(23)Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Friday, March 27, 2015


Seventeen year old Lena Haloway is living in a dystopian Portland, Maine sometime in the future.  She is just days away from being cured.  You see, these days the government administers a cure for the Delirium, that horrible disease that causes people to go weak in the knees, a disease that causes their pulse to race when they are in close proximity to someone of the opposite sex.  In fact, the Delirium only occurs when two people fall in love.  Lena is excited to become cured because  she knows life will be easier after being cured.  She knows that her emotions will settle down and her life will become exactly like that of everyone she knows.   And then she meets Alex, a boy from the Wilds who has managed to hide the fact that he was never cured.  It does not take Lena long to realize that she has feelings for this bad boy and she will do anything to prevent the procedure that will cure her of all love.

Delirium was another "treadmill" book that occupied my time as I racked up more chalories.  There was a lot of back-story and a lot of character development.  When it comes to dystopian novels, that kind of history is really necessary to understand the world in the which the book is set.  Lena is an easy girl to like with somewhat of a sketchy past.  Her mother is a legend throughout Portland because she was never able to be cured, no matter how many times they try.  Her name is very recognizable throughout Portland and that is one of the reasons why Lena is so eager for the procedure.  It is as if her procedure will absolve her mother and her mother's suicide.   Obviously meeting Alex changes all of that.  Lena never dreamed that she would ever become infected with the Delirium, yet here she is.  The concept that love is a disease we must be vaccinated against is an interesting one and I was intrigued by how the author was going to make it happen.  And it did play out in an interesting fashion, I will say that.   I always am up for a good dystopian novel and while Delirium didn't really disappoint me, it didn't really leave me with that "I must rush out and get the next book" feeling.  That could have been though because I only "read" it on the treadmill and it took a month or so to get through it, so it could have lost some if it's excitement.

Bottom line - I love a good dystopian novel and I know that many people absolutely loved Delirium and the subsequent books, but I think maybe I was "cured" from that diseas.  Maybe I will read the rest of the trilogy  - if I have nothing else to read - or maybe I won't. Eh.

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