Review: Pandemonium

PANDEMONIUM
by Lauren Oliver

GOODREADS BLURB
"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."

After falling in love, Lena and Alex flee their oppressive society where love is outlawed and everyone must receive the "cure" -- an operation that makes them immune to the delirium of love -- but Lena alone manages to find her way to a community of resistance fighters. Although she is bereft without the boy she loves, her struggles seem to be leading her toward a new love.



MY THOUGHTS
Well written and intense, but oh so painful! Alex has to still be alive, and instead we’re watching Lena fall in love with someone else. No, no, no!



Months together with Alex, building a relationship, and in just a couple days, Julian takes his place. Well, it’s been 6 months since Alex got taken by the police. So in Lena’s defense, she didn’t just jump into someone else’s arms as soon as she escaped Portland, Maine.


She grieved for him. She kept living for him. And she chose to love again because he taught her about living to the fullest, loving with all your heart.


As much as I hated reading Pandemonium and watching this disaster ensue, I admired the author’s ability to tie me into knots and yearn for good things for her characters. I’m soooo hoping for a happy ending with the third and last installment of this series.