Before Lena was a naive school child, now she is an adult, and needs to be part of a new society in order to survive. We are introduced to the idea of the Wilds being a ‘rebirth’, almost a way to distance itself from everything that happened in Delirium, to launch itself into a more adult and grittier narrative. Having a split narrative also gives the opportunity to introduce a whole new cast of characters without losing sight of all that had come before. It makes it so much more of a page turner and unlike its predecessor doesn’t make you feel like you have to go through the hard slog for the reward. Having the novel split like this gives Oliver the opportunity to do what she does best: create cliffhangers. The story is split into two parts: Now and Then (‘Then’ being the continuation of Delirium, tracking Lena’s entrance into the Wilds after leaving Alex behind, and ‘Now’ depicting a couple of years into the future when Lena re-enters the population as part of the Resistance). All in all, even though the plot was quite good I felt the book was let down by its style and form. It took a while to make its point, and when it did it repeated itself quite a lot. Initially I found the prose of Delirium slightly slow and cloggy. She’s questioned everything she’s ever been taught and fought for love and the life-changing and agonising emotions that come with it.īut now, while she may have escaped the tyranny of the government, she is headng into the heart of something that could be just as dangerous – a growing resistance movement where the sparks of a revolution are about to ignite… It is at this point in the novel where the Now and Then threads converge in Chapter 13.Lena Haloway’s been to the very edge.
Again, they are attacked at a southern homestead and Lena, Raven and Tack assume fake procedure marks and enter the regular world as part of the resistance. They flee, regroup and head south with little food or supplies. As the group is preparing to move south for the winter months, they are attacked. Food is scarce and the people are constantly on the lookout for attacks. Life on the Homestead is difficult and rudimentary. She lives with them for some time on the Homestead. Raven, Blu, and Lu nurse her back to health. Alex is killed as they cross the border and Lena wakes up in the Wilds being taken care of by Invalids. In the Then thread: Lena escapes from her neighborhood with a boy named Alex. Julian and Lena escape and Lena is brought back to Tack and Raven, but Julian is scheduled to be executed as a punishment for falling in love with Lena. They are captured by what they think are Scavengers - a rogue group that helps neither the DFA nor the resistance - but in reality they have been captured by the DFA. She finds Julian in an underground subway tunnel that has long been abandoned. He is kidnapped and it is her job to stay with him no matter what. She goes to a rally where Julian Fineman, the DFA organizer's son, is present. In the Now, Lena is working covertly with Raven and Tack, two of her friends in the resistance. She used to believe what all of the others believed, that the DFA was an organization that protected people and that everyone must have the procedure for society to go on. Throughout these sections there are brief flashbacks of what Lena's life used to be like. In the Now: Lena has begun attending a new high school. From this point the novel begins alternating between the Now thread and the Then thread.
The first chapter is elusive but the reader knows that Lena is different and that she possesses a knowledge that the other high school students don't have. The novel begins with Lena who has just entered a new high school. This creates a clean and sterile world, with no people who aren't "perfect." Spouses are matched by the government and children are born out of a contract with the government. One's duty to country comes above one's loyalty to family. In this world, cleanliness is Godliness and everyone holds the same beliefs, feels the same non-feeling, and roles are performed dutifully with little feeling. Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver is a novel about a futuristic society that attempts to cure the people of love by forcing people to endure a medical procedure that prevents them from feeling.
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