Pandemonium Audiobook

The sequel to Delirium, Pandemonium is yet another emotional roller-coaster, this time with quite a bit of action thrown in. The protagonist is Lena Haloway who lives in a dystopian society where love is considered a disease, and people are forced to go through a procedure that will cure them. They emerge as robots who are paired with others and go on to live a safe life with no emotions. Lena, however, falls in love with an outsider and tries to run away with him in Delirium. At the very end, her boyfriend, Alex, is shot, but he forces her to go on without him.

Lena escapes into the wilds and this is where Pandemonium begins. It details the story of Lena's life with the other "invalids," as the people on the fringes of society are called. These people have not been cured of love and are forced to live by their wits, stealing food and clothing to survive. In the beginning, Lena is depressed, but soon, she realizes that she can't expect the other invalids to take care of her. So she starts helping out in whatever way she can and becomes a great deal stronger in the process.

After this process of adjustment is over, Lena becomes a part of the resistance and goes into one of the cities undercover as a DFA (Delirium-Free Association) agent. Here, she's thrown together with Julian, the son of a prominent politician who is being used as an example of the importance of the procedure to rid people of emotions. Even though Julian is at risk of dying, he has agreed to have the procedure. Lena believes that Alex is dead and starts to have feelings for Julian. But is Lena's second love also destined to die like the first one or will he escape this fate? The end of Pandemonium is as unexpected as the end of Delirium and fans will want to read the third book in the trilogy right away to find out what happens in Lena's love life.

This is an amazing trilogy which starts with a simple premise but develops into a complex saga. Book two is quite different from book one, having a lot more action, and the heroine grows up a lot. If readers were intrigued by Lena in book one, they're sure to fall in love with her in book two.

Born in Queens, New York, Lauren Oliver, whose real name is Laura Schechter, grew up in Westchester, New York. Her parents were both literature professors and encouraged her to be creative in any way possible from an early age. She got her Bachelor's in Literature and Philosophy from the University of Chicago and a Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from New York University. She worked at Random House before turning to writing full-time. The movie based on her first book, Before I Fall, is in development. Pandemonium is part of a dystopian trilogy consisting of Delirium, Pandemonium and Requiem. She lives in Brooklyn with her fiancé.

"Delirium was better than Pandemonium. I think that this book was streched out, some parts were pretty dull. What do you guys think about Juillian? I personally dislike him, the reasoning behind this is not that I favor Alex it's that I find Jullian annoying. At the beginning of this book I found the switching back and forth between then and now to be quite bothering. As the book progressed I came to like it and it kept me on the edge of my seat. The ending was no suprise at all. Alex was to important to the story to have him die. Usually I am able to tell what will happen with love intrests but this story it throwing me for a loop and I have no clue what will happen with the love component."

— Mary (4 out of 5 stars)