Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Pandemonium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publish Date: February 28, 2012
Genre: YA, dystopian
Pages: 375
Series: Delirium #2
1. Delirium (review)
2. Pandemonium
3. Requiem (expected pub Feb 2013)

**WARNING: SPOILERS**

Synopsis:
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.

From Goodreads

The bottom line in this book is: survive. Whether it’s “Now,” 6 months after Lena’s escape, or “Then,” within days of it, the only thing that matters is to survive. Lena was having trouble doing so in the Wilds because it’s hard to survive when you’re still so dependent on the Insiders. In “Then,” Lena is helping the resistance and her survival isn’t as jeopardized… that is, until she’s kidnapped with the son of the leader of the Deliria Free America (DRA). And then survival is once again her main concern.

I loved how this was told in “Then” and “Now”. The tough thing about it was how each chapter seemed to end in a cliffhanger! And then I’d turn the page expecting to see what happens next, but it’d jump to the other time frame, and I’d have to get to the next chapter for relief from the cliffhanger. It was like this almost constantly, but I loved it. It made me want to keep reading and reading until I’d read it all.

I have to say, I’m still in love with Alex. Throughout this book, I refused to believe he was dead, even though Lena was convinced that he was. Every time she mentioned him (which was rare) or thought of him, my heart hurt for her. And now I don’t know what to think. So much happened in this book and I don’t know what to think or feel anymore. I’m sure Lena feels the same way. But you’ll have to read to find out exactly why.

There were so many new characters in this book, which is to be expected since Lena knows no one when she runs away to the Wilds. Raven was a great character, but I kept forgetting she was so young because she had so much responsibility and acted much older. For some reason, I really liked Hunter even though he was hardly a big character. And I have mixed feelings about Julian… I can’t figure out how I feel about him.

Pandemonium is a fantastic sequel! I didn’t expect what I found in the pages, but it was a beautifully written, intense story that I didn’t want to put down. I can’t wait to see how this series ends in book 3, Requiem.

Teaser Tuesday (50)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should be Reading.

Here's what you do:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two sentences from somewhere on that page
Share the title and author
Try not to include spoilers!

I have two teasers for you this week! I never do this, but I want to share from both since I'll probably be finished them next week.

I'm reading Lauren Oliver's Pandemonium, sequel to Delirium, which was one of my favourite books of 2011. I'm also reading an ebook review copy of Ember by Carol Oates. Here's my teasers:

Everything is wrong here, upside down and inverted: the door frames that open into air, invisible structures - buildings, signposts, streets, still casting the shadow of the past over everything. I can feel them, can hear the rush of hundreds of feet, can hear old laughter running underneath the birdsong: a place built of memory and echo.

I am suddenly exhausted.

"How did this happen? Why are you here?" Candra whispered only to Brie.

At exactly that moment Sebastian decided to speak up, banging his fist off the wall by his hip and stepping further away from the wall. "Enough!" he spat at Gabe. "She can't be expected to take everything in right now."

I thought of doing short teasers since I have two this week, but I couldn't help it. I loved both of these parts too much not to share.

Feel free to share your teasers with me! I'd love to see what you're reading.

Waiting on Wednesday (47)

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that showcases upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating!





This week I'm waiting on:

Pandemonium (Delirium #2) by Lauren Oliver
Publication Date: February 28, 2012

**WARNING: SPOILERS**

Synopsis:
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.

From Goodreads

Why I want it: Delirium was one of my favourite reads of 2011. It was that kind of book that I kept thinking about for weeks after finishing it. To me, that's a sign of a good book. I've already heard amazing things about this and am so excited to read it. I can't wait to see where Lauren takes Lena's story!

What upcoming releases are you looking forward to?

Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publish Date: February 1, 2011
Genre: YA, dystopian
Pages: 305 (Kindle edition)
Series: Delirium
1. Delirium
2. Pandemonium (expected pub 2012)
3. Requiem (expected pub 2013)

Synopsis
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.

From Goodreads

I honestly don’t know how I’d live in a world without love. I suppose if I was born into it and it was bred into my bones that love is a bad disease that would eventually kill me, I might I have different opinion. Lena is definitely all for the cure for amor deliria nervosa. When she was younger, her mother was unable to be cured (she had the procedure three times, but it never “worked”) and she ended up walking off a cliff. I can definitely sympathize with Lena: I wouldn’t want to fall in love or feel love at all if it was so bad that it caused my mom to commit suicide.

In the days before her 18th birthday, her cure date, Lena must complete the evaluations in which she must stand before a panel of four lab scientists and answer a series of questions. This is so that she can be paired with her future husband, but I think it is also a prescreening to ensure that she has not contracted the disease. Her evaluations don’t go very well, but there is an "incident" at the labs the same day, and she is lucky enough to get a do-over. She’s also lucky because this is the day she meets Alex, who ends up turning her life upside down.

Her best friend Hana is more outgoing and introduces Lena to new parts of her world that are “forbidden”: she listens to illegal music, she sneaks out after curfew, and spends time with boys (breaking the segregation rule). Somehow, Lena ends up being sucked into this world and she and Alex become friends. Since he is “cured” (she can tell by the mark that all cureds have), she feels that this is ok.

Aside from the more indepth synopsis of the book I’ve just given, I’m not really sure what to say. I know what I WANT to say, but it is totally spoilerific and not fair to you who haven't read it. I will say that I didn’t know what to expect from this book. I haven’t read Lauren's debut, Before I Fall, and I can’t recall reading any dystopian novels before, so I was going in blind. I am no longer blind, my friends! The romance in this story is beautiful because Lena is just discovering it for the first time. Along with that is her fear of love and fear of her society. She gets really tangled up and doesn’t know where she belongs because Alex is opening her eyes to things she has never seen before, things that the government hides from people to “keep them safe.” I could feel all of Lena’s emotions throughout the novel, from pain to curiosity to fear to love to confusion and more. It was all very powerful, which indicates to me that the writing is fantastic.

The last thing I will say is about the ending, and I will try my hardest not to spoil anything. The ending was absolutely amazing and shocking. I didn’t know if I should cry or not, scream or not, be happy or not! There are upsides and downsides to the way it ends, and I think I understand why the characters made the choices they did. It’s still really hard to read, emotionally. I had to reread the last two pages at least five times and still didn’t believe it. If you’re one of those people who reads the last few pages of a story before reading the story itself, I’d recommend for you not to. I’d say don’t ever, for any book you ever read, but especially for this one, just DON’T. Just read it. Read it and enjoy it, because you and I both know you will.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperTeen for the eARC!

Teaser Tuesday (7)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

DO NOT INCLUDE SPOILERS (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away, so that you don't ruin the book for others)

Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR list is they like your teasers!

My teaser this week comes from the much anticipated Delirium by Lauren Oliver. I’m about halfway through and really enjoying it. Here’s my teaser:

Grace’s life fell apart because of a single word: sympathizer. My world exploded because of a different word: suicide.
Correction: That was the first time my world exploded.





I love that we’re finally getting into the romance part of this story! I’m a sucker for romance and there's not much in the beginning. The book starts out by teaching us about the world in which Delirium is set, through the eyes of Lena. It’s really different because there's segregation, the sympathizers, the regulators, the cure, and so on. It’s a really interesting read so far and I’m excited to see where Lauren Oliver is going to take the story.

Feel free to share links to your teasers! I’d love to see what you’re reading.