Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Release Date: February 1st, 2011
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 441
Format: NookBook
Acquired: Bought
Interest: Series
Age Group: Young Adult
Rating: 5 Stars

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

It took me a while before I started to get a feel for this story, and when I did, I fell in love. Lena is the perfect example on how kids are bred in this time frame. Scared, confused, and believing that the government is doing the right thing. There were so many moments I just wanted to go in and slap her. And for a second I thought that her friend Hana would fall into the resistance.

Anyways, I feel for Lena. She has been bred to think that love is a disease and that it killed her mother, and granted, when Alex came out and told her the truth you wouldn't expect less of her than to be scared of it. And I believe Lauren does a great job of developing the character of Lena, who stays true to societies ideals of what the world expects of her.

I fell in love with Alex as well, and I cried at the end. I couldn't believe he did that, but it was for the best. He was so sweet throughout the whole book, and I can tell that he's been fighting against something for a long time. The way he sees the world and saw Lena, it was beautiful.

Could you imagine a world without love? The characters who had the operation just felt so frozen, so disconnected. And Lauren keeps to character's true natures. Rachel and Carol were a pain, I wish I knew what was going on in the mind of Grace, and I really wish I knew what was going with Hana. In the beginning she talks about being unhappy to be happy but in the end I feel like she backtracked from who she was.

The second book I have about three predication's going on, and I'm leaning closer to one than the other two, but hopefully Lauren will surprise us, in a good way though, because if she sticks a love triangle in book two, I'm going to be ticked off. But that's just me.

I was glad that Lena was able to open up to the possibilities of all these feelings. I also thought it was funny the way they described the symptoms of the love. And then there was the raid, and I literally shuddered by how humans turn into animals so quickly, it made me feel like I was there.

It's twisted, gruesome, romantic, psychoanalytical, adventure. Is book two out yet?