**Delirium-- Lauren Oliver
Release Date: February 1st, 2011Genre: Romance, Dystopia, Sci-fi
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 440
Rating:
Goodreads Page: Click here
Summary:
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.Review: Everything you have heard about this book is true. There is gripping romance, interesting characters, a fabulously dystopian society, and an UNBELIEVEABLE ending. Ah!
But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.
Why only 4.5 stars, then? Well... it just didn't Match up to a certain book I read that was very similar. *cough* But I try not to compare book-to-book. It's usually not fair, and I know that most people won't agree with me.
But all comparisons aside, I LOVED all the little things in this book. The little snippets of information at the begining of each chapter were so cool! And I loved the idea of eliminating love. What a unique concept. I did find Lena a little annoying, and there were a couple instances of pretty extreme swearing (but it wasn't casual) but my biggest issue was this:
WHY would people eliminate love?
Now, you're listening to worlds biggest love-skeptic. I haven't found it yet, and I am not actively pursuing it at this moment. So when characters in novels fall so head-over-heels that they can't think straight or do anything else I usually roll my eyes and groan.Especially teen love. Seriously, people? Seriously?
HOWEVER, even I can't understand why a society would want to eliminate love entirely. I mean, sure, it causes you to think irrationally, and it can cause heartache, but it does so many good things! This book talked about some mothers who were so unattatched to their children that they KILLED them. Because they just didn't care.
So this just made me read the book with one eyebrow raised. Like, really? Everyone in this book seemed so... sad. Perhaps you are SUPPOSED to think this. Most dystopians challenge you to find the errors in their society, and usually they're easy to spot, but it's also easy to spot WHY someone might have thought it was a good idea. I just couldn't figure that out for Delirium.
Hm... I guess The Giver sort of did this "getting rid of love" thing. But not qutie to this extreme.
I know that I'm one of the very few reviewers who didn't give this a glowing, 5+ stars review. And I didn't take this stance because I wanted to stand out, because Delirium is EXTREMELY good. SO good. Once I sat down to read it I couldn't move! So despite the fact that I had some issues with the story and characters, they weren't major.
I highly recommend y'all read this book when it comes out.
All review content © Enna Isilee, Squeaky Books 2007-2010
I also loved this book, I have not read Matched though and I don't plan to after hearing all of the comparisons...
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to read this! It sounds really good. And yeah it seems like a lot of books right now are trying to fill The Hunger Games niche by writing Dystopian trilogies with love triangles. While I love these kinds of books I hope that they don't just turn into some sort of commodity like vampire books. I want quality not quantity!
ReplyDeleteKatie, NOOO!!! You must read MATCHED!
ReplyDeleteJulia, one REALLY good thing about this one is that there was no love triangle. :)
I can't wait for Delirium... it sounds so so good!! A world with no love... it seems so difficult to conceive!
ReplyDeleteI loved this one and Matched as well. Though, I found more parallels between Uglies and Delirium. Fabulous dystopian, though that ending was a bit too far-fetched for me :)
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for this one and Matched, as well!
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Matched yet, but I do want to. Like Melissa, I did find similarities between Delirium and Uglies, but Delirium was so much better.
ReplyDeleteThe ending was perfect for me, and it was terrible at the same time, cause I didn't know it was the first book in a trilogy, I thought that was it!
Enna-I totally agree with you on the "why get rid of love" question. I was thinking the exact same thing while I was reading it. I kind of inferred that life got really bad with a lot of hate and this was their solution. Or something. But it still didn't make much sense to me.
ReplyDeleteKatie-I think you should read Matched, too. It's wonderful! Once I got through the first few chapters of Delirium the similarity between the two stopped. At least for me.
Beautiful website and very helpful review! After reading this, I'm going to buy this book for sure :)
ReplyDeleteJust finished this book - wow, I couldn't put it down!
ReplyDeleteRegarding your comment about why would anyone want to get rid of love...
The author didn't really go into a lot of details about the government leaders. I can totally picture a president/dictator similar to the one in The Hunger Games where there are horrible laws in place that only apply to the general population, not the leadership. All the quotes she puts at the beginning of the chapters sound like government propaganda made to scare the people into submission. What better way to make the people passive and obedient than to take away their ability to feel passionate about anything? I don't know if the author will go the route of The Hunger Games trilogy (uprising, etc.) but it seems possible since she talks a lot about "the resistance." It just seemed more like an oppressive government situation rather than the people as a whole decided to abolish love.
Just my two cents!
Im so excited to read this book and i agree why get rid of love it does so much good in the world and I head matched is like a lot of books whoops but I'm still excited to read it gosh thinking next week I'm going to have Delirium, insert JIG!!!yay thanks for the review!!!!
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