Delirium
by Lauren Oliver
I posted this a few months ago, but since the release is coming up for Delirium, I thought I’d post it again along with my trailer I made last summer.
Book Synopsis (from Goodreads)
In an alternate United States, love has been declared a dangerous disease, and the government forces everyone who reaches eighteen to have a procedure called the Cure. Living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in Portland, Maine, Lena Haloway is very much looking forward to being cured and living a safe, predictable life. She watched love destroy her mother and isn’t about to make the same mistake.
But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena meets enigmatic Alex, a boy from the “Wilds” who lives under the government’s radar. What will happen if they do the unthinkable and fall in love?
Review
*A little spoilerish*
The idea that love is a disease is mind boggling from the start. How can you live without love?!
But in Delirium they do. It’s rather depressing at times, the way parents have no love for their children, only the responsibility of taking care of them.
The way married couples are looked down on when showing affection in public. But they’re not in love.
It’s a responsibility to work together, not love.
Lena understands that love, more commonly known as the deliria, is a disease. Without love, there is no hate. No war, fights, and life is measured and safe.
She cannot wait to turn 18 so she can finally be out of love’s way. She’ll be evaluated, her husband will be chosen, as will her job and the amount of kids that seem fit for her. Hopefully, they’ll let her go to college.
So when her best friend, Hana, starts breaking the rules, breaking curfew, listening to non-government-approved music, and even going out to parties where boys and girls are integrated, she fears Hana will soon catch the disease and be forced to have the cure early, a dangerous thing that can cause deadly side affects.
But then there’s Alex. Alex who makes her heart jump, a clear side affect of deliria, makes her mind go fuzzy, another side effect.
She knows she should ignore him, just wait the few more months until the surgery will be given to her and she doesn’t have to worry about the disease. So it’s pretty bad when she says yes to meeting him…and even worse when he admits to being an Invalid, someone who disagrees with the cure and live in the Wild, pass the gates surrounding her city.
But then she realizes that maybe the government’s wrong, maybe they’re lying about love being bad. When she runs off to another party to warn Hana about a raid coming to take people who disobey any rules, she’s too late.
She sees the violence coming from the people who are supposed to ‘protect’ the citizens during the raid.
Alex saves her from the raid and from that night she’s soon plummeting further and further from her old life, the safe one. She might have deliria, but she’s doesn’t care.
She just wants to be with Alex.
But when the whole world is out to destroy something you love, how can you escape?
I truly loved this book.
It was magnificent and the ending was stunning and heart wrenching. Alex and Lena were marvelous, brave, characters who I enjoyed reading about. I loved reading each secret peeling off from Lena’s safe life even if some were hard to learn.
Lauren was able to show how love can never be erased and how far people will go to keep it with them.
The romance was sweet and true to heart.
I did cry, I laughed, and I screamed (In my head, at least!).
I was inspired.