Pandemonium

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Pages: 375
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.

Ramblings: I waited so long for this book to come out! Delirium was one of my favorite books from last year and I was so excited to continue the series! I don't feel like that gives a good explanation of the book though, and I really went into this novel with no idea what to expect. Here is an excerpt from the back of the book:
  "SO WHAT was your name before?"
I say, and she freezes, her back to me.
"Before you came to the WILDS, I mean."
For a moment she stands there.
                        Then she turns around.
           "You might as well get used to it now,"
                  She says with quiet
INTENSITY.
                     "Everything you were,
         The life you had,
the people you knew . . . DUST."
She shakes her head
       and says, a little more firmly,
"There is no before. There is only NOW,
   and what comes
                    NEXT."

Really cool right? So from this I got a little bit more, I know that it's in the Wilds and there is someone name Raven involved.

Characters: So, yes, there is a character named Raven. She is this really awesome, strong and fierce leader of this group of Invalids that take Lena in. She shows Lena what to do and makes her stronger. I really admired Raven, even in the end, because of her toughness and will to survive. Besides this tough exterior shell she has surrounding her, throughout the story it slowly breaks down until one scene, it shatters. It was amazing to see this other side of her, and my heart broke right along with hers.
As for Lena, she is super weak at the beginning of the book! It was weird to see her so vulnerable, and I kind of liked it. She grew stronger though and got back to herself, and then tougher.
There is one other character, Julian, who I surprisingly liked, but I can't say any more about without spoilers!

Plot: Alright.. I'm not sure yet as to how I'm going to try and explain this plot. It's really about Lena struggling to survive, but then Invalids are looking for a cure, and Scavengers get involved, and there's the whole team who is pro cure. I hope I kept them straight while reading the book! At times it got difficult.
What I didn't like about this book though, was the way it was written. It starts off with the first chapter saying "now" and the second chapter "then", and it alternates throughout the book. It's an interesting way to write the story, but only if it's done right and I don't feel like it was this time. It would have been fine for maybe half the book, but I expected the "then" section to meet up with the beginning of the "now" section at least half way through the book, but it didn't. I felt like I was reading two books at once and it made reading the story a little less enjoyable. Does that make sense?

Overall: I love the series, the characters, and all of the amazing plot twists! I'm going to continue reading the series, especially after the way that this book ended! I wanted to scream and I couldn't sit still! I had to get up and move around. The only thing I didn't like was the way the book was written. Hopefully the third book will be written better.

Overall Rating: 4 stars