"They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things; it kills both when you have it and when you don't" -Lena Haloway
Delirium by Lauren Oliver is a post apocalyptic, romance, all around amazing novel. I loved the way this book kept me thinking. In this book this book it's about 200 years into the future and America has concluded that love is a disease they call it amor deliria nervosa.The government decides your future. The boys and girls are kept separate for most if not all of their childhood. At the end of their senior year in high school everyone has an evaluation. In the evaluation they ask questions to determine who you will marry and if you are in danger of contracting the deliria. When you turn 18 you get a procedure and it cures you from ever being in love again. Most people believe this is what's best but those who don't are called invalids. The invalids don't believe in the cure so they have escaped to live in the Wilds. The Wilds are all of the area that lie outside of the fenced off cities. They often infiltrate the city to try and convert people to their movement.
This story follows a girl named Lena Haloway. She's only 95 days away from having her procedure and she's grateful. Her whole life has been plagued by the deliria. Her mother committed suicide because of it. Sense then she has been living with her aunt Carol. Carol has been prepping Lena for the evaluation for months. Finally when the day comes her best friend Hanna says,"You know you can't be happy unless you're unhappy sometimes, right?" Lena finds this odd and it only adds to her growing anxiety. As the evaluation starts Lena begins to forget everything she's been practicing. Then invalids pull a prank by letting loose cows in the labs during the evaluations. Lena looked up during stampede and saw a man in the window smiling at her. Later she found out that all of the evaluation results were discarded.
Days later Hanna and Lena go out for a run and they end up meeting the same man Lena saw in the window during the evaluation. The three of them started talking and he said his name is Alex and that he has already been cured. He also claimed to never have been at the labs. In a secret way Alex gives Lena a message telling her to meet him at 8:30. All day Lena debates whether to go. After dinner she bikes down to the cove and when she gets there Alex is no where to be found. She runs into him again and they start to hang out and she figures it's okay because he's cured. One day at the beach Alex tells her that he's really an invalid and that he's not cured. Lena freaks out and doesn't want anything to do with him any more.
After their second evaluation Hanna and Lena have a fight because Hanna has started to listen to illegal music and going to underground parties. Hanna and Lena grow apart but Hanna still invites Lena to come. On a night of one of Hanna's parties it's a raid night. A raid is were officials come through and check for signs of the Deliria and such. Lena goes up to the party to warn them but as she arrives the police barge in. It's brutal and bloody. Lena gets bit by a dog and guess who her savior is. Yep, Alex. He helps her and then Lena realizes she has fallen in love with him.
Alex and Lena begin to meet in private. Lena finally understands that being in love is the best feeling. Lena soon tells Hanna and everything goes back to normal. Until that is someone finds out. They lock Lena away and Alex comes to rescue her, but they have the whole city on their tails. They run for the Wilds. Will it work, you tell me.
I found myself agreeing with a lot of what the author was saying. Love is kind of like a disease and maybe the world would be better if it wasn't around. Then I also got to thinking that all of the people I love now and that I've loved in the past would mean absolutely nothing to me. So I have come to a conclusion that love is a necessary evil.
I loved every second of this book! The world melted away around me when I read it. It is inspirational in a way to think that one day I might have someone love me enough to break all the rules to be with me. This book gives a hopeless romantic like me hope and I can't wait for the sequel. A+
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