Delirium

Author: Lauren Oliver

Series: Delirium # 1

Genres: Young Adult, Dystopia, Romance, Adventure

Publisher: HarperTeen

Released: 1 February 2011

Summary: courtesy goodreads.com Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy. But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

For Fans of: Under the Never Sky, Shatter Me, and Inside Out

My Review: Delirium was one of those books that sort of stuck with me.  I’m not sure why, I like to think it is because Delirium is one of my first experiences with dystopia, but really, who knows?  Lena and Alex really tugged at my heart strings from the beginning, they were both such wonderfully complex and yet simple characters and you really feel like they were made for each other.  The only thing that I did have a hard time with was how vaguely things were described.  Though, in honesty this could have very well been because for the first half of the book I kept thinking Portland, Oregon, not Portland, Maine (being from the West coast, I tend to think that way) and all I could think was, “wow, this version of Portland is really different from the current version of Portland.”  It wasn’t until about the half-way point I realized they were actually in Portland, Maine so that was slightly confusing.

The ending was also kind of irking.  Let’s just say it’s a cliff hanger (Pandemonium ends in a cliff hanger too, just so you know) I felt that the pacing of this book of lovely, it felt like a final summer of love for me, easily moving forward towards the inevitable, but they’re teenagers so really they’re living in the moment more than adults would, and you can feel that in Delirium, the hope of first love, and the demise and knowledge that it will someday end, that is: until the end.  The end kind of slaps you in the face out of no where and keeps your heart racing to the point where you can’t help but think, “did I get a faulty copy, because I swear it doesn’t end there!”