Delirium (Review)

Title: Delirium (Delirium #1)

Author(s): Lauren Oliver
Edition: Hardcover, 441 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: February 1, 2011
Source: Bought from Barnes and Noble
Buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

The Summary

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 governments 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.

(Goodreads)

My Opinion

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I snapped this book up as soon as it came out, and then it sat on my shelf for months while I freaked out over my internship and grad school applications.  After reading it I wish I could go back in time, and slap myself for doing that.  Delirium was so engrossing and fantastic that I couldn't put it down.  But in a way I'm a little happy I waited so long because now there is less time to wait for Pandemonium, the second book in the series.  Lauren Oliver did such an excellent job world building, that I want to read more in this universe, not just about Lena.

Let's talk about the premise.  Love is a disease and the cause of everything bad in the world!  CRAZY!  Can you even imagine not being able to be giddy or mournful or anything extreme?  I love this, and I haven't read anything like it.  The attention to detail is great.  The Book of Shhh is something I'd love to see as its own book, similar to Tales of Beedle the Bard from Harry Potter.  The description of Portland, how dingy everything is and how minimal the "extras" are.  It gives the whole book a desolate, abandoned feel, and really highlights the rich from the rest of society.  This just plunges the reader into a world less than familiar.

Lena is such a great heroine to follow.  She grows exponentially within the book, and I love how she finally takes a position.  The children in this society are raised in a brainwash, constantly being told love is wrong; if any strong feelings are felt they have amor deliria nervosa, and will die.  Because of this, Lena is pretty much engendered to society's view, so when she starts to change some readers might find it abrupt.  I, however, believe that Oliver does an excellent job of putting in hints/opinions/thoughts from Lena's perspective that show she isn't the drone that she should be.

Overall, I think this is a very strong novel, following Oliver's excellent Before I Fall.  I want to see the experiences Lena will go through in Pandemonium (out March 2012), and want to learn more about this world Oliver has created!  If you haven't gotten a chance to read Delirium then head to your local bookstore or local library and read it!  It is a book not to be missed!

Extras
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   
    'That's what Hana doesn't understand, has never understood.  For some of us, it's about more than the deliria.  Some of us, the lucky ones, will get the chance to be reborn: newer, fresher, better.  Healed and whole and perfect again, like a misshapen slab of iron that comes out of the fire glowing, glittering, razor sharp.

      That is all I want—all I have ever wanted.  That is the promise of the cure.'

(Page.  112)

Final Rating

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Book Cover: 3/5 (the cover is gorgeous, but underneath is a huge picture of a girl...don't like)

Book Title: 5/5

Plot: 9.5/10

Characters: 9/10

Writing: 9.5/10

Ending: 9/10

Overall: 45/50: A- 

Tweet

Pin It