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Bookshelves are chockful of love stories with the same plotline of ‘boy meets girl and they fall for each other. Love is everywhere – or so the cliché goes in every song, story, poem, and work of art since man first found words to express a malady so painful “and yet so fair”.
But what if love were precisely that, a disease (no, seriously) – would you take the cure?
Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver follows up on his bestselling title, Delirium. The story takes place in a dystopian present where love is a terminal illness, and where the law requires everyone to take the cure by the age of eighteen.
In Pandemonium, Lena finds herself outside the confines of the loveless society she used to call home; she reinvents herself and tries to relearn everything she knows to be true. New characters come in and truths are revealed.
Pandemonium is a sequel that will leave readers craving for the final instalment, Requiem.
The story is told in two points of time – “now” and “then”. It begins with the final scene of Delirium and shows Lena’s transformation from a meek, naïve girl to a new woman–made stronger by love’s disease. New characters like Raven, Tack, and Julian add interesting twists and turns to the plot.
Blending elements of dystopia and survival, Pandemonium is a story written so vividly that readers would feel an instant connection to the characters. The sense of resistance is stronger and prepares readers for the action to come in Requiem.
The sequel is solid, action packed, thrilling, and with a beyond-heart-wrenching ending. Readers are in for a read that will keep them mentally and emotionally captivated. According to Oliver, the third and final installment, Requiem, will be told from dual perspectives. It will be released sometime in February 2013.
