Love Cannot Be Stopped

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

This is the second book after Delirium, where the government and religious leaders have found that love is a disease.  When a person turns eighteen they are taken to a clinic to remove the section of his or her brain in order not to love.  Spoilers for Delirium from here on out, you’ve been warned!!!

Lena and Alex were caught.  The gate to their condemned hide out was found and she was taken back to her house and the procedure was scheduled for the next morning.  She ends up escaping with Alex, wild chase both Lena and Alex are hurt.  Lena makes it over the fence, Alex does not and the last we see of our hero, he is shot, bleeding and on the wrong side of the fence. When we come back to Pandemonium Lena is dying.  She is found by Raven an Invalid or otherwise known as free.  The book is a great show of what life is like on the other side of the fence.  We meet new characters and learn of a new life. 

The book is split into “now” and “then” and we switch back and forth between the past and what it currently taking place, all events are after Delirium.  Oliver did an excellent job of balancing the past and present and it makes Lena a deeper character and helps us understand her as a free person better.  In the present, Lena, Raven and Tack have joined the Resistance in New York and Lena’s job is to get close to the DFA, an organization against love and for the procedure.  She is supposed to go to all meetings and stay unseen.  This poses a problem when the leader’s son Julian is kidnapped and in order to stay close, she follows him down into the unused subway tunnels and is taken along with him.  As they are trapped for days and Lena keeps slipping about who she is and about her procedure being fake Julian learns a lot more about the resistance that he bargained for. 

The ending of this book will remain in my mind as a one of the craziest endings ever.  “Don’t believe her.” When those words were spoken, my heart leapt into my throat and I couldn’t believe what was happening.  I won’t spoil it, you just have to read it to see what happened.  I cannot wait for Requiem, the third and final book. 

If you are looking for a fresh new young adult series, look no further.  Delirium is different, outstanding and well written.  Keep reading my friends!