Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

[nikki_p]

Delirium by Lauren Oliver is the first book in a trilogy about a girl named Lena who lives in a dystopian setting. Love has been classified as a sickness, a deadly disease that can literally drive you mad and do ridiculous things. In order to control this unpredictable illness called Love, every person, when they turn 18, must undergo a procedure that removes the disease from their body. Lena is excited for her procedure, obsessed with the idea of being cured to rid herself from being associated to her mother, a woman that killed herself when Lena was just a little girl, because of Love. But then one day, Lena meets Alex, and the procedure doesn't seem so far away anymore, but instead ominously near.

At first I didn’t get drawn into this book as much as I would hope. The plot was just AMAZING, yet the writing felt so juvenile at times that I felt bored. There were parts in the beginning when Alex would hint that he wanted to meet Lena somewhere, and I’d be like “neat.” But then she’d blab on a whole paragraph trying to figure out what he was telling her and then another paragraph saying things like “He. Is. Giving. Me. A. Signal.” and I’m just like, “congratulations, you finally figured it out.” I don’t know, I just didn’t like how everything was being spelled out to me like I was an idiot that didn’t know how to read between the lines. I mean, yes this is YA but come on, I don’t think I’ve ever read another young adult novel that repeatedly made me feel like I was reading juvenile fiction as much as this one.

First impression aside though, I became pretty hooked. After losing interest in the first few chapters, I picked it up again and realized that this book is actually not that bad. I love the story line and I love the characters. My favorite character is Hana because she is described as such a sunny person, and I love sunny people. She sounds like the embodiment of sunshine. I’m also really interested in how Lena’s mother will turn out, along with Gracie. It might be odd that two of my favorite characters are the most mysterious ones, but I guess that’s why I am attracted to them.

To be honest, as much as I did EVENTUALLY enjoy the book, there are still quite a few things that bothered me, specifically the fact that it sounds like a compilation of many other movies and books I have read before. First of all, the scene with Lena and Alex felt very “Twilight” to me. She kept describing him as a statue carved out of stone, and the way she described how she felt for him reminded me almost painfully of how Bella felt for Edward. Then again, I think she is a bit more justified considering she was taught her whole life that those feelings were literally a disease, illegal, and should be avoided at all cost. So overall, it honestly was an intense experience for her, so I forgive the “Twilight-ness” of their relationship. Secondly, the emphasis on the scars on their necks due to the surgery reminded me of another novel by Stephanie Meyer, “The Host”. And lastly, the entire plot itself was like a teenage version of “Equilibrium”, which is actually one of my favorite movies.

Overall, I love dystopian stories, and I love romance, and I guess I enjoyed the book. I am going to continue on with the series out of interest and curiosity about what happens next. I’m not in a rush to go out and buy the next book, which is saying something. I’m rating it four stars because well, I just liked it. I didn’t love it, I’m not obsessed with it, it’s simply okay.

[littlebook]

I have read this entire trilogy. I understand what you mean...it did start off fairly slow. A lot of the events were pretty predictable too. However, the second and third books progressively got better. I did feel a little left out by the cliffhanger at the end of the third one.

[BadrQamra]

This trilogy is definitely one of my favourite. I love the writing style of this author. I loved the story and the character development. It’s a really nice and touching story about love, family, friends and romance. I loved the way Lena’s character developed as she became a very strong person fighting for love in a world where love is a disease. I also liked the fact that despite the main character Lena being so strong and brave the story was still very realistic. One more interesting fact about this book was that there were many interesting characters that the author really brought through as the book moved forward. In fact my favourite character was Raven from the second book, I really loved her and thus I did find the ending sad. Overall a very enjoyable read that I would read again.

[Courtney Whittamore]

I really enjoyed this trilogy, as the idea that love is a sickness was very unique and I wanted to see how Oliver would explore that, but I was kind of disappointed that it was kept at such a surface level. It's as if she anticipated her readership didn't lack much depth, and focused on a rather fragile and menial relationship between teenagers that was forbidden as opposed to exploring the idea of how love really was a sickness. She got into it a little bit, but she treated it like an actual physical sickness, as opposed to the mind altering crazy things we all do when we fall head over heels in love with someone. We would walk on water for that person. And even though she thought she loves Alex and she went out on limbs for him and broke the rules in order to be with him, there was still always this hesitancy about the whole thing. Like that she half wanted to do it and halfway didn't. I don't know about anyone else, but when I REALLY love someone, like the whole crazy in love thing, there is no second thoughts. I am no hesitant about making the impossible possible. I don't care if I get caught. I don't worry about who will find out. If it were truly treated like a sickness, she should have been ravenous with love. She should have been proud of her love. Love was supposed to be synonymous with crazy. And crazy people as a rule do not consider themselves crazy and would have no worries flaunting their behavior in front of everyone, even knowing that they would suffer greatly for it. If love was crazy like that, she would have had no problem flaunting it. She would have WANTED people to know. I feel like that would have brought such an interesting dynamic to the core ideal that love is a sickness, instead of that being just another avenue to bring two teenage characters together so that they could have a lukewarm like fest. The obviously liked each other, but I don't really feel like they loved each other, so perhaps that wherein the problem lies.

[mkostecki11]

This review is pretty spot-on, and that quote was my favorite as well! My thoughts on Delirium are pretty similar. When I first heard the concept of love being a disease I was definitely curious. But when the symptoms of love, or amor deliria nervosa are explained – sweaty palms, difficulty focusing, loss of appetite, obsessive thoughts and actions, to name a few, it really does sound like a disease. Oliver is able to take something that people in our world yearn for and want and turn it around into something that makes you think twice. Everything Oliver wrote about love was true; just twisted in a way that made is sound bad in Lena's complex world. Delirium is definitely a book that makes you think about what is most important in life.

[sophie_mcmaster]

Great book! Loved the take on the 'dystopian future genre' .

[Charlene]

I finished the trilogy a long time ago and fell in love with it. Dystopian books are my favorite and this one did not fail me because it somehow felt real. I pictured it as our society brainwashed by the government, trying to find a cure for "love" which did not need fixing at all. I love how Lauren Oliver also focused on Lena's family, not just her romantic relationship. It shows how living in a world without feelings can impact our friendship, family, especially our thoughts and choices.

[Beloved2615]

I did enjoy these books. I agree it was slow starting and yes I can see what your stating about parts of it seems to be very similar to other books/movies. I did enjoy reading them all but yes, the first one was slow and I had to get into it a bit before I got really "into" it. I am glad I did read them because I do love Lauren's writing style and some of the ideas were interesting.

[elovesbooks]

This is one of my favourite books! I love the original storyline and Lena's character.

[csimmons032]

I have to admit that the Delirium Trilogy wasn't one of my favorites. I can deal with a forbidden love story line, but I didn't like the idea of love being a disease. I would never consider it to be a sickness and definitely can't see the world ever coming to that conclusion. I do think that there was a decent amount of action involved in these books, but I just didn't like what they were portraying. I definitely would not want to hide the one that I love from the world. So even though this was an interesting approach, it's not the type of story line I typically go for and I probably won't be reading it again.

[Madisonpearce]

Delirium is one of my all time favorite books. It shows that true love is worth fighting for and gave me crazy feels! It is a mix of drama, action, and romance (i think that is super cool). I have read all of the books in the Delirium trilogy and this has to be my favorite. This book is a perfect 10!

[krood10]

I would agree with you. I liked this book, but I didn't love it. I felt like it had potential and Oliver didn't capitalize on some of the more unique aspects of her story (such as the relationship between Lena and her aunt and cousin, the civil unrest, the relationship with Lena and her mother) and focused on the trite and predictable aspects like the forbidden love. Perhaps the rest of the series will be better as she starts improves her writing and develops the story more.

[Kali0925]

I read this trilogy, and yes like most people mentioned previously it does start a bit slow, but they way that Love is portrayed as a disease is genius. Oliver demonstrates every aspect that a person experiences of love as the same reactions to when a person is experiencing an actual disease. It is a different take to a love story and it makes you analyze more how we really react to love. The third book leaves you with a major cliffhanger which I still have mixed feelings about, since it would've been great to know what happened after. Overall I enjoyed this trilogy a lot since it gave a new breath of fresh air to the usual love story.

[xShreyaPandeyx]

(Spoilers ahead)
I love, love, love this book. I'm not a huge fan of the trilogy as a whole, but the first book in the series, happens to be one of my favorite YA/Dystopian novels ever. I was drawn to the book immediately. The whole concept of love being a disease and there being a cure, and everything interested me immediately. I loved how the rest of the society was set up around it. Like certain music and books being banned because they glorified love. I loved the patrol system and how people had to deal with impromptu police raids and the whole curfew thing. I really enjoyed the latter part though. My favorite has to be the part when Lana and Alex sneak into the wild through the border and spend the night in a caravan where he reads her poetry. I think I just fell in love when that happened. And damn, that big plot-twist in the end and the terrible cliff-hanger just nearly killed me. I'd read this book a dozen times, no question asked.

[TamSan]

I have read this entire trilogy. I understand what you mean...it did start off fairly slow. A lot of the events were pretty predictable too. However, the second and third books progressively got better. I did feel a little left out by the cliffhanger at the end of the third one.

I agree, it was pretty predictable. The first two books I thought did a great job of setting the story. But the third one left me flat. It just felt like everything was rushed towards the end and I was not at all satisfied with how it ended. The third one completely ruined it for me. I was so sad too, because the other ones were great!