GUEST REVIEW: Delirium - Lauren Oliver

PAGES: 336
PUBLISHER: HarperCollins
FORMAT: Paperback
BUY IT: Waterstones
RATING: 5 Stars

SUMMARY

They say that the cure for love will make me happy and safe forever. And I've always believed them. Until now. Now everything has changed. Now, I'd rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years suffocated by a lie. There was a time when love was the most important thing in the world. People would go to the end of the earth to find it. They would tell lies for it. Even kill for it. Then, at last, they found the cure.

REVIEW

I read Delirium by the talented Lauren Oliver, (Lauren also wrote the book Panic; read the fabulous review by my talented friend Sofia) and this wasn’t a book I would expect myself to read and it isn’t a book that I would particularly enjoy however, I really did enjoy this book.

This book is about a girl called Lena Haloway and in her society, amor delirium nervosa (love) is forbidden. The government thinks that love is a deadly disease which destroys a person and takes over them. However there is a cure. When you turn 18, you undergo an operation which destroys the feelings of love. Lena is 95 days away from being cured from amor delirium nervosa. In the book, The Safety, Health, and Happiness Handbook (written by the government, also known as The Book of Shhh) it states that this operation is necessary so that people do not catch the symptoms of amor delirium nervosa. Lena thinks that she will be happy once she is cured however this changes when she meets Alex and suddenly she is feeling vulnerable and now she is developing the symptoms of amor delirium nervosa (mentioned in The Book of Shh). Suddenly, all the lies have been revealed and with her new found love for Alex, she is finding it very difficult to make the decisions. Will she go ahead and undergo the operations or will she and Alex make the daring and illegal choice and escape?

Main characters

Lena Haloway: Lena’s character changes throughout this book. At the beginning of the book, she is a goody two shoes. She never missed curfew, she never went against The Book of Shh, she always did what she was told. However once she meets Alex, she slowly becomes more rebellious which has a massive play on the ending and the rest of the series. I absolutely love Lena as later on she becomes braver and Lauren Oliver really lets her character develop and unfold.

Alex Sheathes: Alex.Oh.My.God. The love I have for him is substantial. I love him to the end of existence. His cuteness with Lena just kills me, he is just perfect and I love him. He is strong, beautiful and just amazing. The love that he shares with Lena is real and raw. Alex is just amazing you will fall in love with him.

The reason why I really enjoyed this book was the fact that it showed me that even a world with misery and corruption, you can find love and once you are in love, it becomes your whole life. The way Lauren writes this book makes you feel all the emotions that the character is feeling. She allows you to create a vivid image in your mind when you are reading and this book is just amazing.

This is book is part of a trilogy, where the story continues of Lena. The second book is Pandemonium and the third Requiem. There are also short stories. For me the order you should read this series, including the short stories is; Annabel, Delirium, Hana, Pandemonium, Raven, Requiem, Alex.

- Ambi.

(http://anahal.wordpress.com)