Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Pandemonium (Delirium #2)
by Lauren Oliver

Genre: Dystopia, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult
Publication: February 5th, 2013 by HarperCollins
Format: Paperback, 375 pages
Source: Own
Connect: Website | Twitter | Facebook

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.

In this electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller Delirium, Lauren Oliver sets Lena on a dangerous course that hurtles through the unregulated Wilds and into the heart of a growing resistance movement. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

Just like the first book, Pandemonium has been a bit  slow for my liking. The alternating scene between 'Now' and 'Then' was a bit confusing at first, making it hard for me to get into the book. 

I like the first book, but I had a mixed thought about Pandemonium. I love that Pandemonium focused more on the Resistance. I enjoyed reading about them and how and what they did to survive in the woods. However, there are some scenes that I felt a bit draggy and some are unnecessary. Pandemonium also focused on Lena's character's growth after what happened between her and Alex at the end of Delirium. I wasn't a fan of Lena at the beginning, just like in Delirium. But it was interesting to see how she got stronger. But what put me off the book was Julian. And the ending! It was very predictable, and I'm not a fan of where the story was heading to.

Overall, Pandemonium was an okay read. Lauren Oliver writing was beautiful and that was one of the reasons I wanted to read her book. I have to say that I'm not really looking forward to read Requiem, but I'm still curious about what will happen to the characters next. And I hope Requiem will answer some of my questions regarding the disease.

Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Delirium (Delirium #1)
by Lauren Oliver

Genre:  Dystopia, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult
Publication: February 2011
Format: Paperback, 441 pages
Author:  Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads

They say that the cure for Love will make me happy and safe forever.

And I've always believed them. Until now. Now everything has changed.

Now, I'd rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie.

Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life, until ninety-five days before her eighteenth birthday and her treatment, when she falls in love.

This book has been sitting on my shelf for quite some times. I wanted to read Delirium for its positive reviews and beautiful cover (although my sister finds it a bit creepy). But I was hesitant to read the book because of the thickness. I was worried that I wouldn’t like it so much and I would be tortured to finish the book. I’m glad that I didn’t feel that way. Haha.

In Delirium, love is considered as a disease. The heroine, Lena was supposed to go through an assessment before a procedure to cure her from deliria disease. But days before her procedure, Lena met Alex and she fell in love.

Delirium pace was a little bit slow to my liking. I had a hard time getting into the book at the beginning where we were introduced to the disease. I just couldn’t grasp the idea where love is considered as a terrible disease. Really?  But I started to like the book a little more towards the end. Like any of the readers, I liked Hana more than Lena. Hana sounded much stronger than Lena. I liked her personality. But after a while, I began to like Lena a little more bit when she grew up and decided to fight back. But then, the story ended with a cliffhanger…

Overall, Delirium was quite a nice book on forbidden love. I do think that Lauren Oliver’s writing is beautiful. Even though I didn’t really like how Lauren Oliver ended the book with a cliffhanger, I had a feeling that the next book, Pandemonium would be much better than Delirium.  I’m looking forward to read the continuation.

#35 Teaser Tuesday: Delirium

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week:

It’s strange how life works: You want something and you wait and wait and feel like it’s taking forever to come. Then it happens and it’s over and all you want to do is curl back up in that moment before things changed. – page 55, Delirium by Lauren Oliver

I'm reading Delirium by Lauren Oliver this week. I had this book on my shelf for a while but was afraid to read it. You see, I've heard lots of positive reviews from my friends that I was afraid that I might not like the book as they did (it happen to me sometimes). But I'm glad that delirium wasn't disappointing. I enjoyed reading the book so far.