Unraveling Review

Unraveling
by Elizabeth Norris
Expected Publication Date:
From Goodreads:

Two days before the start of her junior year, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed—as in blinding light, scenes of her life flashing before her, and then nothing. Except the next thing she knows, she's opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And even though it isn't possible, she knows—with every fiber of her being—that Ben has somehow brought her back to life.

But her revival, and Ben's possible role in it, is only the first of the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI agent father's files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be counting down to something—but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is killed, she can no longer deny what's right in front of her: Everything that's happened—the accident, the murder, the countdown clock, Ben's sudden appearance in her life—points to the end of life as she knows it. And as the clock ticks down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world, she's going to need to uncover Ben's secrets—and keep from falling in love with him in the process.

From debut author Elizabeth Norris comes this shattering novel of one girl's fight to save herself, her world, and the boy she never saw coming.

My Thoughts: I instantly connected to this book and it's main character.  I loved the writing style, and the obvious connections and references to X-Files.

Despite the fact that I figured out the identity of the baddie pretty early on, the book still threw some curve balls at me.  One in particular comes about half way through the book, and it was a shocker (no, Kim, not like the wtf moment in Fingersmith, or even as big as the one in the book I read for readathon).  Another one at the end actually disappointed me and I thought it was unnecessary even if it was realistic.  

Towards the end the book lost a little of my attention, and I think it was because I was mad at Janelle for putting Jared and Alex aside in favor of Ben.  It just didn't ring true for who I thought Janelle was, and it just made the Alex storyline that much harder to take at the end.


Unraveling also has a lot of swear words mixed in.  Yes, teens swear, but sometimes it honestly felt like it was too much and a little forced.  Normally I don't even blink at curse words in YA, it's a hell of a lot more realistic than having the kids speak like they're in an episode of Sesame Street, but I actually found myself rolling my eyes at some of the f bombs that were dropping. But it's a fairly minor complaint.

The beginning of the book is fairly attention grabbing, and I knew right away that I was going to like this book.  Since it's in the summary, this isn't spoilerish, but in the beginning right as Janelle is getting hit by the truck she makes the point that she always thought she was a fairly observant person and so she finds some humor in getting hit, because she never saw it coming.

I liked that the book wasn't afraid to be a little sci-fi.  I liked that it wasn't a huge stretch of the imagination that Janelle could become so involved with her FBI dad's case.  Overall this was just a great read for me, and something just a little different.  The writing and dialogue was fun and interesting, and I will definitely be reading more by this author!

Unraveling gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

The cover gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

I like the cover, although I think it makes Janelle's hair look a little on the red side, which isn't how she's described.  Ben is exactly how I pictured him though!

Ali and Ramazan Review

Ali and Ramazan
by Perihan Mağden
Expected Publication: 4.24.12
From Goodreads:

Ali and Ramazan are two boys from very different backgrounds who land in the same Istanbul orphanage. They quickly see eye to eye and fall into a loving relationship as children, bringing light to one another and to the other orphans in their dreary adopted home. Ramazan is a charmer, the school master's favorite (which we later learn is not such a positive thing), the clown among the boys, and the only one with a real handle on things outside the orphanage's walls. He takes Ali under his wing, and by the time they turn eighteen and are loosed onto Istanbul's mean streets, Ali and Ramazan are a pair. What happens next is both tragic and beautiful, a testament to love finding its way even among the least visible citizens on Turkey's mean streets.

My Thoughts: Ali and Ramazan is a much different read from my usual thrillers or YA, but it's a short, powerful story of a true and desperate love that's all consuming and burns almost too bright to last. It's not a happy book, the orphans of Istanbul are not saved by Daddy Warbucks, but Ali and Ramazan do find each other, and change one another. Ali was sweet and loveable, still innocent even after his brutal upbringing, and charming Ramazan is always in control despite the out of control relationship he has with the orphanage "master". 

Once out of the orphanage, the two boys find themselves ill prepared for life outside it's walls. Love doesn't always conquer all, and sometimes we hurt those that we love the most.  Ramazan is a natural survivor, but when the chips are down he turns to the only way he has of making money, putting a wedge between him and Ali.

With it's child prostitution and violence, this book isn't for everyone. I wanted to read outside my comfort zone, and a translated book from Turkey about two boys in love is about as far as I can get from the books I usually review on here. I've read other translated books, from Japanese and  Swedish authors, and it often feels like I have too many books on my tbr list than I have time on earth.  It just blows my mind that I'm missing out on even more great books simply because the author's native language isn't English.  Maybe I'll host a Translated Reading Challenge... Would anyone be interested?

Despite it's sad ending, I couldn't help but think that it was the best (of the worst) ending for Ali and Ramazan.  I'm surprised by how long the characters have stayed with me, and while I don't think I'll ever re-read the book since it was so sad, I'll never need to because this love story will stay with me.  When I was reading it the sadness was what I thought would stay with me,  but the author brought these characters to life for me and I really felt I knew Ali and Ramazan. I'm glad I waited a few weeks before writing this review and I definitely think this is worth a read if it's caught your attention. 


Ali and Ramazan gets a Midnight Book Girl Rating of:

Disclaimer: I requested and received a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

And because I actually have the author photo, here is the lovely Perihan Mağden:

 I would love to know what books are on her shelves!

Anna and the French Kiss 
by Stephanie Perkins
From Goodreads:

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.

As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near - misses end with the French kiss Anna - and readers - have long awaited?

My Thoughts: I have to admit, I'm impressed.  I've seen lots of reviews on Anna and the French Kiss (hundreds of them!), and everything I've ever read has been positive.  Plus my some of my best friends have read and loved the book. I bought it months ago, when sadly I benefited off the closing of my local Borders, but it lingered like so many other books on my shelf.  So a few Sundays ago I made up my mind to just read it already. 

I read the first few chapters that day and was immediately happy with it. Anna was easy to empathize with, and the book is just flat out funny.  But then I put the book down.

Are you shaking your head at me?  You should.

In my defense I've had several review books that I've had to read the past two weeks.  So the other day I was just going to read a bit more and finally get past chapter 3, when suddenly I couldn't put the book down.

Needless to say that not a lot other than reading went down in my house, because housework can wait until the people from Hoarders show up and help me clean my house with shovels and stuff. 

Etienne and Anna... sigh.  Paris... sigh. Old movies on the big screen... sigh.  I fell in love. 

Afterwards I kind of cuddled the book... just a little. 

Don't worry, nothing got creased.  I'm a careful reader and cuddler. 

Oh, young love and its misunderstandings.  Please, read this book.  You know you want to!  And don't be put off by how wildly popular it is, because it's not just bunk, it's actually worth the hype.

Anna and the French Kiss gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

The cover gets a Midnight Book Cover Rating of:

It's okay, but it doesn't blow me away.  And where's her stripe?!

Masque of the Red Death Review

Masque of the Red Death
by Bethany Griffin
Expected Publication: 4.24.12
From Goodreads:

Everything is in ruins.

A devastating plague has decimated the population. And those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles to pieces around them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery make-up . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club. And Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither boy is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.

And Araby may find something not just to live for, but to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

My Thoughts:  I was so excited when I read the summary for this book!  I have no idea why, other than the fact that I am a morbid midnight book girl, but I have an intense interest in plagues.  Weird, right?  And like a good horror fan, I dig all things Poe.  So a YA book that updates a Poe story?  I am so with that.

This is not just a simple retelling of a Poe story, this is Poe meets Moulin Rouge meets sci fi.  Everything is decadence and decay, with a bit of steam punk thrown in. I'm not sure this is 100% steam punk, but there's air ships and steam carriages and balloons. And there's a parasol on the cover, which is pretty much all I know to look for in the steam punk genre.  I imagine some readers will have issues with the time/period setting, since it's kind of a mish mash of the past and the present, but I think it works in this story.  Plus, I don't read for realism, I read to get out of my head and into a new world.  Masque of the Red Death definitely feels both familiar and alien, which I liked.

Araby is the daughter of a very important scientist, one who has helped keep the plague at bay- at least for those that shadowy Prince Prospero wants kept alive, but most of what defines her throughout the book is that she is the former sister of dead twin brother Finn.  Because she feels guilt over his death, Araby is all about denying herself happiness, and is careful not to experience anything that Finn never got a chance to do.

This does not apply to drugs though.  Araby does drugs to numb herself, even as she dresses in skimpy clothes (the idea is to show your arms and legs as much as possible to prove you aren't diseased) and gorgeous corsets and lounges around the most popular club in the Debauchery District. Honestly, the drug use was probably the only part of the book that I didn't really enjoy, but I do think it adds to the overall decadent tone that Araby sets in the beginning. It doesn't feel like it's advocating drug use, but it also doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of consequences for all the drug use going on either.

Everyone, and by everyone I mean the rich people, wear masks constantly to protect them from the plague.  Imagine a society where your nose and mouth are always covered, it would be hard not to feel detached from each other.  Of course, I'd be fine since my eyes are my best feature.  But it'd be weird to not be able to see people's mouths and things like sneezing are never addressed. I think the masks add to the mystery and isolation that surrounds the characters.  Her mask helps numb Araby to the world around her.

But things happen, and suddenly Araby begins to not feel so numb.

And of course that's partly due to the new boys in her life.  Because what's a YA novel without some yummy boys?

First there's poor, but sexy and tattooed Will.  They start of strong and sexy because he's the one that checks the ladies coming into the club, so there's lots of lingering caresses and whispers. Will's also raising his two adorable moppet siblings. Who can resist a sexy guy that's also in touch with his nurturing side?

Then there's Elliot.  He's the older brother of Araby's bff April.  I didn't know what to think about him at first, because it seemed clear to me that Will was the main love interest, but I have to say Elliot won me over.  He's a bit broken, a bit radical, but the passion that he feels towards wanting to end his uncle's control over the city and his crusade to get masks to the poor is kind of attractive.  He and Araby have a slow burn, compared to the white hot flash that she and Will have, so I'm a bit torn. Towards the end of the book I was kind of over Will.  I mean, I wished him well, but I felt like I might want to board the Team Elliot band wagon.  We'll see.

Overall this was a fast paced read for me.  I wasn't sure I liked Araby in the beginning.  First there's her name, which conjures up the old song The Sheik of Araby in my head which plays over and over again anytime her name is mentioned.  In fact, it's playing right now.  This probably won't be a problem for most of the readers since not a whole lot of people under the age of 70 even know it.  But I also had a problem with her drug use.  I'm just not a fan, and I thought it was at odds with her pledge to not experience anything her twin wasn't around to enjoy.  But once Araby started to get over herself, and her own loss, and began to really care about people and events going on around her, I was able to connect with her. 

I didn't sit down and read this book in one sitting, but it's the kind of book you can devour.  There's a lot of action, not just feelings and pretty dresses.  Araby, Will and Elliot don't just sit around, sighing and looking attractive.  They are all balancing on a very thin wire, one constantly shaken by death and danger.  So while there is a love triangle, there's also a real plot underneath it. 

Masque of the Red Death gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

The cover gets a Midnight Book Cover Rating of:

I love it!  I'd seriously buy this book summary unseen just based on title and cover art.

Disclaimer: I briefly received a copy of this book for review as part of an ARC tour in exchange for my honest opinion.

Grave Sight Review

Grave Sight 
by Charlaine Harris
From Goodreads:

 Harper Connelly has what you might call a strange job: she finds dead people. She can sense the final location of a person who's passed, and share their very last moment. The way Harper sees it, she's providing a service to the dead while bringing some closure to the living-but she's used to most people treating her like a blood-sucking leech. Traveling with her step-brother Tolliver as manager and sometime-bodyguard, she's become an expert at getting in, getting paid, and getting out fast. Because for the living it's always urgent-even if the dead can wait forever.

My Thoughts:  You know how you can read two different books by an author and be surprised that they came from the same mind?  I've read all the Sookie Stackhouse books, and just assumed Grave Sight would be similar, but it's not.  Harper Connelly is a much different character than Sookie.  She seems wise beyond her years and is, for the most part, very careful.

Harper has an edge that comes from living a rough childhood, and after getting struck by lightning, she can now find the dead.  She has an interesting relationship with her step-brother Tolliver.  I went in thinking that it'd be a Flowers in the Attic kind of relationship, but so far there's no hint of it.  Which was a bit disappointed, but she did have a worthy romantic hook up in this first book. 

I really liked the mystery and the way that Harper and Tolliver were drawn into the lies of a small town.  I figured some of the plot out early on, but it didn't take away from the tension and drama of some of the confrontations. 

I listened to Grave Sight on audio (downloaded from Audible) and it was a fairly good listen.  The narrator lends a maturity to Harper's story, although she sounds older than Harper is described as being.  She had a nice, soothing voice.  I will definitely be continuing this series! I'm looking forward to continuing the story, and seeing what's up with her brother Tolliver and the rest of her family (hopefully we learn Cameron's fate as some point).


Grave Sight gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

The cover gets a Midnight Book Cover Rating of:

Not really my favorite cover, but you can't always have both a good story and a good cover.

Shatter Me Review

Shatter Me
by Tahereh Mafi
From Goodreads:

 Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.

My Thoughts:  I listened to Shatter Me on audio, which might be why it was hard for me to enjoy this book.  The narrator, in what I'm assuming was an attempt to capture Juliette's character, was over the top and emotional, to the point of shrill at times.  The constant crossing out of lines (which you hear but obviously don't see since it's audio) grated on my nerves.

You know that line in the Harry Potter movie when Hermione is explaining all the things Cho Chang felt whilst snogging Harry, and Ron says it's not possible for one person to feel all those things at once?  Well, he could have been talking about Juliette.  She feels for everyone, she wants to care for everyone, save everyone, and recycle.  Al Gore would probably be happy to adopt her, which would work because he doesn't seem like the hugging type anyway.

Fortunately either the narrator calmed down, or Juliette did, because about halfway through things got a little better.  I really enjoyed Warner, except Juliette's constant "I'm nothing like you" arguments got kind of old.  I'm kind of rooting for Warner, not to win Juliette from Adam, but just to turn her to the dark side.  Darth Vader Juliet would be much more interesting. We get a lot of anti-heros in YA fiction, but we're thin on the ground with anti-heroines. 

So, plot wise, Juliette is locked up because her touch kills.  She spends her days and nights in her cell alone, and I kept picturing the video for Melissa Etheridge's Come to My Window when the actress Juliette Lewis is going crazy, drawing on the walls and, like Shatter Me's Juliette, scribbling and crossing out, scribbling and crossing out, scribbling and crossing out.  See, I can do it too!

Anyways hottie Adam shows up, and Juliette is all crossing out over him.  Turns out he's from her past, and why he's drawn to her is just as mysterious to me as it is to Juliette.  Yeah, I get it, she's extremely unselfish and bent over backwards to help the same school mates who shunned her.  But honestly, I just felt that all of those instances of unselfishness (she misses a field trip to let some other snotty girl go, she claims to be cheating on a test in order to save yet another classmate even though her parents punish her severely, etc) just made Juliette seem a bit pathetic.  Holding doors open for people, that's a nice gesture, taking a beating for a class mate that would just as soon spit on you is over the top disturbing.  But once more it show's how caring Juliette is!

 I know I've made it sound like I hated the book, but I did think it had it's interesting points.  I was intrigued by Warner, and adored Adam and his little brother.  The ending went places I wasn't expecting, and I found it quite compelling.  I don't think I'll continue with the series just because I really don't like Juliette.  I can guarantee I won't listen to the next book in the series on audio (seriously the narration reminds me too much of my own drama club rehearsals back in high school).

A lot of the writing was truly beautiful, it was just too much.  And Juliette never just walks across a room, she is flung, she is propelled, she is shot out of a cannon by a demented circus monkey on a long journey to revenge across the room.  She doesn't just love Adam, she is shattered by him, she is thrust into the heat of a thousand burning suns at the mere thought of his touch, she is broken and then pieced together with drippy hot love glue.  Did I mention that the word shatter is way overused? 

There is a certain amount of hotness in the fact that Juliette's touch kills but she can touch Adam and their smexy scenes were pretty intense.  The author (and the characters) don't go too far, but at least there is chemistry between Adam and Juliette.

Lots of people/bloggers love Shatter Me, but if you're looking for the next Hunger Games, I can't recommend this book.  It does have a touch of X-Men in it though, so it might interest you super power lovers out there.

Shatter Me gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

The cover gets a Midnight Book Cover Rating of:

It's an okay cover, but in the world of amazing YA covers this one just doesn't stand out to me.  I do give it props for being mostly white, which is a nice change from a lot of the others out there. 

Partials Reveiw

Partials
by Dan Wells
Expected Publication: 02.28.2012
From Goodreads:

Humanity is all but extinguished after a war with partials--engineered organic beings identical to humans--has decimated the world’s population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island. The threat of the partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to the disease in over a decade. Humanity’s time is running out.

When sixteen-year-old Kira learns of her best friend’s pregnancy, she’s determined to find a solution. Then one rash decision forces Kira to flee her community with the unlikeliest of allies. As she tries desperately to save what is left of her race, she discovers that the survival of both humans and partials rests in her attempts to answer questions of the war’s origin that she never knew to ask.

Combining the fast-paced action of The Hunger Games with the provocative themes of Battlestar Galactica, Partials is a pulse-pounding journey into a world where the very concept of what it means to be human is in question--one where our sense of humanity is both our greatest liability, and our only hope for survival.

My Thoughts:  First you should know that I am already a fan of Dan Wells.  His John Wayne Cleaver series that starts with I Am Not A Serial Killer, pretty much has cemented me as life long fan.  I'm not quite ready to go Annie Wilkes on him, but our literary relationship is getting to that level of crazy.  Fortunately for Wells and my other favorite writers I don't live out in the country and I'm actually quite lazy.  And my Hubs and friends would totally turn me in for any reward money if I ever actually kidnap any authors.

So how excited was I to see that Dan Wells had a new dystopian YA book out?  If your picturing me running around the house screaming like a crazed 1960's Beatles fan, they you win a doughnut (oops, sorry, all out of doughnuts, but feel free to treat yourself).  Wells is, after all, the author who created a popular literary sociopath (with a nice supernatural twist).  Honestly I like John Wayne Cleaver better than Dexter (book Dexter, not Showtime Dexter), and he's almost tied with Hannibal Lector.  So I was pretty much on board for any dystopian tales Dan Wells wants to turn out.

Partials was not quite what I expected.  The first half of the book went a little slow for me, but it was dealing with the set up of this particularly dystopian world.  I didn't immediately love the main character, Kira, like I did sociopath John in IaNaSK, but that probably says something disturbing about me.  And I did like the plot of Partials, I just think the set up could have been done in a prologue similar to the opening quote used in the book (which was awesome, btw).

About halfway through the book, when Kira and crew capture a Partial, was when the book finally grabbed me.  Samm (the Partial) was a great character, and brought a new angle to the what the readers, and Kira, were previously told about Partials.  Basically Partials were engineered to be super humans by the government to be the ultimate solider.  Of course it's no surprise that their treatment by the hands of our government is less than cozy.  You almost can't blame them for wanting to kill off the human race.

And because it's a dystopian novel, some things are quite what they seem, and some characters aren't who you think they are.  Some of the twists I saw coming, one I'd already known about so it's not like I had my Nancy Drew sweater set on, and a few that I really didn't see coming.

Things I loved: the society left behind after the disease devastates humanity is truly a melting pot.  Since no whole families have been left intact, the survivors have all banded, and bonded, together.  The Hope Act in the book- basically saying that all women 18 and over have to try to get pregnant as often as possible in hopes of saving mankind and giving birth to a child who will be immune- would make for a great book club debate.  Especially when there's talk of lowering the age to 16.  I think there is a good reason dystopians are dysfunctional and not perfect utopias, I don't believe that it's humanly possible to have a society where everything is fair and everyone is equal.  There will always be those in power, there will always be those that learn to make their living off others, and there will always be people who want personal freedom.  The society Kira lives is deeply flawed, and whether they mean well or if they're blatantly lying to the masses, is for us to discover.    I also really liked the friendships that Kira has forged, and every one of her friends has their strengths and also their weaknesses, just like Kira herself.

Things I loved not so much: Kira's skills in medicine and science despite her young age actually doesn't bother me.  It makes sense in a world where there's not a lot of distractions that you could cram a whole lot of learning in at a younger age.  What I didn't like was Kira's arrogance.  She just assumes that she's capable of coming up with a cure to save the babies, and she puts her friends at grave risk in her pursuit.  Of course, she has a point, what's the point in living if there's literally no future?  But still, it was a bit grating in the beginning.  And I thought the book got off to a slow, clunky start, but other than those two things, I enjoyed the book.

Partials is the first in a series, and it left me with just enough questions answered, and just enough new questions raised to keep me invested in future books.  Their are side characters that I care about, contrary Haru, joker Marcus, pregnant Isolde, and Partial Samm.   Overall I think it's a worthy novel for lovers of dytopias. And be sure to read I Am Not A Serial Killer, which is sadly a phrase I've personally had to use a few times to clear things up with new friends.

Partials gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

The cover or Partials gets a Midnight Book Cover Rating of:

I think the cover immediately gives you a heads up that some dystopian shiz is going down.

Disclaimer: The books that I receive are either purchased by me, given to me by either the author or publisher, or borrowed from Around the World ARC Tours in exchange for an honest review or won by me in a contest.  All opinion, snark and wit are my own.

Pandemonium (Delirium #2)

Pandemonium (Delirium #2)
By Lauren Oliver
Expected Publication: 02.28.12
From Goodreads:

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.
Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

My Thoughts: Pandemonium swings between the past (Lena escaping over the wall without Alex and finding sanctuary with over "invalids") and the present (Lena being all tough and working for the Resistance).  Both in the past and present she is haunted by the memory of Alex, and the realization that Hana has had the cure.  In Delirium, Lena had to wake up to the truth that the government hid, but in Pandemonium her struggle is physical as she strives to regain her strength.  Without Alex, Lena is lost.  She finds a new family of sorts in the wilds, and ends up working with the resistance.

Through this she meets Julian, poster child for the cure.  Lena and Julian end up thrown together.  He is as naive as she once was, and Lena finds herself in the role that Alex once took with her.  Julian is hot and sweet, but Alex is never far from Lena's mind. With Alex dead, is Lena going to be able to move on?

Lots of new characters are introduced in Delirium, and they all add to Lena's story.  There are so many wonderful moments and back stories, especially Blue's history.  I challenge you not to tear up when you get to that part.  The only part I had trouble with was how Lena ended up working in the resistance, the jump seemed skipped over.  One minute she's living in the woods and struggling to survive, and the next she has a new idenity, a fake cure scar, and she's living in a new town.

I'm not sure I loved Pandemonium as much as I did Delirium, although the fault may lie more in the numerous dystopian novels I've read this past year than in Oliver's writing. Pandemonium was a great, compelling read.  It would be an  extreme understatement to say that I'm eager to get my hands on the third book.  The ending of Pandemonium, while not completely unexpected (I gots skills), still leaves you suckerpunched.  In a good way.  Maybe. Still, it's a great dystopian series, and if you only make room on your shelves for one or two dystopian novels, than this series definitely rates a place. 

Pandemonium gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

Pandemonium gets a Midnight Book Cover Rating of:

I loved the subtleness of Delirium's cover, and this one doesn't really do much for me.