Book Review | Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Delirium

Author: Lauren Oliver

Series: Delirium #1

Genres: Dystopian

Publication/Year: HarperCollins • 2011

Page Numbers: 309

Format: eBook

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Ninety-five days, and then I'll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It's hard to be patient. It's hard not to be afraid while I'm still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn't touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't.
My Rating: ★★★★.5

Quote(s) I Like:
"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 one, 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 ever wanted. That is the promise of the cure." - Lena

"Everyone is asleep. They've been asleep for years. You seemed ... awake. I'm tired of sleeping." - Alex

"Love, the deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't. Love: it will kill you and save you, both." - Lena

My Thoughts:
Can you imagine a world without love? A world where love is taken out of you and you become loveless or maybe even heartless? Well, Delirium has created such a world that makes you truly think about the meaning of love and how important it is. Delirium is a different take on a dystopian world for me.

Lena, the protagonist, lives with her aunt Carol, uncle and her two cousin Jenny and Grace. At the age of eighteen or close to the age each person undergoes a procedure in which they are cured from love. Lena is the type of girl to listen to the rules and regulations that are set, especially considering her mother was never cured. She never wanted to end up like her mother.

Lena's life was perfect until she met Alex briefly during her evaluation. She then met him again several times. Alex pretends to be cured just to come find Lena and when he tells her the truth, that he's an Invalid, she tries to fight off her feelings but sadly she cannot because she has fallen in love or as the government would say, she has the disease. An Invalid is someone who refused to be cured. They get wiped from the system and their identity becomes invalid.

In the society she lives in, once you are evaluated you are than matched with a guy in which you live with, have kids and work. The government basically decides and monitors your future. Lena was set to be with Brian as her evaluation matches have selected and she was ready, but after falling in love she couldn't think of another way to live, especially without Alex.

The love Lena begins to develop helps her to understand that what she was taught about the Invalids, love and The Wild (life outside of the fence) was all lie. She even found out the truth about her mother. With these new discoveries she rebels and plans to leave and escape to the Wild right before the procedure is done.

Besides Lena, who took me a long time to like, and Alex I totally love Hana, Lena's best friend. She was totally an awesome friend to Lena throughout the whole book. Hana was fun, spunky and daring even after the event that scared her completely.

Lauren Oliver has written an awesome dystopian novel about love. It starts off slow paced, but then picks with lots of action, rebelling and love. I can't wait to see what happens next in Pandemonium because that cliff hanger was just not right.

Have you read this book?