"Pandemonium" by Lauren Oliver

I enjoyed Pandemonium quite a bit more than Delerium. It felt like Oliver had hit her stride with the plot and the characters and the story got started a lot quicker this time around. Lena escaped her old life at the end of Delerium and now faces a new life in the wilds. She is soon adopted by a group of people that also make the wilds her home and begins to learn what it like to live without constant regulation but instead with fear of being caught rebelling. She no longer has Alex so has to make this transition mostly on her own. Soon she will be caught up in the fight against the government as those that are against The Cure try to make a change.

The book alternates between two story lines, both from Lena's perspective, just at different periods of time. I thought this was a very interesting plot device because no matter what trouble Lena was in during the "Then" segments, I knew she had to get out of it because of the "Now" segments. There is more action in this than in the first installment and I spent much of my time reading it on the edge of my seat. Though I did enjoy this book, I am still not the biggest fan of this series. As a whole it is good, but not the strongest set of books I have read. But at the end of the book I was entertained and anxious to read Requiem and that is part of makes it a worthwhile read.

Happy Reading!
-Melly

"Delerium" by Lauren Oliver

This book was on my TBR list for far too long. While I wouldn't say it's the best dystopian I have read, but it was still a quality book. Lena cannot wait to be 18 and to get "cured." The government cures every adult of amor deliria nervosa, or "the deliria" keeping the population from being infected with love. Lena's mother could not be cured though she had the procedure many times, and Lena is anxious to get the risks of love behind her. As you can guess, Lena is going to meet a boy, find out that her heavily controlled world isn't the safe sanctuary she always believed it to be and is going to fall in love (this seems to be the general plot of most YA dystopians anymore, the difference this time around is that it's love that it forbidden). 

I was really looking forward to reading this book, but, unfortunately, I found the book as a whole a little dry. Once the plot got rolling it was entertaining, but I thought that it took a little too long to get started seeing that it's not at all surprising that Lena is going to end up changing her priority of getting cured. This could possibly have happened to me because I have read enough in this genre that I'm picking up on the patterns they often follow  (plus I might have been a little spoiled by how strong Lauren Oliver's other book, Before I Fell is). However, even though I thought the story was slow to start, the second half of the book was engaging and kept me turning the pages. I certainly plan on finishing this series and am hopeful that now that the plot and characters have been established, there will be plenty of story to make this a solid trilogy. It's no surprise that those that enjoyed The Hunger Games, Matched, Divergent, and so many others also love Delerium. If you like any of the books mentioned, then you will likely enjoy this book as well.

Happy Reading!
-Melly