Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

pubisher: HarperTeen

release date: February 28th, 2012

hardcover, 357 pages

intended audience: Young adult

series: Delirium, book 2
(my review of Delirium)

rating:



source: from publisher for honest review

Warning! Description, review & video may contain spoilers for Delirium, book #1 in this series. If you haven't read it yet, stop now!

description:
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.

Review: As dark as Delirium was, with it's theme of love as a disease, Pandemonium is even darker, with a moving story about war, survival, and grief. Told in alternating time frames for each chapter, we get a glimpse at Lena's situation right after she crosses the wall, and further into the future---referred to as "then" and "now". At the beginning, I found this to be a little disorienting, my mind reeling from trying to figure out how in the world she got from point A to point B. It really left me a little lost at the start, but it soon became clear what was happening a few chapters in. Once again, Oliver delivers a story that grips and tears at your heart. Both time frames were compelling, but I find that when stories skip back and forth like this one, I tend to get more invested in one part over the other. In Pandemonium, it was the "now" that caught my attention the most. Maybe it was the slowly blossoming love story, maybe it was the intensity and danger as they get closer and closer to an uprising. But I found myself rushing through the "then" parts to get back to the "now". However, the two hold each other up. When we see Lena's time right after losing Alex, she meets several new, interesting characters, she learns how to survive in the wilds and even, at the worst of times, questions whether this new harsh freedom is worth the price she paid to get there. It builds the story behind how they all end up in the "now".

Another intensely heart-wrenching addition to this series. And once again, Lauren Oliver gives us the kind of twisting cliffhanger ending that leaves the reader gasping for air.

Visit Lauren Oliver at www.laurenoliverbooks.com.

Purchase Pandemonium at: Amazon • BN.com • BookDepository • Indiebound

No trailer for this one, but here you can see Lauren Oliver discussing Pandemonium!

Dark Days News & The Calling Book Trailer!!

The Dark Darks are moving right along! This Sunday's event in LA, featuring Lauren Oliver, Dan Wells, and Claudia Gray will be livestreamed by Tiffany of http://www.abouttoread.com/. What that means is that we'll ALL get to watch the event live on http://www.livestream.com/epicreads! Don't miss it!

BUT in the meantime, if you can't wait until Sunday to hear some Pandemonium talk from Lauren Oliver, click HERE to see a video of her event Raleigh, NC !

If you missed any of leg 3 of the Dark Days blog apprearances, here's where you can find them:

2/21 Lauren Oliver at All Things Urban Fantasy

2/22 Claudia Gray at A Life Bound By Books

2/23 Alex Flinn at Mundie Moms

2/28 Dan Wells at Bookalicious

3/1 Lauren Oliver at All Things Urban Fantasy

3/6 Claudia Gray at A Life Bound By Books

3/7 Alex Flinn at Mundie Moms

3/8 Dan Wells at Bookalicious

Last but not least...I just spotted this trailer for The Calling by Kelley Armstrong at Natalia's Dazzling Reads---I just had to share it here, too. It's such an intense, exciting trailer---one of the best I've seen in a while! I can tell this story is going in a completely different direction than I thought it was from the climactic ending in The Gathering!! So excited to start reading it!

Book Trailers: Liesl & Po and The Faerie Ring

Two new beautiful trailers to share this week! Uh...think The Faerie Ring might have been around for awhile, so it may just be me that it's new to LOL, but oh well...it's lovely and I want to show it off! :D Both of these make me even more excited to read these!

First up: Leisl & Po, featuring and exclusive song called "A Train with Wings".

Be sure to check out the awesome website for Liesl & Po, too! HERE!


And The Faerie Ring (which I don't think I'll be able to resist buying this week!):


So,..who's as excited about these two as me???

HarperTeen Virtual Events! Melissa Marr & Lauren Oliver

Some cool live chats happening from HarperTeen!!

Tonight at 8PM (eastern), Melissa Marr is making on special appearance to promote DARKEST MERCY, the final book in the WICKED LOVELY series. You can virtually attend Melissa’s San Diego book signing, ask Melissa questions, and interact with other fans here: http://www.vivolive.com/harpercollins/melissamarr. RSVP for the event on Facebook.

Lauren Oliver, NYT bestselling author of DELIRIUM and BEFORE I FALL will be chatting LIVE on Thursday February 24^th from7-8PM Eastern! RSVP for the event here on Facebook.
Learn more about DELIRIUM and read an excerpt here: http://harperteen.com/feature/delirium/.

Review: Delirium

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

publisher: HarperTeen

release date: February 1st, 2011

hardcover, 441 pages

intended audience: Young adult

rating:


source: from publisher for review

description: Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

Review: In this disturbing dystopian, the entire society believes that love is a disease and the cause of downfall to past generations. When each person turns 18, a procedure is performed on the brain that basically takes away the ability to love. It's a terrifying scenario, especially looking at it from a mother's point of view---you're not even allowed to love your children. I think my heart broke several times throughout this book---mostly when the main character, Lena is talking about her own mother. That is what is so fascinating about all of these dystopian tales coming out...they present such a twisted distorted world and force you to imagine what it would be like to live without the most basic things that we take for granted every day, like love, reading and writing and music, freedom of choice, a mother's love.

When we first meet Lena, she is about to turn eighteen and actually can't wait to have her procedure done. More than anything, this comes from fear---anyone who knows Lena has heard the story of her past...that her mother was unable to be cured by the procedure and ended up catching the "disease" and taking her own life. She fears daily that this is something that runs in her blood. It was interesting to see this character change, the way falling in love empowers her. I loved all three main characters in this story, Lena, Hana, and Alex. As much as it was about Lena falling in love with Alex, it was also about her love for her best friend, her mother, her little cousin, her sister...it was very powerful in showing how different the world would be without love in all it's forms.

While admittedly, the beginning dragged a little for me, about 100 pages in I was completely smitten with this story and couldn't put it down until the very end. And the END...OH, the end. Lauren Oliver. I will say this about her: the woman knows how to deliver an ending. In Before I Fall, the ending was pure orchestrated perfection. In Delirium, the story's conclusion literally explodes off the page leaving the reader feeling completely spent. All you can do at that point is close the book and say "Wow." I was almost a little disappointed to find out after that there would be more to the story---not because I don't want it to go on, but because the ending is so powerful, intense,... beautifully and tragically perfect. This one could have stood on it's own---and with so many cliffhanger endings in YA these days that have you lost until the next installment, this was so refreshing.

Visit Lauren Oliver's website here.

Purchase Delirium at: Amazon • BN.com • BookDepository

Trailer:

Review: Before I Fall

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

publisher: HarperCollins

released: March 2, 2010

hardcover, 470 pages

intended audience: Young Adult

rating:



Description from goodreads.com:
What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: the world's most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High—from the best table in the cafeteria to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life.

Instead, it turns out to be her last.

Then she gets a second chance. Seven chances, in fact. Reliving her last day during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

Review: It took me a second after flipping the very last page of this book to realize how much it effected me. It was an incredible debut novel. It was heartfelt and amazingly honest, shocking and hopeful, and very, very smart. It felt important; one of the first things I did after finishing it and letting it settle in my brain was to hand it to my almost-fifteen-year-old daughter and say "Read this." I was unsure at the beginning--I absolutely disliked the main character, Samantha,--- it was a challenge to connect with her on any level because she and her friends were so cruel and irresponsible. BUT you have to start there to really see the meaning of this story. It was incredible to watch her grow and mature, to see her learn what really was important in life and how she would attempt to capture it.

The plot itself was not, by any means, unique---as a matter of fact it reminded me so much the "groundhog day" plot that I was not the least bit surprised to see that very movie mention in the pages of this book! (Of course, I noticed it probably more that some because I've literally seen that movie at least 15 times!) However, the author has taken this plotline and put such a wonderful spin on it, giving it so much more depth and meaning, that the similarities hardly mattered in the end. It was captivating to see what Sam did and what she tried to change as she relived the day of her death over and over again.

I have so many more thoughts on this amazing story---but nothing that wouldn't give away too much if you haven't already read this one. And if you haven't, I suggest moving it closer to the top of your reading pile!