Delirium Review

Title: Delirium

Author: Lauren Oliver

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Publication date: 3rd February 2011

Hardback: 393 pages

Genre: Science Fiction

Young Adult

Source: Bought

My Rating: 7/10

Summary:
There was a time when love was the most important thing in the world. People would go to the end of the earth to find it. They would tell lies for it. Even kill for it.
Then, at last, they found the cure.
Now, everything is different. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Haloway 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 then, with only twenty-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable...

My Review:
This is going to be one of those reviews where I know what I want to say but it's hard to put into words and get across so bear with me.
The idea or the premise of this novel would appeal to anyone. A world where love is seen as a disease that can be cured as soon as we turn eighteen. A world with no pain, no sadness and freedom. Who wouldn't at least want to pick it up.
But! But, it was hard to read. Here's where it gets hard for me to write...
The writing was excellent. It was packed with emotion where there should be emotion, it was nicely paced and it had fabulous description. However, as far as the emotional touches went, they put me off. Normally, a book like this should be emotional right? That's obvious. But if compared to other similar books, the emotional side normally makes me, as a reader, feel emotional. I mean, that's the whole point. Delirium didn't. It actually pained me to read at times.
Aside from that it took a while to get going but as soon as Lena meets Alex things start happening and certain aspects of the lie Lena has been living start to unravel. There are quite a few surprises throughout the book which I liked because they were completely unexpected and fit in well with the story.
Overall, I did like the novel and I'll definitely be reading the sequel.

Great quotes:

"And now I know why they invented words for love, why they had to: It's the only thing that can come close to describing what I feel in that moment, the baffling mixture of pain and pleasure and fear and joy, all running sharply through me at once."

"I run for I don't know how long. Hours, maybe, or days. Alex told me to run. So I run. You have to understand. I am no one special. I am just a single girl. I am five feet two inches tall and I am in-between in every way. But I have a secret. You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. You can try to pin me down with a hundred thousand arms, but I will find a way to resist. And there are many of us out there, more than you think. People who refuse to stop believing. People who refuse to come to earth. People who love in a world without walls, people who love into hate, into refusal, against hope,and without fear. I love you. Remember. They cannot take it."

Lauren Oliver:
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