A review by Elizabeth Manthos
★★★★☆ four out of five stars
After the epic conclusion to Delirium (reviewed here), Pandemonium finds our protagonist all alone in the Wilds (the areas where Invalids roam, places that aren’t fenced off), with nothing but the clothes on her back.
With the love of her life captured or dead, Lena does the only thing she can think to do. To keep going, to find the resistance, to live the life he would have wanted her to live, all with the hope that he is somehow still alive.
When Lena finds she has been taken in by a group of Invalids, taken into their “home” to be a part of their “family”, well as much as a family anyone can be scrounging through the forest, her life begins to turn around. She joins the resistance, albeit not officially, and goes undercover to infiltrate the DFA – Deliria-Free America, a group that is determined to rid the whole country of deliria.
But naturally for Lena, nothing goes right and she’s captured by Scavengers (the Invalids who only want to pillage and steal from everyone, Invalids and Cureds alike) along with the leader of DFA’s son, Julian Fineman.
After pushing her heartbreaking struggle away, Lena and Julian manage to escape but not before Julian is captured by the DFA.
Lena has a choice to make; does she leave Julian and her growing feelings behind, knowing that he will be killed? Or does she fight for what she believes in and save him? After everything they go through, what happens when someone from her past pops back into her life?
With the heartbreaking struggle Lena is going through, the book jumps from then and now, then being from where Delirium ended and now being where Lena is now, in what I assume to be present time. The jumping of chapters should seem annoying, but at some points it’s refreshing: you get to see how far she has come as a character, her strength and beliefs developing. It’s like every single chapter has a cliff hanger and you just need to keep on reading to find out more.
Pandemonium flowed smoothly for a split time book: you come to love the characters in Pandemonium, their lives a stark contrast to the characters from Delirium. You get to see how different and difficult life in the Wilds is and how the people have had to make do with what they have.
I loved the continuation of the story, how Lena was feeling after the ending of the first novel, her struggle throughout the novel and the epic cliff-hanger. And I mean EPIC cliff-hanger, although I was excited beyond all belief when I realised what was happening. I won’t spoil anything, but so far this series is turning out exactly how I want it to.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it’s a good sequel to a great first novel and I cannot wait to finish Requiem (I picked it up straight away) to find out how the saga ends.
Rating (out of 5): ★★★★☆ four out of five stars
Pages: 384
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 9780061978067
