Early Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Pandemonium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Release Date: February 28, 2012
Publisher: Harper Teen
Delirium Book #2
ISBN:  006197806X
ISBN13: 9780061978067
Genre: Young Adult/ Dystopian
Review Copy Source: Publisher

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 continues immediately after the ending of DELIRIUM. Lena is running away from the border after seeing her love Alex killed. She is half dead herself before she is found by a group of Invalids in the wild.

The first quarter of the book was a bit depressing as Lena mourns and lets herself sorta waste away. She finally kicks herself into gear and gets back to her strong self. She of course is strongly against the cure and is now fighting on the side of the Invalids. The story flowed well. It jumps back and forth between Lena's time in the wild in the past and the present day events she is currently going through. I liked all the explanations of the wild and how everything worked around "camp". I enjoyed most of the new characters. The newest love interest kinda annoyed me. I know that Lena needs to move on with her life but I had a hard time seeing the romantic connection between her and Julian. They went through some tough things together but they didn't click with me. If she had to have a new love interest at all I would have liked to see her with someone from the wild. That is the only thing I didn't like about the story.

I sorta saw the ending coming but still enjoyed it all the same, it will definitely shake things up. Everything was just going too good for something major not to happen. It is a bit of a cliffhanger though so be prepared to be left with your mouth open and mind racing. REQUIEM will be out in 2013.

I gave it 4/5 stars