Pandemonium (book two of the Delirium trilogy) – Lauren Oliver
Lauren Oliver left us with an enormous cliffhanger at the end of Delirium, Pandemonium’s captivating predecessor. I hoped that this sequel would pull us back up again, and that it did, but in a way that I absolutely had not expected.
Synopsis:
Lena’s been to the very edge. She’s questioned love and the life-changing and agonising choices that come with it.
She’s made her decision. But can she face the consequences?
I don’t want to spoil anything here, but I will say that Pandemonium adds some new characters into the mix that lead Lena’s story in a whole new direction. I was surprised by this, but pleasantly. In fact, Pandemonium is one of those rare cases when the sequel is ten times better than the first in the series, and I had already given Delirium a five star rating.
And it’s not just the new characters that make Pandemonium such a great read, it’s also the new structure that Lauren Oliver has introduced. Delirium was a pretty straight forward story with a narrative that took us from A to B, but Pandemonium shakes it up a bit with a ‘then’ and ‘now’ structure that takes the reader back and forth in time chapter by chapter. It’s a pretty mean feat to be able to pull this off without making things complicated and confusing, but Lauren Oliver has achieved it perfectly.
Pandemonium is jam-packed full of action, and plenty of moments where you can actually feel your heart squeezing in your chest (to me, that’s a sign of a truly good book). Lauren Oliver has a way of really making you connect with the characters, which makes reading her work an experience, like you’re sprinting alongside them rather than watching them from afar. It’s an adventure.
Plus, if you thought the cliffhanger at the end of Delirium was bad, wait until you get to the last page of Pandemonium. Seriously. ‘Holy sh*t’ is the phrase that springs to mind.
Thank goodness I’ve already got my hands on a copy of the trilogy’s conclusion: Requiem. I’m not sure I could have stood the torture of having to wait a year to find out Lena’s fate. On that note, I had better get reading!
My rating:
***** 5/5
You’ll love Pandemonium if you enjoyed:
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Divergent – Veronica Roth
Matched – Ally Condie
Before I Fall – Lauren Oliver
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