Requiem - Lauren Oliver

::Post by Jackie Lindert::

Synopsis: They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.
But we are still here.
And there are more of us every day.
Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.
After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.
Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.
Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.
But we have chosen a different road.
And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.
We are even free to choose the wrong thing.
Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

I've got to be honest and admit that I wasn't as smitten with this series as everyone else seems to be. I loved the premise of love being considered a contagious disease. It got me really excited to read Delirium. I think I just had a classic case of extremely high hopes, and they just weren't met. I won't go into detail about the particular things that rubbed me the wrong way, though, since I don't want to turn anyone off from reading these because Lauren Oliver is SO cool. She is awesome on Twitter, and I went to an author panel she was a part of, and she was by far my favorite. She just rocks. I wish I would have liked the Delirium series more.

Due to my loving Lauren Oliver and all the hype surrounding these books, I continued reading even after Delirium didn't rock my socks off. I also love all things dystopia, so I was rooting for Pandemonium to improve my feelings toward the series, which it definitely did. I've heard mixed reactions about book 2, but I liked it a lot. Lena finally grew a pair in my eyes. I liked her a lot more, so I enjoyed reading about her more--plus I have a major crush on Julian. Sorry! 

Requiem started out as my favorite of the trilogy. I'm a sucker for sticking it to "the man," and government vs. the people. Characters who want their freedom are automatically cooler than your average protagonist. I also enjoyed the varying points of view in this one, which was done SO well. I don't want to spoil anything so I'll leave you with what fell flat for me, just so you are warned. The ending of the book--and the series--leaves a lot open. I feel like I don't know what happened to several characters I was interested in. But by all means, please enjoy these books more than I did.

Pandemonium - Lauren Oliver

Synopsis: 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. (From Goodreads)

Seven pages in and I started crying. 360 pages later, I was still crying. The day after I finished reading I was running into Delirium and Pandemonium things all over Twitter and Tumblr - and every single time I started to tear up. By the end of the day I was pretty sure I was broken. That's the only explanation - Lauren Oliver broke me.

But that's okay, because it's so worth it. Delirium was amazing, but Pandemonium absolutely blew me away. After being completely shattered by Delirium, I was a little anxious to pick this one up. Even after I started reading, I had to go through it slowly and put it down frequently because a lot of it was really hard and intense (and you guys, I'm not joking, I'm tearing up AGAIN writing this and thinking about it). I was mostly impressed with the way the book was narrated. It alternated from what happened to Lena right after Delirium ended and where she ended up - or what she's doing at the current moment. It took a few pages to catch on to where she was and what she was doing but once I did, it was really rich to read the result of her transformation along with the actual transformation.

I wasn't completely thrilled with the new characters that were introduced, they kind of fell to the wayside for me. But really this book is so Lena-focused that it didn't bother me too much. I did find it hard to like Julian, but I do think that Lauren Oliver did a wonderful job writing his character. I had a preconceived notion about the way this book would go down, but every thought I had was instantly shattered and surpassed. Now, I'm at a total loss to even guess where book three will go - I can only imagine it will be somewhere dark, heart-wrenching, and incredible.

I'm going to stop before I start giving things away. I will say this - if you've read it PLEASE email me or DM me on Twitter because I'm dying here. I need to talk about things or cry on someone's shoulder...