Delirium by Lauren Oliver
441 Pages
After reading The Hunger Games, I really wanted to read another dystopian type novel because I thought it was so interesting to read about the future rather than the past. I came across this novel and thought it sounded so interesting.
It's a story about a girl named Lena. Her world is almost the same that we live in now except that they (the government, I guess) have decided that the cure to wars, hate, poverty, etc. is to get rid of Love. In her world, love is a disease that clouds judgement, creates jealousy, and is the main cause for all problems but it can be cured with a medical procedure in the brain once the person is 18 years old (if it is done sooner then it could cause huge mental/emotional problems) The schools are segregated, male and female, and there are police people wandering around making sure that these teens keep the rules. But most of the population has been brainwashed so baddly that they believe that it is a curse to fall in love, or "catch the delirium" as they call it.
Lena can't wait to get the procedure done so that she never has a chance to catch this deadly disease and only has about 3 months left before her 18th birthday. She can't wait, that is, until she meets Alex, a boy who opens her eyes to the truth that maybe this love thing really isn't as bad as everyone says.
This is a story about choices. Lena must choose to live the life that she has always lived where everything is chosen for her or to defy everything she knows and fight to be her own person and follow her heart. awe. I wonder which one she'll choose.
For the most part I enjoyed this book. It was a little draggy in places and took a little while to take off but the concept was interesting enough to keep me going. The love story started out sweet but then it's like the author got lazy and all of the sudden they were super in love. I'm not sure when that happened. Hum, anyway the ending was really good, very Romeo and Juilet, but unbeknownst to me when I started it, this is the first book in a series so it leaves a cliffhanger at the end. (although I almost think it makes the story so much more interesting and moving if you pretend that this is a stand alone book)
Things I didn't love about the book was the language. Call me a prude but I don't like a ton of swearing. There's a few small words scattered throughout which I don't mind that much but there is an f-bomb which, like when they are put in movies, really didn't add anything and was just dumb. Especially in a kids book.
All in all I thought this was an OK book. Not the greatest, but definitely worth my time. I'm not sure if I will read the sequel (since I already said I thought it was interesting without one) which comes out in March 2012 but who knows...maybe my curiosity will get the best of me.
Overall 3 1/2 stars
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