Author: Lauren Oliver
Release Date: February 7th, 2012
My Rating: 3.5/5
Hey all,
Today, I have for you, a review of Delirium by Lauren Oliver. This is a dystopian novel, where love is considered a disease and must be wiped out. The government created a procedure that "cures" people of any feeling of love at all, weather it be romantic, familiar, or just enjoying something. Everyone gets matched to be married and assigned a college and major. This means that they have to control over their lives, but they don't care because they can't be passionate about anything without love. This carries over to their family lives as well. There is no true love in the family unit and because of this, if mothers get too annoyed with their children they will abandon them or worse, kill them. This book reminded me of a few books; Matched by Ally Condie, 1984 by George Orwell, and Divergent by Veronica Roth.
I absolutely loved Oliver's writing style. It was artistic, but not confusing, and delightfully descriptive. I have found that I can't stand it when books are over descriptive. This book was a happy medium, enticing me in the details of the world Oliver created, yet not boring me with nonsensical jabber. This book had many creative aspects that really made me think about issues in the world we have today, which was previously done by George Orwell in his book, 1984.
The characters in this book were not my favorite. Lena did not always think in a sensible way and often react in a non-realistic way. I did like seeing her point of view from wanting the procedure and believing in it, to not wanting it. Which brings me to Alex. I feel like I never really got to know this character. He always seemed secondary and I feel like Alex and Lena just fell in love because of one incident. They didn't actually fall. I did however, love the contrast between the cured people and the uncured. Oliver does a beautiful job making the cured seem like they have some emotion, like it's hidden.
Overall, I am glad that I read this book, however it was not my favorite. It seemed rather anti-climatic. It just kind of went on and finally got interesting the last 70 pages. I would recommend reading this book to anyone who asks, but I wouldn't say it is a "Oh-my-God-you-need-to-read-this-book!" book.
For those of you who have not read this book, this is the end of the line for you. There are spoilers below the picture!
**SPOILERS**
Alright, there isn't really much to say in this spoiler section that I haven't already said up above. There are only a few points I would like to hit on here. The first is the crypts. I thought that was a very interesting twist when we found out that Lena's mom had been there the whole time. However, I did not find it very believable that she could dig a tunnel through a concrete wall, and nobody noticed. I am glad that she is alive and escaped, I just found it unrealistic. I also thought the punishment for Thomas was too severe, even taking in the nature of this book. He had reported the hole in the wall, after all. I feel like the rest of the guards should have caught on to Thomas and Alex. That would have made it more interesting, at least.
The second thing I would like to bring up is more of a question. Is Alex alive? It never specifically explained if he was actually killed. I mean, I can expect that the guards would have killed him, but these books are a trilogy, what can Lena really do after this? Half of me wants to keep reading the series to find out, and the other half of me doesn't feel like it is worth it.
Please, please share your opinions on this one, since I'm on the edge.
Until next time, Keep Reading!
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