BookChewer: Book of the Moment: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Hardcover: 441 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
Released Date: Feb 1, 2011
Source: Library
Interest: Author

Synopsis:

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.
~Goodreads

My Thoughts:

I remember when I read the last page of Before I Fall, I just kind of sat there for a while, absorbing what I had just read. Now that was just amazing. Lauren Oliver's writing is just gorgeous and flows so beautifully and she makes the smallest and tiniest of experiences some of the most beautiful things you've ever read. I absolutely love Lauren Oliver's work. After reading that book and finding out that she had written another novel going by the name, Delirium, I just had to hunt down that book.

Lena, the main character is a complicated girl. Most of the time I found my self not liking her. She was so locked on going through the delirium procedure and getting good marks on her evaluation that I thought she wasn't enjoying what little was left of a normal life. She became so closed off at times and had a quick temper and would make a small problem a really huge deal. While you did see how she felt about her dead mother and how tormented and confused she was about it, I didn't really see her personality shine through. I couldn't really see an real emotion come out of her. But to be more clear, I couldn't see any good emotion come out of her besides when she fell in love with Alex. I just wasn't intrigued by this books main character as I was when I read Before I Fall. For me, to sum up Lena, she was a little bland, ignorant, yet I did think she was brave. But when aren't book heroines brave? I just wished I saw a little more from her besides in a few action slots.

This book is supposed to be super romantic too, right? Well there was "love", but I felt like it was superficial. I wasn't entrapped by the idea of Alex and there wasn't really any amazing love development through out the story. I might get a lot of whack for this, but I wasn't too amazed by the romance. It was in the middle. A mere meh or ok. I might be the only one who thinks this though because I know there are a lot of people out there who love the romance in this book. But maybe my taste is beginning to become a little higher, I don't know. I just know that I wasn't swept away in the romantic area.

BUT

I dropped that feeling in the end of the book and ONLY in the end of the book. I was waiting to become totally entranced by Lena love interest and that (sadly) only happened in the end. The ending blew my mind and for a scary second I thought that was going to be the end of it! But then I found out there would be a sequel and all was well again. I'm sure if anyone else read this book and didn't like Alex, by the time they read the end of the book, they would have to fall in love with him.

To be honest, I have to say that I liked Before I Fall better then Delirium. Before I Fall just had this quality to it that made the story stay etched in my head for days afterwards. That book made you think and re evaluate everything you do in your life. But Delirium? It was an enjoyable book but it never made me feel that way. I've also been trying to read a good dystopian book and I thought Delirium would be it! But no...

Ever since I read The Giver, I just have never been able to read a good Dystopian. If Hunger games is considered dystopian then I'll say Hunger Games but for now, I'm still on the search for the perfect dystopian read. Delirium just didn't have that extra oomph for me but it was still a good read!

The idea of love being a disease is thought provoking, original, and definitely something to read about!