Delirium

Delirium

Lauren Oliver

 

  

This book went surprisingly fast for being ~ 450 pages. I had heard really good things about this book, and saw that Veronica Roth was all about it on Goodreads, so I thought I would give it a try.

 

I was a little conflicted, because it was an entertaining read but I just wasn't really a fan of the writing. It almost seemed like the author was trying too hard to make everything so deep or profound by using metaphors/similes in every other sentence. No joke. There was one part that stuck out to me as just a 'how did this not get edited out' moment (as follows): 

"he is my world and my world is him and without him there is no world".

  It got a little annoying and I rolled my eyes at times, but honestly, I thought the concept was pretty cool. Our world, but in the future where they've found a cure for love, or 'amor deliria nervosa', which is now proclaimed the ultimate disease. The cure involves a type of lobotomy, or removal of a piece of the brain and everyone in the bordered area has their procedure when they turn 18. There are plenty of rules including a curfew and strict segregation between boys/girls in case they get 'diseased' because love ultimately kills you, or that's what they want you to believe. Once you're cured, you don't really care about anything. You're just numb.

Lena, the main character, grew up believing everything that the government told her. She can't wait for her procedure because she doesn't want to end up like her mother, delusional and in love even after they performed the procedure three time on her. She was told that her mother committed suicide and left Lena and her sister to be raised by their Aunt and Uncle. Lena really annoyed me, she eventually got a little better but her voice just bugged me. For example, Lena always talked about how she hated when people automatically thought she was diseased because of her mother, but then she does the same thing when someone tells her they aren't cured and doesn't see how completely hypocritical it is. She also worships her best friend in a pretty creepy way. It was a fast and entertaining read for the most part. I could see the supposed plot twists coming a mile away, but maybe that's just me because everyone seems to think that the ending was a giant surprise, and it is a cliffhanger but I'm almost positive I know the outcome. Guess we'll have to see when I continue on to the next one.