Delirium- Lauren Oliver

Note: I read this as part of Dystopian February

Synopsis: 

"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 government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Haloway 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.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: she falls in love."


Review: When I first heard of this book, it sounded to me like a cross between Matched by Ally Condie, The Giver by Lois Lowry, and the Uglies Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld, three of my all time favorite dystopian novels. Obviously that meant I had to have it the day it was released.

When the book begins, Lena is a strict rule follower. She's afraid, terrified even, of what would happen if she listens to forbidden music, breaks curfew, or even of talking to an uncured boy. Her best friend Hana is less concerned with all this, and she's really the one, along with a boy named Alex, who becomes the main love interest in the story, who draws Lena into an unknown rebellious world.

I really loved a lot of things about this story. I thought that Lauren Oliver was great at descriptions. Her choice of adjectives or the way she'd portray a moment in the story really appealed to me. I also loved how every chapter began with a quote from books in Lena's life, about love and the cure and various other things.

My only complaint about the story is that Alex and Lena's romance seemed to go from almost nothing, with Lena still afraid of everything really, to an instantaneous connection after an event in the story. Although that didn't even feel as rushed as I might be making it seem.

I absolutely adored this book and cannot wait for books 2 and 3, Pandemonium and Requiem, which are to be released in February of 2012 and 2013 respectively.

Rating: A

Other Recommended Books:
Matched by Ally Condie
Uglies Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld
The Giver by Lois Lowry