Title: Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Series: Delirium, #1
Genres: Dystopian, Young Adult
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date Published: February 1st, 2011
Edition: Hardcover
Rating:
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.
My Review:
Every once in awhile after reading a book, I will look at all the raving reviews and wonder if I seriously read a different book than everyone else. I will fully admit that I just got through reading two absolutely amazing books — Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles and Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma. That fact, in itself, could have had my expectations for this book ridiculously high, and I admit that. But, there’s not much I can do about that at this point.
But, aside from that fact, there were several things I didn’t like about this book. I first off loved the premise. The idea that a society believes that love is a disease is unique and intriguing. But, as a dystopian novel, I thought that this fell a bit flat in that aspect. The majority of the story is sort of more about Lena coming into herself and learning about not necessarily going along with what everyone else is doing, but making her own path. That’s okay I suppose, but I found it a bit boring, and dissapointing in the fact that I was hoping for a morbidly twisted world since I picked this up as a dystopian — and that’s what I expect out of a dystopian novel.
As far as the love story between Lena and Alex, I thought it was sweet. It was cute and I liked Alex. But, it too fell a bit flat for me. It wasn’t a terrible romance or anything. It just didn’t hit home with me all that much. We learn the essentials about Alex, but I think a big part of it was that there wasn’t very much opening up going on between the two. I wasn’t really feeling them actually falling in love — more like falling in like.
But it wasn’t all bad! Far from it. I enjoyed the friendship between Lena and Hana. There were many sigh-worthy moments between Alex and Lena as well. As the protagonist, I liked Lena, but sometimes she was just a bit boring too. The world is certainly twisted, but I just wish there would have been more of a rebellion and larger story going on than just Lena’s thoughts on the matter.
So as you can see I have a bit of mixed feelings about the book. I didn’t hate it by any means, but it wasn’t as phenomenal as I was hoping it would be. I am certainly looking forward to the next book in the series, as the book leaves off with a cliffhanger (which is kind of good and bad at the same time). We’ll have to see where the series goes. I’m hoping the next book will have more action and maybe even some more romance.
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