Reading Response 3: Pandemonium

Pandemonium

by Lauren Oliver

 



In my last reading response I explained how Alex and Lena got separated during the first installment to the Delirium Trilogy. We left off with Lena having to leave her old life behind me starting over fresh. She slowly learns how to let go of the past, including Alex and Hannah. “Grief is like sinking, like being buried. Every breath is full of choking. There is nothing to hold on to, no sides, no way to claw myself up. There is nothing to do but let go.”

 I don’t think I’d be able to just let go of my old friends and life so easily. I’d constantly wonder where they were, how they were doing and what they were up to. Several months later she joins the resistance and lives in NYC as if she was a cured. She lives in a small apartment with Raven and Tack, who as a refresher are the 2 that took her in while she was barely living.

The apartment is full of fake ID’s and registration to be part of DFA (Delirium-Free America). Lena, Raven and Tack all attend a meeting where Julian Fineman, son of Thomas Fineman who is the founder of the DFA, speaks about the cure for deliria. He’s had seizures since he was young and had had many surgeries to remove brain tumors. Another procedure, such as the cure, may leave him in a permanent vegetative state or kill him, but he believes so strongly in the cure that he is willing to take that chance. After the meeting she notices she left her gloves at the rally and goes back to get them, she catches Julian looking at pictures of mountains and oceans.

Raven makes it extremely clear to Lena that she must keep an eye on Julian the whole meeting but she isn’t sure why. Until Scavengers attack, and both Lena and Julian get kidnapped and trapped in a room together. With little food nor water they must find a way to escape. Will Lena figure out Julian’s secrets? Why was Julian looking at those pictures anyways? I have an odd feeling that Julian and Lena will fall in love. And that she’ll become stuck between still believing Alex is alive and moving on. My picture shows that love triangle between the 3.