Book Blog; Pandemonium

My characters of Pandemonium.

Sun, 27 May 2012 18:06:28 -0400

My characters of Pandemonium.

Joe Anderson as Albino

Thu, 24 May 2012 20:26:22 -0400

Joe Anderson as Albino

Patrick Warburton as Thomas Fineman

Thu, 24 May 2012 20:25:45 -0400

Patrick Warburton as Thomas Fineman

Gregg Sulkin as Hunter

Thu, 24 May 2012 20:24:55 -0400

Gregg Sulkin as Hunter

Elle Fanning as Blue

Thu, 24 May 2012 20:24:20 -0400

Elle Fanning as Blue

Andrew Garfield as Bram

Thu, 24 May 2012 20:23:46 -0400

Andrew Garfield as Bram

Avan Jogia as Tack

Wed, 23 May 2012 20:44:01 -0400

Avan Jogia as Tack

Hailee Steinfeld as Sarah

Wed, 23 May 2012 20:42:45 -0400

Hailee Steinfeld as Sarah

Amanda Seyfried as Miyako

Wed, 23 May 2012 20:41:46 -0400

Amanda Seyfried as Miyako

Liam Hemsworth as Julian’s older brother

Wed, 23 May 2012 20:40:49 -0400

Liam Hemsworth as Julian’s older brother

Ziyi-Zhang as Raven

Wed, 23 May 2012 20:40:03 -0400

Ziyi-Zhang as Raven

Alexis Bledel as Lena Haloway

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:37:57 -0400

Alexis Bledel as Lena Haloway

Liam Payne as Alex

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:37:06 -0400

Liam Payne as Alex

Blake Lively as Hana

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:36:02 -0400

Blake Lively as Hana

Alexander Ludwig as Julian Fineman

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:34:52 -0400

Alexander Ludwig as Julian Fineman

Pandemonium: Part 5 of 5

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:06:51 -0400

Why? Why did Lauren Oliver leave me like this? Why are we, the readers, left hanging on a cliff, once again?! Most importantly, I find myself saying, “Why have I become so attached to this book?”

How? How in the world am I going to be able to wait until 2013, when the final chapter of this series is delivered? How will Lena choose- Julian or Alex? (YES! Alex is alive!!)

I obviously could not wait to finish this book, hence my being finished with 3 of the 5 parts of this book in 3 days. Yeah. So I stayed up late last night to finish…why? Because this book is worth it! Trust me, I may regret my lack of sleep this morning, but I definitely did not regret my decision last night.

Here we go, the final installment of Lauren Oliver’s Pandemonium: the finale, the close, the cliff leaving me helpless until the next book arrives on the shelves of my Barnes and Noble. Clever, Lauren Oliver, very clever! But, now I must sit in anticipation, waiting, just waiting, not knowing what happens to our favorite heroine, Lena Haloway!

***

The morning does arrive for the peacefully sleeping Lena and Julian, after the night’s magical twist of love. And like I hinted in the last blog, “everything explodes.”

Lena’s suspicions were accurate about the duo being watched- apparently they were being scouted and tracked, and the DFA/Police waited until morning to spring on the unsuspecting couple.

“They are streaming through the door, bursting through the walls, yelling, screaming— police and regulators in gas masks and matching gray uniforms. One of them grabs me and another one pulls Julian off the bed— he is awake now, calling to me, but I can’t hear over the tumult of sound, over the screaming that must be coming from me…Setup. Those are the words drilling through me, through my panic. Setup. Has to be.”

Lena and Julian are separated and detached from Salvage. Outside, guards and regulators by the truck-load wait idly to detain their latest captives. Lena’s guard directs her down the dirt road, towards a lone van in the back of the assembly, while Julian is dragged away to his father’s car. Lena yells desperately for Julian, but he can no longer hear her. The new-found lovers have been stripped of one another, and all Lena can comprehend is “Not again. No, no, no. Not again.”

Suddenly, Lena’s guard whispers in her ear, “Lena…Please. I don’t want to hurt you. I’m a freedom fighter.” Lena falters. This woman is on her side! But, where is she taking her? Can she trust this woman in a mask?

Lena is dumped into the back of the van, and immediately the truck takes off, away from the regulators, away from the government officials, and away from Julian. Endlessly, Lena slumps in the back of the trunk, waiting desperately for answers.

When the woman finally stops the van and releases Lena, Lena can see that she is in an abandoned warehouse of sorts. Where is she? Why is she here? Refusing to comply with this mysterious woman, Lena begins to grill her latest kidnapper:

“”I want to know what this is about,” I say. I am tired of plain walls and closed rooms and masks and games. I want answers. “I want to know how you found me, and who sent you to get me.” “I’m not the one who can give you the answers you need,” she says, and tries to shake me off. “Take off your mask,” I say. For a second, I think I see a flash of fear in her eyes. Then it passes. “Let go of me.” Her voice is quiet but firm. “Fine,” I say. “I’ll take it off myself.” I reach for her mask…I manage to lift a corner of the fabric back, peeling it away from her neck, where a small tattooed number runs vertically from her ear toward her shoulder: 5996…”

The woman does in fact remove Lena before Lena can take off her mask, while a new visator enters the room- Raven! And Tack arrives, too! The woman from the truck leaves the room, unnoticed by Lena or the others. As Lena begins to explain her erratic tale of the kidnapping, escape, and most of all Julian, Raven and Tack nod understandingly. It’s as if they already know…

As Lena sits down for a substantial meal, Raven and Tack inform her that they are leaving in the morning, back to the Homestead. What about the Scavengers, who are in cahoots with the DFA? What about Julian?

Then…. everything is revealed. To Lena. To the readers. Everything makes sense now.

Raven informs Lena that the other Invalids, the ones like Raven and Tack and Hunter, have known about the Scavenger’s deal with the DFA for quite some time. The DFA use the Scavengers as demonstrators, to scare the rest of the world into believing that these madmen are what all of the Invalids are like: heartless, brainless, and out of control. Just as long as they are paid, the Scavengers will act however and whenever the DFA instructs them to. What about the victims? The ones murdered in the attacks? Neither the Scavengers nor the government cares about the civilian deaths. “Sometimes it is necessary that individuals are sacrificed for the health of the whole.” —-DFA Handbook.

Lena is still tremendously confused, and she is beginning to grow into a rage. How could Tack and Raven keep these secrets from her all this time? But, wait. There is more.

It’s Tack’s turn to talk: He explains that the Resistance actually staged the kidnapping of Lena and Julian right from the start. Raven insists that Lena was never meant to be put into any type of dangerous situation, but Lena erupts in emotion! She and Julian were almost killed by the Scavengers, who were antsy for their ransom! How could her fellow friends leave her out of this plan, when she was the main contributor?

Raven and Tack go on to tell Lena that they even planned to have Julian arrested by the DFA, hoping that he would be cast out of the agency, possibly even killed. “If [Julian’s] cast out or he wants out, either way, it sends a powerful message to all the uncrueds who have followed him and seen him as a leader. They might rethink their loyalties— some of them will, at least. We have a chance to bring them over to our side…That’s enough to make a real difference. That’s enough to turn the tide in our favor.”

Lena realizes: The morning raids, they were a setup, but set up but the Resistance. They gave up the location of one of their own homesteads just to ensnare Julian.

“And I helped ensnare him.”

Raven and Tack can tell Lena is upset; they can see how distressed Lena is over the loss of Julian, the fact that she wasn’t clued in on this premeditated kidnapping, and over the possible punishments Julian could be facing. Lena refuses to listen or comply with Raven; she doesn’t want to accept what she’s done to hurt Julian. But, Raven stands firm in her authority.

“”We leave tomorrow to go north,” [Raven] says simply, and just like that the conversation is ended. Julian will go to the gallows for us, and we will smile, and dream of victory.”

The rest of the evening, Lena wanders aimlessly throughout the complex, confused, bitter, and resentful. Over the radio, Lena hears of Julian Fineman’s house arrest, while he awaits his scheduled execution. Distraught, Lena ventures outside, where she comes to a final conclusion: she will not let Julian die, for her own sake. This isn’t why she joined the Wilds, to fight fire with fire. She believes in love, and her love for Julian will save him.

“I feel a sharp stab of sadness. I have had to give up so much, so many selves and lives already. I have grown up and out of the rubble of my old lives, of the things and people I have cared for: My mom. Grace. Hana. Alex. And now Julian. This is not who I wanted to be….This is not what I wanted. This is not why I came to the Wilds, why Alex wanted me to come: not to turn my back and bury the people I care about, and build myself hard and careless on top of their bodies, as Raven does. This is what the Zombies do. But not me.”

And here is where Lena makes a plan, a plan to escape Raven’s commanding orders and her lies and secret plans. A plan to rescue Julian. A plan to rescue herself.

That night, Lena sneaks away from the warehouse along a nearby vacant highway, in search for a route to New York City. All night, she travels, until finally she reaches the city gates. Upon reaching the city limits, she stows away on to the roof of a garbage truck, and rides safely through the metal walls. She exits the truck, and begins to make her way through the streets of New York City.

From Julian’s childhood stories told in the underground caverns, Lena has gathered the home address of the Finemans. When she arrives, she breaks through the locked gates and prepares to enter through the cellar. So far, so good.

When she makes it through the cellar, she realizes the house is uncannily quiet. Too quiet. Shouldn’t there be noise? Shouldn’t there be some commotion?

As she emerges unto the first floor, then the second floor, then the third, Lena panics as she realizes no one is home. How stupid of her! They must have taken Julian to the hospital almost immediately this morning, to avoid the press. Why Lena hasn’t thought of this before sends chills up her spine. He could already be dead.

Before leaving the Fineman Mansion, Lena decides to investigate one last room in the house- the forbidden study. Finding the key, Lena slowly approaches the room. With a click of the lock, Lena finds herself surrounded by books- piles and shelves of books!

One book in particular catches her attention: Eastern Seaboard, New York— Terrorists, Anarchists, Dissenters. The sudden compulsion to see her mother’s name in the book is so overwelming, Lena has no choice but to find it. She has to see the last trace of her mother, even though Lena knows she has escaped and is living in freedom in the Wilds. But, she has to see the name.

Lena locates the description: Annabel Gilles Haloway. The Crypts. Ward Six, Solitary Confinement. Level 8 Agitator. 5996.

5996.

…… but where has she seen this number before?

“My vision tunnels, and in that moment the number seems lit up by an enormous beam. Everything else is blackness, fog. 5996. The faded green number tattooed on the woman who rescued me from Salvage, the woman with the mask. My mother.”

****PAUSE. OK, would you judge me if I told you that it is was here I had to set down the book to prevent myself from having an anxiety attack? Like, what the heck? HER MOTHER? The one woman she has been searching for FOR HER ENTIRE LIFE and she has already SEEN, BEEN with her, and DIDN’T EVEN REALIZE? DIDN’T EVEN PAY ANY ATTENTION TO HER? Why? How do you handle this?****

Blindly, Lena retreats from the house and begins to walk toward the Northeastern Medical Center. Fury, rage, disappointment, disbelief propel Lena as she walks, no, more like she stumbles to the city center. Has Julian already been executed? She knows not. It doesn’t matter now.. Nothing matters. Now that she knows the truth about her mother. Revenge, she reasons, is the only way out now. She must seek revenge on Mr. Thomas Fineman.

Lena sneakily gains access to the medical facility, and she begins her search for her beloved Julian. Racing through the halls, the wards, the floors hunting for Julian, she is constantly aware of the time. Minutes, seconds until his scheduled death. She can only pray that she reaches him in time.

Suddenly, Lena spies Julian’s bodyguards surrounding the ward at the end of Floor 6. Drat! Alone, she could never pass through the armed bodies of all those men, and she knows it. Then, she has an idea. The observation deck! We flashback to the memory of Lena Haloway’s Examination for her Cure, back in her Portland life. This is where she first discovers Alex, her first love, hanging above her on an observation deck!

Frantically, Lena runs up the stairs to the seventh floor and slides into the observation deck. There, she sees Julian, hand-cuffed, surrounded by his executioner, guards, and a priest, with his father watching mercilessly from the sidelines.

Fear grips Lena as she crouches, paralyzed, and admits the truth: what can she do to save him?

A lab tech rushes into the room, urgently flagging down the executioner. What the…..? Could that be Raven, Lena wonders?

CRACK! Raven, the lab-tech-in-disguise flashes a gun and swings it malevolently in the direction of Thomas Fineman. Chaos. Fineman falls to the floor. Another shot is fired at the glass encasing Lena in the upper deck. This one bullet is all Lena needs. Adrenaline pulses through Lena’s trembling body as she breaks the glass and topples to the floor of the ward.

Raven attacks the stunned bodyguards as Lena tackles Julian’s handcuffs. Then, it’s running, fleeing, escape. Raven leads Julian and Lena across an abandoned courtyard, climbing the concrete wall encasing the medical facility.

The trio arrive in an empty building, adjacent to the Northwestern Medical Center. Raven tosses the two additional clothing and large umbrellas, to mask their faces. And just like that, Raven, Julian, and Lena enter the crowded streets of New York City, unnoticed and heading back to freedom!

Lena holds Julian the whole way back to the complex, as Raven drives them back in the same white police-designed van Lena’s mother drove Lena back from Salvage.

“Thank you, he is saying, and I am saying, I am so happy, I am so happy, I needed you to be safe.”

When they finally arrive at the warehouse, Lena questions Raven about her mom. Where is she? Can I talk to her? Did you know who she was?

Raven replies that a new Invalid has just informed her that Lena’s mother left in the morning with another group, destination unknown. And no, Raven had no idea that the woman was Lena’s mother.

Disappointment shines clearly on Lena’s face, as she is forced to accept the loss of her mother, once again. But, Julian is right beside Lena, making her feel lifted, untouchable, and above all, loved.

Embracing one another, Julian and Lena truly rejoice in the success of Julian’s rescue. The love is almost tangible, as Julian whispers in her ear, “You saved me.”

Their first kiss in freedom is slow, romantic, and special “because now we have all the time in the world— nothing but time and the space to get to know each other freely…My life is beginning again.”

Precious, beautiful, mesmerizing love. A miracle. “”Promise me we’ll stay together, okay?” His eyes are once again the clear blue of a perfectly transparent pool. They are eyes to swim in, to float in, forever. “You and me.” “I promise.” I say.

The end. Cut! You’re ready to close the book on this happy ending. You haven’t even read halfway down the last page yet, and you’re tempted to just close the book, because you already know how it ends, right? WRONG. So wrong.

“Behind us the door creaks open, and I turn around, expecting Raven just as a voice cuts through the air: “Don’t believe her.” The whole world closes around me, like an eyelid: For a moment everything goes dark. I am falling. My ears are full of rushing; I have been sucked into a tunnel, a place of pressure and chaos. My head is about to explode. He looks different. He is much thinner, and a scar runs from his eyebrow all the way down to his jaw. On his neck, just behind his left ear, a small tattooed number curves around the three-pronged scar that fooled me, for so long, into believing he was cured. His eyes— once a sweet, melted brown, like syrup— have hardened. Now they are stony, impenetrable. Only his hair is the same: that auburn crown, like leaves in autumn. Impossible. I close my eyes and reopen them: the boy from a dream, from a different lifetime. A boy brought back from the dead. Alex.”

…

NOW the book is done.

What? How? When? Why? ALEX? Alive? After all she’s been through? After this entire journey of moving on, falling in love again, has come to this? Alex, returns?

I was such an array of emotions last night at 11:49 pm, as I closed this book and laugh in disbelief. You’ve got to be kidding me. I need to know what happens next!!

Lauren Oliver, please please PLEASE, for the sake of your readers, finish the third installment soon? Fans like me need to know- is it going to be Alex? or Julian?

Until then….

Keep reading :)

Pandemonium: Part 4 of 5

Tue, 22 May 2012 18:51:47 -0400

Intensity. Passion. Heat. Love. Hate. Burning and consuming like an endless fire, that keeps on thriving, keeps on living. These are my emotions after reading the fourth installment of Lauren Oliver’s beautifully crafted work of masterpiece, Pandemonium. And what? Ive finished these last 75 pages in a day? Less than 24 hours? I’m hooked. Just cant get enough of this truly inspiring piece of literature. Seriously. READ THIS BOOK.

The past…. Raven and Co. bury Blue by the river. The new falling snow cascades around her feathery hair as Lena and Raven say their final goodbyes. Then, its moving on. To the third encampment, to safety, and to hopefully more food.

Finally, the group reaches the campgrounds. Instead of excitement, despair fills the air. Why? Because Tack and Hunter, the Scouts send ahead to stock the camp with food and supplies, have not returned, nor does the final encampment appear to have been reached by the two. No food. No blankets. No hope.

And just when Raven begins to lament, as Sarah begins to cry— disaster strikes. Out of nowhere, Scavengers feast upon the lost and confused group of struggling survivors. Blades cut the air, bullets sound, and there is running everywhere.

“This is, of course, how they want us: panicked, weak, and separated. We are easier to kill this way.”

As Raven, Sarah, and Lena take off from the rest, into the surrounding wood, Lena can feel the predators upon them. There is no place left to run. Defiantly, Raven turns to make a stand. Lena knows Raven no longer has any hope of surviving- she wants to die as a fighter. Suddenly, as the Scavengers begin to attack Lena and Raven, a gun is heard from the trees! The two predators fall, and Tack and Hunter emerge victorious! They have found their way back to the group, and just in time, too!

The surviving group makes their way to a nearby house, to replenish their supplies and re-group before setting out for the South once again. Here is where Lena leaves us in the past, as the Invalids plan to camp at Salvage, the last safe-house on the journey southward. Lena joins the Resistance with Raven and Tack, and vows to help the two in the city, to fight the regulators, the government, and the Valids for a world in which love exists.

Now it comes… The beginning of the final chapter. The peak of action. The last stand.

Back to present time, Lena and Julian make their way through the tunnels of the Scavengers, fighting to stay alive. They reach a small alcove in one of the many underground caverns, underneath a sewer grate. This is the first time both of them have had a glimpse of the sky in days.

Exhausted beyond contentment, the two decide to rest for the night; Lena is becoming delirious, and Julian insists they stop to sleep for a few hours. It is here, in the shadows of the Scavenger’s underground lair that Julian reveals more about his childhood to Lena.

In one of his stories, Julian tells Lena about the death of his brother, who defied his family’s DFA-loyalties and joined the Resistance. During a DFA rally, Julian’s brother stormed City Hall with a slew of other rebels and got himself injured. Disgusted and dismayed by his son’s betrayal, Mr. Finemen sent his son into the cellar, refusing to give him medical attention for his serious wounds. Eventually, after an evening of cries and sobs resounding from the basement, the crying ceases, and Julian’s brother dies in the basement, alone and unwanted.

Obviously tormented by his brother’s tragic death, Julian reveals his dark and twisted side once more, “”I’ll never forgive [my father] for that”” he says, convincing Lena that Julian is no longer just another Valid, another member of the DFA. She begins to admit to herself that she has feelings for Julian, strange and confusing but nevertheless feelings all the same.

The next morning, rain is streaming through the grate in the ceiling, and both Lena and Julian bathe themselves for the first time since being kidnapped. As the two finish cleaning themselves, they share a moment, a moment of pure bliss and romantic, young love. Suddenly, Lena becomes weary of allowing herself to fall in love with Julian- which side is he on? - she wonders.

“His eyes get a little harder, more intense: even in the half-light, a blazing blue. But when he speaks, his voice is still soft and quiet. “I don’t know which side I’m on anymore,” he says.”

And just as this beautiful moment is bubbling and overflowing with passion and true “deliria” love, the unthinkable happens. The Scavengers reappear.

Quickly and fleetingly, Julian and Lena pack their few belongings and scamper off through the tunnels. Even though they gain ground, Lena knows it’s no good. The Scavengers own these tunnels, know them like the back of their hand. How, on Earth, can they survive against these predators?

Lena and Julian stop running, stop fleeing, stop moving. With one last look at each another, they turn to face their enemies, knife and shotgun in hand, embracing this final moment of life.

As the flashlights beam down on the two escapees, confusion reigns everywhere. First, gunshots can be heard, followed by the scuffle of Lena and an unknown man attempting to choke her… then… FIRE!

No, the underground doesn’t erupt in flames, but two mysterious figures, neither DFA members nor Scavengers, appears in the underground cavern with flaming torches. Fending off the Scavengers, the Fire-Bearers collect the bewildered Lena and Julian and return to a secret cave in the depths of the tunnels.

Lena is startled that some other group of people live underground, who are NOT Scavengers! But when she takes a look at her surroundings, she realizes why they do live underneath the rest of civilization. This group of Invalids are deformed, infected, and abnormally shaped, compared to the rest of society. Sent down in the depths of the sewers by the conformists above, they choose life underground over death. Where there is a will, there is a way to live.

Shockingly, the Defects cure Julian and Lena of their wounds and send them on their way, up above ground! Lena and Julian are forever grateful for the unnecessary kindness shown towards them by these outcasts, and Lena promises to remember them always.

The tunnel above ground leads the two travelers into a wooded area outside of Massachusetts, approximately a mile away from Salvage, the last encampment Raven and Co. rested in on their journey southward. The past finally intertwines with present!

After feasting on a meal of canned beans, mushrooms, and tomatoes at Salvage, Julian and Lena retire for the night. Throughout the whole evening, Lena is jumpy with a suspicious feeling that they are being watched. But how could they be? It must be just her imagination, she assumes. A memory of all those rats underground in the caverns. Paranoid, she reassures herself, I’m just paranoid.

In the sleeping room, Julian prepares two bunk beds side by side. Lena knows there is something different about this new Julian, something exciting and riviting. She can’t resist him.

“Julian says, “I don’t think— I’m not sure I can go back.”

In the silence of the night, Lena and Julian share another magical moment together. Unexpectedly, Julian asks Lena what it feels like to be infected, to have the deliria. He moves closer to her in the stillness of the night….saying…

“”I want to know.” His words are a whisper, barely audible. “I want to know with you.”“

And that’s all it takes for Lena to succumb to her emotions, passions, and love for Julian Fineman. At first, it’s just a single kiss. But then it evolves into an entirely indescribable encounter of feeling and joy, so beautiful, in the inky blackness. (Calm down, it’s not as bad as you think it is. Just read with it.)

Once the moments pass, Julian asks the unspeakable question Lena is dying to know the answer to. “What’s going to happen tomorrow?” They come from two different worlds, Lena and Julian, but have found themselves together. So instead of answering, Lena trancends into a peaceful sleep, one in which she is kissing Julian again, and asking her former love, Alex, for forgiveness.

…..

And this is where I end this installment! All sounds great and fine, right? Well, I thought so too! Until my eyes dart to the bottom of the SAME page, and read… “And then everything explodes..”

WHAT?!?!? Must keep reading… I’m sure I’ll have the book finished by tomorrow! Happy reading! :)

Pandemonium: Part 3 of 5

Mon, 21 May 2012 19:54:00 -0400

Lauren Oliver begins to build her wonderfully woven story into a thrilling climax. Escape and survival drive both sides of Lena’s story, but we still don’t know where they will intersect! Its taken all of my self-control not to flip to the back of the book and figure out what happens… Why it happens…. Breathe. I need to keep reading!

First off, Lena is still traveling through the Wilds with Raven and the other Invalids. They continue to move southward, fighting the bitter wind and cold that continues to dampen the groups’ spirit.

Raven gives Lena another test: She must kill her first animal. Lena is petrified; she almost refuses outright to even consider killing the helpless rabbit caught in the trap. But, Raven persuades Lena, saying, “You still don’t get it, do you? This isn’t a game Lena. And it doesn’t end here, or when we go south, or ever. What happened at the homestead…There is no room for us anymore. Not unless things change. We’ll be hunted. Our homesteads will be bombed and burned. The borders will grow, and cities will expand, and there will be no Wilds left, and nobody to fight, and nothing to fight for. Do you understand?” And with that, Lena kills her first victim- but it won’t be her last.

The next night, Lena is given the mark for her “cure.” The Cureds who live in the Cities have an identical three-pronged scar on the back of their neck as a sign of the Cure. Every Invalid must receive a special three-pronged scar to blend in with the other Valids who have already been cured. Bram takes a hot searing blade and punctures Lena’s skin, as Raven holds Lena down. Lena is now a Cured— well, sort of.

As the temperature continues to drop, sickness begins to take hold of the vulnerable. On this relocation, Blue comes down with a fever. She cries, shivers, and aches as the rest of the group trudges forward, striving for the next encampment. Raven takes special care of Blue, and Lena learns why this strong, independent leader cares so much about this precious, ailing girl.

(Raven;) “”And then I saw this little box…I don’t know why I decided to look inside….She was wrapped in a blanket. A blue blanket with yellow lambs on it. She wasn’t breathing. I- I thought she was dead. She was…she was blue…I don’t know what made me try to revive her…But it worked….I called her Blue so I would always remember that moment, and so I would never regret.”

As Raven and Lena take turns cooling Blue’s burning forehead, Lena witnesses a side of Raven she never knew existed. And as the night draws to a close, Blue no longer shivers, cries, or even breathes. She counldn’t hold on….

Now we flash forward, back to Lena and Julian in the cell. Lena and Julian have spent far too much time together, alone, in this cramped, musty prison cell than both of them are comfortable with. As the nights and days slur together, Julian begins to talk more freely with Lena.

One night, Julian shares a special story with Lena. As he begins to tell the story of Dorothy and Toto from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Lena suspects that this story is unlike one she has ever heard. And she is right. This story that Julian begins to describe is one from the forbidden books, books banned from the dark times, the Age of Sickness.

When asked how he obtained the story, Julian responds, “My father has access to things…confidential documents and things that date from the time before. The days of sickness…When I was little, my dad he had two studies…His other study was locked. No one was allowed inside, and my father kept the key hidden.”

Julian goes on to tell Lena that he snuck into the second study as a kid, and found a collection of forbidden books, tons and tons of books! When his dad discovered Julian was reading secret books, Mr. Fineman beat Julian until he blacked out into unconciousness.

After his book-reading confession, Julian and Lena prepare for sleep. In the middle of the night, Lena wakes to find Julian leaning over her cot, arm outstetched, ready to stroke her hair. “”I’m sorry,” he whispers, but doesn’t move his hand. “You have nice hair,” he says finally.” Lena succumbs to the moment and allows Julian to stroke her hair until she drifts off to sleep.

The next morning, Lena and Julian find themselves in uncomfortable silence. Lena begins to wonder why she even let him touch her in the first place! Before they can even discuss the previous night’s events, the guards hunt down Julian and take him away. To where? Neither Lena nor Julian know.

As she’s waiting for Julian to return, Lena goes through her backpack once again. She must find a way to escape! As she’s flipping through The Book of Shhh, the Bible-like textbook the Valids of the City use as their rules, she spies several clues and puzzles left by Tack. She quickly figures out that Tack has stashed a hidden knife in an umbrella — a weapon that she can use!

Just as Lena is devising a plan with her new weapon, Julian returns to the cell. But, he is not the same Julian that left earlier in the day. His face is mangled and bleeding profusely, and Lena can tell he is experiencing severe pain.

Lena tackles his wounds and heals him as best she can, but she finds it extremely difficult to provide Julian with sufficient medical attention with only water and a cloth to stop the bleeding. Julian tells Lena that he was interrogated, and asked questions about his family and home address. But, Julian refused to provide information, hence his current condition.

As Lena attempts to calm Julian, to tell him she has found a knife and is working on a plan of escape, she begins to tell Julian about a similar instance that happened to her once in Massachusetts. But wait…. Lena Morgan Jones has never been to Massachusetts… that was Lena Haloway, the Invalid.

Julian immediately suspects Lena is not telling the truth- either about her past or her present. So, Lena makes a critical decision, one in my opinion was a definite mistake; Lena tells Julian that she is not Cured, not a Valid- but an Invalid. An escapee. A lover.

Julian immediately turns from the tolerable cell-mate to one with a nasty, cold personality, a side of Julian Lena thought she would never see.

“”You’re an Invalid. That’s what you’re telling me, right? You’re infected.” Julian’s fingers are trembling lightly against the ground, with a noise like the patter of rain. He’s furious, I realize, and probably scared, too. “You’re sick.” He nearly spits out the word.”

Lena soon realizes she must move on, still try to escape, with or without Julian on her side. The next morning, Lena begins to set her plan to action. As Julian watches from the corner of the cell, Lena prepares a note of urgency, one which she hopes will arouse the guards and bring them to the cell.

The bait works. A guard appears at the door to the captives’ cell, and Lena is ready, knife in hand, to bring this guard down! Ferociously, Lena quickly ties up the guard, gagging him by Julian’s request. (So Julian’s only on her side when he wants to escape? Cute.)

The two sprint down the hall, through the door at the end of the passage. The scuffle of feet in the previous coordior alerts Lena and Julian the rest of the Scavengers are in hot pursuit! The escapees scramble into a cabinet in the next room, just as the rest of the guards come pouring in through the door. When the Scavengers separate to look for their prisoners in the labrynith of tunnels, Lena and Julian take a look at their surroundings.

The room in which they have hid is crammed with extra supplies, food, and clothing. Boxes and boxes of stored goods. Organized. Too organized.

The uncanny level of order surrounding this underground cellar gives Lena an incredilby uncomfortable feeling. Raven once told Lena that the Scavengers were never organized, only acting on instinct, passion, and hatred. Suddenly, she has a revelation.

“That’s when it hits me: The shimmering worry at the edge of my thoughts swells and breaks over me. This is wrong— all wrong…There are too many rooms, too many weapons, too much order…’They must have had help,’ I say, as the idea occurs to me for the first time…’The DFA.’ I can barely croak out the words. ‘The guy—the guard back there, the one we tied up— he had a tattoo of an eagle and a syringe. That’s the DFA crest.’”

Before Julian can deny Lena’s suspcicions, two more guards barrel through the entrance to the room. A fight ensues, and fortunately both Lena and Julian survive. The guards? Not so much.

And that’s where our friend Lauren Oliver leaves us, the readers, hanging on to the edge of our seats. Lena and Julian have just opened the next corridor and are sprinting down an underground tunnel, searching for freedom and answers to this uncharacteristic kiddnapping.

Pretty soon, I’m going to reach the end of this book! My only hope is that Oliver doesn’t leave me cliff-hanging; I don’t know if I’ll be able to move on if I don’t find out the mystery behind these Scavengers!

Until next time, keep reading! :)

Pandemonium: Part 2 of 5

Sat, 19 May 2012 22:40:00 -0400

Wow, so much has happened in the last 75 pages…. and I’m not even halfway done with the story! Props to Miss Lauren Oliver for keeping me on the edge of my seat for the whole book thus far!

So, I begin with the story of Lena’s journey through the Wilds; Lena has continued to grow stronger every day. She is now in charge of bringing water back from the river every morning, and she enjoys the challenge. The rest of Lena’s new-found companions are preparing to relocate for the coming winter. In the northern fields of the Wilds, the winters are horrendous. Raven has everyone in charge of stocking food, blankets, and any other essentials they will need for the long journey. The scouts, members of the group who leave ahead of everyone else to prepare a safe path, set out. They are Tack, Hunter, Roach, Buck, Lu, and Squirrel while the rest stay at the Homestead packing.

Meanwhile, Lena has encountered her first death in the Wilds. Miyako contracted a nasty bought of the flu, and she ultimately could not survive the fever. Lena is horrified when she learns of the horrible way in which the Homesteaders must get rid of Miyako’s body; they must burn Miyako because the ground has grown too stiff to bury her. The fire and smoke of Miyako’s burning body brings Lena close to tears as she realizes the harsh life that the people of the Wilds must endure every day. She vows to get back at the government officials who have made all of the Wilds suffer.

Hunter, a Homesteader, shows Lena before leaving for his Scout mission how the group receives messages from the Sympathizers in the City. Crows that feed in the City have a nest located on the outskirts of the Wilds, and the Sympathizers color the birds’ feathers to communicate with the people of the Wilds: green, a fresh shipment of food and supplies will arrive soon, yellow, a shipment has been delayed, and red. Red means run. Immediately.

One morning when Lena is sent out to check the nest for the latest news on an incoming shipment, she spies the color everyone in the Wilds fears. Red. Red means run. As Lena flees wildly back to the Homestead, trying to warn everyone of the latest emergency, the nightmare begins. The forest becomes a deadly trap in which Lena is the sole survivor.

“My lungs are burning and my chest is aching and tears are stringing my eyes as I flounder toward the homestead. I want to scream. I want to sprout wings and fly…That is when the humming turns into a roar, and above the tress I see the first plane tearing across the sky, screaming. But no. I’m the one screaming. I am screaming as I run. I am screaming when the first bomb falls, and the Wilds turn to fire around me.”

Lena hurries everyone out of the Homestead and into the woods, as the fire continues to surround the escapees. The bitter cold freezes Lena and the others, as the heat engulfs the wilderness around them. They run for their lives.

Finally, the bombing ceases at midnight and the group pauses to rest. Only a third of the stored food was salvaged and only a few jackets and blankets were saved. Scouts Tack and Hunter have failed to return from their destination. Raven declares that the group must never again return to the Homestead, for it would only give the regulators reason to bomb them again.

We leave Lena in the past as her and her companions reach the next sleeping grounds along their journey to the Southern Homestead. It’s not as large as Lena’s initial Homestead, but Raven is pleased. It will do, for now.

Next, we travel to Lena’s future, where Lena is a part of the DFA and goes by a new name- Lena Morgan Jones. She has just left the DFA meeting, and is planning to board the city buses back to her shared apartment with Raven and Tack.

Realizing she has left her glove in the auditorium, Lena travels back into the meeting hall to retrieve her lost item when she discovers Julian Fineman, the young face for the Deliria-Free Movement, sitting silently looking at pictures from around the world. He becomes startled when he sees Lena, and immediately denies his picture-fantasy. Hmmm… There must be something else the young Julian is hiding.

Lena then returns to an apartment in Brooklyn where Raven and Tack are discussing plans for the DFA Rally beginning the next day. They inform Lena it is important she remain watchful of Julian Fineman, because there have been rumors the Scavengers are staging their own upset. The Scavengers are the Invalids who want to burn everything and set the world on fire, rather than the other Invalids who stand for ridding the United States of the Cure. Purpose vs. Destruction; the Battle of the Invalids.

The next morning when Lena arrives at the rally, she stands close to the front in order to keep tabs on Julian. The DFA have attracted a lot of spectators, and Lena is wary of an invasion from the Scavengers. Soon enough, as Mr. Fineman begins his opening speech, a mass group of Scavengers devour the crowd as gunfire begins to explode in the air.

Lena, fearful and overwhelmed, almost misses Julian as he and his guards escape into an underground abandoned subway station in Times Square. Lena follows the trio, but the lights go out! Suddenly, she hears a scuffle and hears Julian cry out in pain. The next thing she knows, Lena is hit from behind and goes unconscious.

When she regains consciousness, Lena finds herself and Julian pitted in a dark, tiny cell room underground. With only bread and beef jerky keeping them alive, Lena and Julian wonder why they have been held captive. Lena especially grows anxious- Julian she can understand, but why would the Scavengers keep her alive? What good is a supposed DFA rally-attendee?

Julian and Lena share many uncomfortable moments together in their confinements. Julian is not used to conversing with other girls, for he is still uncured and segregated. Lena, who has the mark of the procedure as part of her new character, finds it difficult to remain in the uncaring, removed attitude of a Cured. At times, she feels some sympathy for Julian, who has cancer and is scheduled to have the Cure early to rid himself of the cancer. Julian admits he has nightmares frequently about possible complications of his early procedure. But then Lena reminds herself that Julian is one the of the government who took away her beloved Alex, and forces the world to live without love. She must not break down.

And that’s where I’ve left off! I still can’t believe this much has happened in what, 150 pages?! I’m absolutely blown away by Oliver’s writing. I wish I were as talented as her! I’m anxious to find out how Lena escapes from the Wilds and comes to live in New York. I also hope that she finds a way out of the cell with Julian. I secretly hope Julian turns out to be nice guy after all, who joins her in the Wilds after realizing that love IS a good element in life!

We shall see…

Tune in for my next blog! Keep up reading! :)

Pandemonium: Part 1 of 5

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:56:00 -0400

Greetings, book followers! I have just finished the first fifth of Lauren Oliver’s captivating Delirium sequal, Pandemonium. Let me just start by saying, I’m blown away. Seriously, this author is incredible. I can’t even believe I’m reading a book; it is just so realistic and Oliver uses such good imagery! And what’s really intriguing about the way this book is written is that Lauren Oliver writes back and forth between the “now” and “then”. We as privledged readers get a glimpse into the future, the part of the story that we don’t know yet. But, Lena takes us back to her past to fill us in where Delirium left off. I’m anticipating an exciting collision when the past catches up with the present! Until then, I’m allowing Lena to fill me in… chapter by chapter.

The story opens with Lena, the inspiring protagonist we met and adored throughout the novel Delirium, and her escape from a world where love is considered a disease. She is desperately running for her life, after illegally crossing the city border of Portland, Maine. No time has passed since the agonizing and cliff-hanging ending of Delirium. Alex is still lying on the ground, back behind the fence, surrounded by the regulators. Lena knows he’s gone. He’s been beaten to death. But, she has to keep running. Running away from the life she once knew to her chosen life, a life with love.

“I run, and when I can no longer run, I limp, and when I can’t do that, I crawl, inch by inch, digging my fingernails into the soil, like a worm sliding across the overgrown surface of this strange new wilderness.”

After running wildly and uncontrollably for hours and miles, Lena collapses. When she awakes, she has been carried off by a group of wilderness survivors, Invalids as the government refers to them, to their Homebase. Lena is now a part of this mismatched group of rebels clinging for life, living in a world in which love STILL exists.

Lena meets an interesting group of characters with complimentary interesting names. The members include: Blue, Squirrel, Sarah, Grandma, Bramble, Hunter, Grandpa, Lucky, Tack, Miyako, and the leader Raven. The group teaches her several critical survival techniques, such as how to signal for supplies, collect and purify water, as well as live with very little life essentials. At first, Lena struggles. She still remains increblibly weak in both body and spirit. She wakes every night from nigtmares in which she sees Alex burned alive, beaten, and mangled (not too far from what actually happened to her lost lover). Lena’s also not used to living with small amounts of food, and her muscles crave substance and energy.

Raven insists upon Lena helping out with the rest of the group that live in the Wilds, otherwise she must leave and survive on her own. Lena buckles down and begins to train with the others, lifting buckets of heavy river water at least two miles every morning. Lena also begins to run again, a hobby of hers from her past life in Portland. She is growing stronger.

Meanwhile, we leave Lena gaining strength as Oliver tranports the reader back to the present. Lena is no longer Lena Haloway, but Lena Mogan Jones. She is a member of the DFA, Deliria-Free America, and is living in the center of New York City. She is attending a DFA conference, acting upon the order of Raven to listen and observe the leaders of the organization.

What is Lena doing in New York City? How did she leave the Wilds? What happened to Raven and the rest of the Invalids? Is Alex still alive? Did Lena find her mother in the wilderness? Why is Lena acting a Cured? These are some of the many questions running through my mind at this point in the story.

I hope to be reading and posting about the next portion of the book fairly soon! Keep reading and following my blog! :)