Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Title:  Delirium

Author: Lauren Oliver

Pages:  448

Genre:  YA/ Dystopian

Source: Netgalley

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 demand 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. [via GoodReads]

Imagine a world without love... a world where your partner in life is chosen for you, where you don't have strong nor deep feelings for anything (family, friends, even something as meaningless as food or even music).  Your children are just that, your children.  You don't necessarily love them.  This was such a seductive concept for me that from the moment I first heard of Ms. Oliver's Delirium I just knew I had to read it.

Lena was a great heroine.  She tried so hard to be perfect, to follow the rules.  She had been counting down till the day of her cure for months.  Obviously falling in love threw a wrench in her well laid out plans.  Alex the boy she falls for is quite the charmer.  I think I may have fallen in love with him along with her.  Their love was sweet and innocent and the way that it came to be was charming.  Their relationship as well as that of Lena and her BFF Hana were very well done.  I loved their discussions, the push and pull between the characters... the emotions.  It was all very creative - yet believable.  I also liked the quotes at the beginning of each chapter and how they came into play with what was going on in the story.  It was almost like a foreshadowing or warning of what was to come .

I truly became emotionally invested in these characters - I could not help myself.  I found that I needed for everything to work out for Lena and Alex, that a society really couldn't be this jaded.   I was literally on a roller-coaster of emotions throughout.  Ms. Oliver's writing is fluid and fresh and something that you become a part of from the moment you read those first pages.  I really liked her debut novel, Before I Fall, but I absolutely loved Delirium.  I, not only read it in one sitting (oh yea, and it's 400+ pages long), but once I was done with it I could not get it out of my head.  I still think about it (and it's been a few weeks since I read it).  

All in all,  Delirium is riddled with engaging characters, heartbreaking emotional conflict,  fast-paced action and a realism that is only enhanced by its dystopian setting.  I cannot recommend this one enough.  It will haunt you.

My Rating: