

      This installment actually made me cry a lot. It was intense and hard-hitting with more tangible stakes and consequences. Raven was an excellent addition and the Invalid band she travels with were great, though Tack deserved a little more page time to really earn his place at the end.

      While Alex in the first book was a bit of a stalker and Julian in this book was a voyeur, I actually genuinely liked him. He was sweet and complex, and I'm also just absolute trash for the trope when two people have to sleep in close quarters together when they aren't (yet) in a relationship. I don't know why, but it just sustains me like no other.

      That said, I did not like the pacing or how the very ending was handled. It was a little bit of a deus ex machina and didn't feel entirely earned. Some elements of the entire novel felt a little too Divergent-ish.

      This is what hatred is. It will feed you and at the same time turn you to rot.
    • 3/5
      Seriously? Do we really have to do the love triangle thing here? I thought this was supposed to be about growth, not angsty teen lurrrrrrrrve.
    • 5/5
      Book has a strange story but one that intrigues and keeps you interested. It's based in Portland, Oregon where at age 18 everyone gets the cure. It is believed that Love is a disease and is bad so at age 18 the cure is given which takes away all the feeling from a person. It's a police and if you break the rules you are executed or put somewhere you'll never get out of.

      Boys and Girls under 18 do not mix or talk to each other. Once you are tested before you take the cure you are assigned a pair- your marriage partner. The main character Anna is almost at the age to take the cure but just as it's getting close her whole world explodes. Pandemonium follows our history but in a version where Love is a disease. It's an interesting view of our society with a different set of rules.
    • 4/5
      I was right to switch to reading from audiobook - the teen angst, predictable as it is, slides by much more easily. I enjoyed the double storylines, one for Lena's introduction to the wilds and the second her first mission for the resistance. I've got the 3rd book in hand thanks to my generous YA distopia loving co-worker.
    • 4/5
      The second book in the Delirium series and just as rewarding as the first. The book delves into the resistance which Lena ends up joining after she escapes into the Wilds; without Alex and severely injured. This book Lauren Oliver goes back and forth, titled Then and Now. The Then chapters starting with Lena first escaping into the Wilds and the Now chapters starting with Lena at a rally to stop the Deliria and she's there for the resistance. In this book we meet Julian the son of the head of the organization 'Deliria Free Association'. Lena is also still mourning the loss of Alex who was shot while they were trying to get into the Wilds at the end of Delirium. Lena and Julian get captured, later finding out they were captured by the resistance, and during their captivity Lena starts to fall in love with him. With Pandemonium we are introduced into the world with love and, along with Lena, see that the Wilds are not as amazing as we thought. With the Wilds, the world without love, comes the ability to choose, to have free will. Lena learns that "love is the deadliest of all deadly things. It kills you when you have it. And when you don't." Maybe love is deadly but it doesn't mean it's not worth fighting for. Pandemonium explores two different worlds one without love and one with, and in those worlds we see different kinds of people and how they go about to achieve what they think is right.

      4/5
    • 4/5
      i loved this book! I couldnt put it down. I was happy Lena found someone she could fall in love withand felt bad about what happened at the very end.
    • 5/5
      This is such a great book backed with lots of action and emotion. Most middle books of a trilogy just brings the reader along to the next point with not much happening. This book did not feel like a middle book. Yes, it brought the story along, but it really felt like an extension to book one. Lena is now in the wilds and is with a group where she works closely with Raven and Tack while she grieves for Alex who she saw on the ground in a pool of blood. Lena does a lot of things by emotion but also because she feels it's the right thing to do. Fantastic trilogy that I will be sad when it's done. Definitely worth the read! Great as an audiobook. I found myself sitting in my car not wanting to stop listening.