Review: Delirium

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Book: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Published: February 1st 2011 by HarperTeen 

My rating: 5/5 Stars

Genre: YA - dystopian

Goodreads 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 smothered by a lie.

Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life, until ninety-five days before her eighteenth birthday and her treatment, when she falls in love."

My thoughts:

OH. MY. GOODNESS. I can't believe it took me so long to read this book! It was so good! And Lauren Oliver's writing is brilliant. This book is so creative, I wish I could meet Lauren Oliver and pick apart her brain and ask her all kinds of questions about this book! At first, in the beginning of the book, I had a hard time accepting this world that the characters are living in, but Lauren does such a good job of explaining how everything works. 

Seriously though, I freaked out so many times while reading this book. All of my reading friends are far away and I don't think they have read this book before. I really needed someone to talk to so I ended up making boyfriend come sit with me so I could explain this story and how amazing it is. I loved it, I am not even talking about the story, just fangirl-ing all over the place...take a breath, Amber.

For those of you who have read it... the last paragraph! I always hate the last few pages of books, they always seem like meaningless words thrown together just because you can't end a book in the middle a story. You have to have a end, that was what we learned in the first grade. But this last paragraph was so good! I didn't feel like I was getting some crap that made me feel distanced from the story. This pulled me in even more and totally captivated me. UNTIL THE LAST WORD. Amazing. 

Things I enjoyed about this book:

-I had no idea what was coming. There would be certain parts of the book and I would be freaking out because I thought one thing was going to happen and then it turned out completely opposite. And there are just so many twists and turns that no one could really see coming. It is a great book and keeps you on your toes the whole time!

-Great world building, I really feel like I am there.  When I first started reading I had a really hard time accepting this world because love is such a common thing for me. It is something I feel and openly express several times a day and so many of my decisions are driven by love that I cannot fathom living in a society where love is seen as a disease. Every time something would happen, I would have to sit and really think about it trying to see it as a person living in this world. But the world building was so great that I was eased into it and got a little more understanding with the little bits of information at the beginning of each chapter. By the time I was done with the book, I was so immersed in this book that every time I think of the word love, I am taken back into this world. 

-Such a creative idea for a book, Lauren Oliver... you are a genius. I was reading through the interview questions in the back of the book and one of them asked how Lauren came up with this subject for a book. I don't remember all the details, but she had read an essay about love and its influence on books and was thinking about that at the gym later when she saw something about a flu epidemic. Somehow the two things combined and here we are now reading Delirium. And even now after hearing about that, I am still in awe. It was such an amazing story, and the writing in it is beautiful. You really just want to keep reading! 

Things I didn't like want to know more about:
*There is nothing I did not like about this book, but I do have so many questions and things I just want to throw out there, so I will list a few of them here:)

-Grace! I love her so much! I have loved her since she was first introduced, I am not quite sure why. Well, obviously she is introduced as a character we like because of her bond with Lena. But she automatically stood out to me as one of the characters I would love. and I was right :) I cannot wait to see what happens with her, if anything (hopefully yes!) in the rest of this story. I really love her and I hope that she returns in Pandemonium and Requiem. 

-I still want to know so much more about their world. One thing that I had to really sit and debate with myself was how many emotions they do have and to what extent to the people in this society feel these emotions. For example, when talking about the girl who was removed from school and cured early because she was found with a boy, they mention how family's house had been graffitied.  But when I read about how their emotions are removed or controlled by the procedure, I struggled to understand how these people who walked through everything in a hazy state, woke up and felt enough hatred. To me that is a form of passion for something, in this case for the government and their society's structure and removal of love. So if they can have such strong feelings for some things and walk through life like they are sleeping the rest of the time, how does that work? I am assuming that somehow in the cure, they manage to leave fear intact since that seems to be how the government keeps its control over their people. But still, I would love to know more about how all of this works!!

Overall:  If you cannot tell I loved this book. Like seriously guys. It is awesome. And I have heard that so many times before, and I believed it but I did not feel the need to pick it up right away. I should have. So now I tell you, if you have not read this book, do it. 

Have you read Delirium? What did you think about it?

PS- I'VE GOT A GIVEAWAY GOING RIGHT NOW HERE. GO CHECK IT OUT :)