Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Pandemonium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperTeen
Age Group: Young Adult
Category:  Dystopian/Romance
Release date: February 28th, 2012
Pages: 375 (ARC)
Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: Won

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.

Although I thought Delirium was an entertaining read, I never would have thought that Pandemonium would leave me thinking about the story for hours and hours after finishing.  Lauren Oliver packs this book with more action, more romance, and more surprising twists.

After leaving her old life--and Alex--behind, Lena is found and rescued by a group of Invalids nearly 60 miles away from Portland.  After her savior, Raven, takes her in and nurses her back to health, she's taught how to survive in the Wilds.  She meets the others that live at the Homestead and learn what it's like to be in a real family, where each person helps in taking care of each other.  Though her life is beginning to look up from what it used to be, Lena still can't stop herself from thinking about Alex, about how it would be if he was still alive and by her side as planned.

She promises Raven that she will do whatever she needs to for her new family, which also means eventually making their way to the closest city in New York and living in disguise among the cured.  When Scavengers kidnap her and a well-known teenage boy named Julian, she has to team up with him in order to make it out alive, possibly spilling some secrets about the past along the way.

While I quite enjoyed Julian's character and story, I couldn't help myself from looking back to Alex and wishing he'd appear although it seems nearly impossible.  Lena finds out what it's like to survive on very little, to depend on herself, and to let go of what's gone.  By the end of Pandemonium, I was left aching for more; to find out what happens next.  The unbelievable cliffhanger confirmed what I was hoping throughout the entire book, yet I couldn't help but want more.