Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver {Delirium #2}

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
My Rating: 5 stars
Goodreads summary: 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

*THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR DELIRIUM*

My thoughts: WHY DID I WAIT A YEAR TO READ THIS!?!?!?!?
Lets all take a trip down memory lane, shall we. We are in August 2014. I had just finished reading Delirium and had checked out Pandemonium from the library. It's in my hands, but I never wanted to read it. Fast-forward to August 2015. I'm taking a stroll through the library and I see it just staring at me. I say "Ehhhh, I should probably read Pandemonium" and because I had nothing better to read, I checked it out. It was kind of a foolish mistake for me not to read it back then, but then again it wasn't because I think if I read it last year I'm not sure I would've fully appreciated it as I do now.

First, Lauren Oliver's writing is beautiful! For me it's the type of writing that I don't notice is beautiful because I'm too caught up in the story, but then all of a sudden something just clicks in my head and I realize what I just read.

You know, it feels like forever ago that I read Delirium and I honestly can't remember hardly anything about it. I do remember liking Alex, but right now I'm drawing a blank as to why I liked him. I'm kinda mad at myself for not remembering why I liked Alex. Thinking about it right now, I feel like he was just kinda there and that Lena just liked him because he was basically the first boy she's ever had a real encounterance with. I also don't remember Lena as a character that much. I know she wasn't as cool as she is in Pandemonium, though! She's different and she's changed into some strong, kick-butt teenage girl on a mission. I loved it!

There's something special about the way this story is written. I'll try to explain it to the best of my ability in hopes that you'll understand. There are alternating "Then" and "Now" chapters. Basically every chapter ended in a cliffhanger! One moment were in the "then" world and things are going crazy, but then the next chapter we would be a "now" chapter so your sucked into a different time. I loved it! I made me want to keep reading more and more! In the "then" chapters we get to see Lena right after the tragic events from Delirium. We see her start to change, grow, and have to get accustomed into a new life. In the "now" chapters we see her on a mission and she has to work with an enemy in order to survive.

We get to see more of the world in the Wilds and how big it actually is. We also learn some new things about this deliria free world and it made me think of a few ways on how this series will end.
I know dystopian novels are kinda weird and scary because of the world, but this one is probably takes the prize for scariest. A world free of love sounds pretty crazy to me. Parents don't even love their children?! I would be scared to live in a world like that!

I guess there are some things you never get used to. 

There's a few new characters and they made this book much more meaningful and interesting for me. One of the reasons I loved this book so much was because of Julian whatever-his-last-name-is. I just loved reading the chapters with him in them and how he and Lena talked and formed a relationship. I do admit, Julian was low key creeper status in some scenes.

Then there's the ending. Oh man, I still can't even with my feelings. There's some cliffhangers that will forever stay with me and this is one of them.
I'm anxious to read the final book in this trilogy, Requiem.

I hope you enjoyed my weird, incoherent ramblings and Happy Readings! I'm off to read Requiem!!