Thursday, January 31, 2013

Delirium

  Love is a disease. Or at least in Lauren Oliver's Delirium it is. Delirium is a post apocalyptic, teen romance, dystopian, science fiction adventure. Wow! Now try saying that five times fast! In this book, Lena, the main character, is rebelling against the government, even if she doesn't in the beginning. She's in a world that everyone gets cured of amor deliria nervosa, or love.  She is terrified of the disease, because it is what killed her mother.
     Lena is counting down the days until it's her turn to get cured. She is trying to avoid the disease at all costs, until she meets Alex. This smart, nice, and most importantly CURED boy begins to capture Lena's attention. She keeps telling herself that what happened to her mother can’t happen to her, Alex is safe, Alex is cured. As time goes on, she begins seeing symptoms of the disease, but she doesn't think much of it. Then she finds out that Alex lied about being cured. Her mind tries to process this information, but she can’t take it in.  And there’s a good reason she doesn’t want to accept the consequence. She's in love. She's caught the disease, but now, she wants the disease. 
     This story held my interest throughout the entire book. It had a feeling like you were her thoughts, as if your were there firsthand when everything happened. Oliver was able to do something many books can’t, and that’s weave together multiple plots. If you look deeper into this extraordinary piece of literature, you find some amazing things. Of course, you see that love is a disease, and that she’s caught it. But you also see her struggle because her mother isn’t there, and then on top of that she is having trouble with her best friend, who is also rebelling. And then, an essential part of all teen books, you have her love life. Which, by the way, isn’t supposed to exist. It’s amazing how some authors can weave a web like this.
This book is similar to Uglies, another teen book. Both books express that some part of human nature is wrong. In Delirium, it is that they fall in love, while in Uglies, it’s the way that humans look. Lena and Tally, who is the heroine of Uglies, both want to be "fixed." They both want to fit in to society, start the perfect section of their life. The thing is, both have something happen that widens their perspective.  Lena and Tally both want to learn more, and neither of them want to go back.
     I think everyone should read this book. It makes you wonder, a little, what could happen to our world in the future. Is something truly wrong with simply humans? Lauren Oliver has created a wonderful book, which is to be part of a three book series. This book can appeal to everyone, because, as mentioned before, it fits in almost every category! Delirium is fascinating, because you watch as this girl goes against everything she's been taught, even though she has no idea what her future holds. A. 




7 comments:

Pa-Joules said...

This was a great book review! I loved everything about this book, but not the end. This book really did make me think about a lot of things. I would recommend this book to anybody who likes books like Uglies, Matched or Divergent.

Soccer Chick said...

I think that how you like the ending is different on how you perceive the book. For people interested... Cough cough... Pandemonium somewhat resolves the problems that are brought up in Delirium.

Pa-Joules said...

Fair enough. :)

Unknown said...

Yupp, Im def reading this now. Im super excited. Thanks! ;)

Beth Kearsley said...

Sounds interesting, but for me it just seems like every other book out there in the world. Same basic idea, just a few slight changes. However I thought your review was totally great, and I could really hear your voice in the writing. :)

Soccer Chick said...

Beth: Although it seems like many other books, and yes, it has that structure (most young adult books do) Delirium is different in that it doesn't work out how the reader wants. Most books lead the reader through a clear path, while Delirium takes mysterious twist and turns.

Unknown said...

One thing I did dislike about the ending was it was like "oh...! It's ending now..." and it was basically one chapter of action and it was over. But other than that, I liked it a lot.