Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Delirium (Delirium #1)

Author: Lauren Oliver

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: February 3, 2011

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

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 governments 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 with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

Dystopians are well on their way to becoming my favorite genre, especially within YA. I had already read Lauren Oliver’s debut Before I Fall and thought it was amazing. Now after having read Delirium, I am even more blown away by this fantastic author and her books.

Lena has always been told that love is dangerous, a disease that can result in destruction. She saw what it did to her mother and then to her sister, but the cure makes it all better. Now Lena is counting down the days until she gets the cure and then start the peaceful life that comes with being cured. But just weeks before Lena was supposed to receive the cure, she meets Alex. Now Lena questions everything she has ever been told about love and a day she was looking for has become one she dreads. But what should Lena do when she realizes she has been lied to her whole life. Will she give up everything she ever wanted all for love?

Lauren Oliver is a phenomenal writer and knows how to write a story that will really move her readers. Delirium was no different. Right from the beginning, I was riding an emotional roller-coaster and it was a ride I didn’t get off of until I read the last page. As for the world without love Oliver created, it was at the same time amazing and terrifying. Personally, I don’t think I would be able to live in a world without love because that means there are basically no other emotions, and for me that’s quite terrifying. And that leaves the ending. I didn’t see it coming and it left me crying like a baby. It was amazing.

I love Lena. She is an amazing character and one that grew and developed in the best way possible. She was a completely different at the end of the book. I loved the way she went from a good girl who followed all the rules to someone who broke out of her chains and stood up for what she believed in. A lot of the change in Lena came from her relationship with Alex. Normally I am opposed to a girl losing her head over a boy but in this case it was just perfect. And Alex was the best boy to do that over. I don’t know how to explain Alex other than to say he was a genuinely good guy and there was never a doubt in my mind that he loved Lena. The relationship between these two made the book for me.

Delirium was absolutely incredible and just reinforces that Lauren Oliver is an amazing writer. I can’t wait to see where she takes the story next in Pandemonium. Waiting until next February will be difficult.