Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

*WARNING: Since Pandemonium is a sequel this review and description contains unavoidable spoilers for Delirium. Please don't read if you haven't read Delirium, it will ruin an amazing book for you!*


Love, the deadliest of all deadly things.
It kills you when you have it.
And when you don't.

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.

Pandemonium is a poignant, explosive, recklessly romantic and utterly heartbreaking novel. Like Delirium, the first in the compelling trilogy, it will take you to the very edge. That's all you need to know. We'll let Lena do the rest of the talking . . . 


I've been really excited to read Pandemonium ever since finishing Delirium. I began reading it as soon as I got it, because the ending of Delirium was pretty 'WOW'! Pandemonium was very different from Delirium. There was a whole new cast of characters, for one thing. The only character from the last book in this one was Lena! The setting was also very different, as was the story. It's quite hard to compare the two books! Pandemonium has a lot more action than Delirium had. Delirium was mostly about Lena and Alex's relationship, and explaining the society the book was set in (BTW, not saying that in a negative way! In fact I'm saying it in a positive way!) whereas Pandemonium was more about the resistance and Lena's new, harder yet more exciting life.


I thought at first that I would find the alternating Now and Then chapters confusing, but I picked it up pretty quickly, and ended up really liking it! It was a nice, unique touch to the book, it was sort of like there was two different stories! (well, actually, there was...) I originally liked the 'Then' chapters better, but then the 'Now' chapters became more exciting and I began to accept like Julian! 


As I mentioned before, Pandemonium had a whole new cast of characters. Raven and Julian were the two main ones, taking the place, i suppose, of Hana and Alex. I really missed the two of them in this book! :( Oh Alex! It just wasn't the same without him and Hana! Raven was alright, but I felt she was too harsh and a little mean to Lena! I know she was just trying to toughen her up, but she could have done that in a nicer way! At first, I didn't like Julian, but then he started to grow on me. I quite like him now and I liked he and Lena's relationship, it was really sweet! At one point I actually just went 'Awwww!'. But I just, for some reason, don't like him as much as I liked Alex! I don't know why, we pretty much know him better than Alex, and he seems to have more of a personality than Alex did, but I suppose it's because Alex was there first and because he was just... *swoon*


Lena was a lot more mature in Pandemonium too, she really grew as a character. She was  stronger, tougher and more independent. I really liked her!


There was a couple of things I didn't like about Pandemonium. A few things, I thought, weren't explained properly, like who the Scavengers were (but then I sort of figured that out. Although, I can't remember, were they in Delirium?), and how Raven knew about Alex. I still don't get it! Please explain it to me if you know! :) Another thing that I didn't like was that although there was a lot of action scenes, I found a few of them a little...boring. I just thought that they were described in too much detail. I know that's the sort of thing a lot of people like, and maybe I'm just picking at things, but that just what I think. I'm sure others would like that sort of thing though, so don't let me put you off!


THE ENDING. THE ENDING. THE ENDING. OMG. My heart was literally racing as I read it! It just made me need the next book. It's even more of a cliffhanger than Delirium! Ugh, and I have a whole YEAR to wait till Requiem. *cries* I can't wait to see where Lauren takes the story next. I have a few ideas about how it might go, but who know! *MAJOR SPOILER ALERT. HIGHLIGHT TO READ* I suppose Lena will have to pick between Julian and Alex, won't she? I think she'll pick Julian, because remember she mentioned something about being even more comfortable with Julian than she was with Alex? And while we're talking about spoilers, I wish that there had been more about Lena's mother. But then again, it was nicely 'wrapped up' but I still there will be more about it in Requiem. *SPOILER OVER*


Pandemonium is quite a heavy read. It took me a while to read it all! It is darker than Delirium and I have a heard a lot of bloggers saying that they liked it better than Delirium. I think I liked Delirium slightly more than Pandemonium, but it was a close call! Nevertheless, Pandemonium is a beautiful, though-provoking, poignant novel, which I loved. If I had to describe it in one word it would be 'powerful'. I think it's pretty essential to read Delirium before reading Pandemonium though, and I would definitely recommend them both.

Rating: 4/5

Source: For Review - thank you to Hodder and Stoughton for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review

Format: Hardback
Pages: 329

Age group: 12+

Official Publication Date: 28th February 2012
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Author Website: www.laurenoliverbooks.com

Author Blog: laurenoliverbooks.blogspot.com