REVIEW: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Pub. Date: February 28th 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 375
Readership: Young adult
Genres: dystopia
Rating: ★★★★★

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.

Sometimes the sophomore book in a series falls short. A number of things could happen: the author get lazy, it doesn't live up to the hype of the first, it just somehow ends up falling flat in every way possible or it simply sucks. Pandemonium is not one of those sophomore books. It was fantastic. It lived up to every one of the expectations that I had.

I love how the book was split between going back and forth NOW and THEN. It really showed all that Lena had gone through, her feelings from start to finish and the roller coaster she'd metaphorically been on. Lauren didn't simply do a time jump and suddenly Lena was all strong since losing Alex and crossing into the Wilds. She wasn't suddenly this new person. We saw how she was truly gutted, how she sometimes wished that she to had died while crossing instead of losing the man she loved. We saw her gradually grow and heal, even when she was in the NOW sequences. It was something I haven't seen done before.

In Pandemonium we also meet some new characters. There is Raven, Tack, Hunter - a few more - and of course, Julian. They are all fantastic and play a part in Lena becoming who she is now: brave, strong but also, underneath it all, a little bit broken still. You can be strong and broken at the ame time. Hell, I think you can only admit that you're broken if you're strong. Julian is Lena's new love interest and in many ways, he helped her mourn Alex and to heal. In no way has Lena let go but she's moving on.

Pandemonium doesn't lack action scenes. At points I was on the edge of my seat, fighting sleep, just to see what happened next. There was no way I was going to go to sleep or head back to work until I knew what was going on. Pandemonium is a brilliant mix of action as well as a very human story, as well as the dystopian element. Pandemonium will not disappoint you. It's one of the best sequels in a series I've read in a while.

I will say this: I wish I had read Pandemonium closer to the release date of Requiem because the cliffhanger is big. Very, very, very big. Huge and hair pulling and oh my GOD, it's big.

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