Book Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Pandmonium
Series/Sequel? The second of the Delirium series
Author: Lauren Oliver
Genres: Dystopian, Romance
Age Level: YA
Page Count: 375 (Hardcover) 
Summary: Lena managed to escape into the Wilds. But now she has to figure out how to survive. And with the resistance going stronger and a war beginning to brew, she has to find out how far she's willing to go to stop the cure... even as she is getting over her grief of losing Alex, and finding love with someone else... someone who shouldn't love her back. Someone who she shouldn't love.

Review: Truth be told, I was surprised when I found out Delirium was the first of a series. It ended so beautifully, SO beautifully and wonderfully and amazingly that I didn't think it needed a sequel. And... I'm not sure it was for the better.

The way it is told is confusing in itself. It goes back and forth between "then" and "now", until closer to the end of the book. I found it very hard to follow, and I didn't like the set up. In my opinion, it should have been told in just chronological order. I feel like it would be easier and make much more sense.

I didn't like Raven and the rest of the Invalids very much. They were, in my opinion, fairly boring, without personalities that differentiated from each other enough to really tell the difference between them. I also thought Raven (who is the head of the Invalids Lena stays with) was mean and rude and... ugh, I just did not like her.

I hated the relationship that occurred in this book between Lena and Julian. It was unnecessary and stupid, and just seemed like a way for Lena to cope over the loss of Alex. There was no real love or feeling between them, in my opinion, just lust for the forbidden... and lust in general. And especially how it ended... it seems like this series is going to be another stupid, pointless love triangle like so many other contemporary book series, which makes me sad and disappointed. Delirium was so amazing and powerful and beautiful... and this book just totally undermined all that.

I rated this at a three for only a couple of reasons - the writing in itself is wonderful, and there were parts (I don't want to give away spoilers, so I can't tell you what parts) that were very interesting and kept me reading.

All in all, I am fairly disappointed. I really wish that Lauren Oliver had just kept Delirium as a stand alone, because in this case, less is more. However, I know I will have to read the third one (whatever the title is, whenever it comes out) just because of the cliffhanger this book ends on.

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