BOOK REVIEW: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Pages: 393
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Tagline: "What if love were a disease?"

" 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 Holoway 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 then, with only ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable... "

 So, I read Delirium when it first came out last year. Although I remembered that I really liked it, other than that, I couldn't really remember much of what had actually happened. Like, when I read other people's reviews of Delirium and they mentioned the *gasp* 'MASSIVE CLIFFHANGER' at the end, I was just left sitting there cluelessly, thinking, 'Hmmm, I really should probably remember what they're going on about...but I can't.'

But with Pandemonium having just recently been released, I figured I needed to re-read Delirium as I really could not remember what had actually happened in it. Of course, I remembered Alex, and I remembered that Lena fell in love...but other than that...nothing. Clearly, although I know I did really like it when I first read it, Delirium just hadn't made that much of an impact on me the first time I read it.


But the second time? Okay, maybe the one bright side to my forgetfulness which allowed Delirium to elude my memory is that it meant I could fall in love with this beautiful story, and be swept along in a wave of raw emotion all over again. Re-reading Delirium, I finally understood why I had loved it so much the first time around. 


This time, what struck me most was how utterly beautiful Lauren Oliver's writing is. Seriously. It's so beautiful. I felt like her words were casting a spell over me, I felt like her words were painting vivid, glowing, beautiful images in my mind. And I believed every word she wrote.


I feel like I don't really have much to say about this book, because it's almost so perfect that there is nothing to say apart from...it's perfect.


It was sad, and rather scary, to see how brainwashed people in Lena's society were - Lena herself included, at the start of the book. Lena really grew and travelled through the book - at first she was a complete believer in her society, actually looking forward to the day of her procedure. And then she met Alex, and slowly, her life began to turn upside down until she was dreading the day of her procedure. The development of her love for Alex was really believable as well, because although she was drawn to Alex from the moment she saw him, she didn't fall in love with him straight away, and was reluctant to because of the deep-rooted beliefs that were instilled in every member of society that amor deliria nervosa (i.e. love) was extremely dangerous.


This is a book about falling in love, and Lauren Oliver will make you fall in love as you read this book. I did.