Pandemonium (Delirium Trilogy, #2)

by Lauren Oliver

[Angie]

The beginning of Pandemonium threw me off a little bit. Instead of picking up where Delirium ends, it starts a few months later, with Lena in New York. How did she get there? Well, the story jumps back and forth between the present, Lena living in NY, and continuing where the first book left off. As the book moves along, this format makes more sense. The past events are mostly about survival, but we already know who makes it since they're mentioned in the present chapters. They don't contain much plot advancement, but they still felt important, so mixing them in works. At least for me.

I felt bad for Lena in Pandemonium. She spent most of her life fed the lies about deliria and was essentially a poster child for the cure until she met Alex. Now she's been transformed into the poster child for the resistance. However, things aren't going how she expected, and she's fed even more lies but for a different reason. She is again blindly following a cause that she doesn't really understand, but I think her grief over losing Alex has something to do with that. She's seeking revenge, and she's much more wild than old Lena was.

Pandemonium was not as good for me as Delirium. The alternating time was interesting, since I enjoyed seeing life in the Wilds, but other than that, nothing really new is added. There's a new complication, of course, but I don't feel like it was necessary. The plot feels like it took one step back instead of forward, which bothers me. Middle of a Trilogy Syndrome strikes again!

The biggest problem for me came on page 355, but let's back up a bit. We meet a new character early on, Julian, the son of a high ranking politician. I immediately got worried there would be a love triangle with this new character. But can it really be considered a love triangle if one person is presumed dead? I don't know, but I didn't like it, since they had just met. However, things were fine with this relationship between Lena and Julian in the beginning. They're thrown in a high stress situation, Lena misses Alex, and Julian has never experienced love before, so it makes sense for them to at least have some kind of presumed feelings. Then the L word pops up on page 355 and ruined it. I like love triangles most of the time, but this one felt thrown in for the sake of having one. No thanks.

I mostly enjoyed Pandemonium, even though it didn't meet the first book's level of awesomeness. I loved seeing how life is in the Wilds, and we meet two other groups of uncured, which was interesting. All three groups are very different, and just show how screwed up this new America is. The ending was a cliffhanger, but not shocking at all. I expected it from the very beginning, but I am excited to see how that affects the next book. Luckily, I have it in my possession, so I don't have to wait!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.