Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Delirium (Delirium #1) by Lauren Oliver

Pages: 393 Publisher: Hodder Release Date: February 1st 2011 Source: Bought Cover: 3/10

Goodreads:

Lena Haloway is content in her safe, government-managed society. She feels (mostly) relaxed about the future in which her husband and career will be decided, and looks forward to turning 18, when she’ll be cured of deliria, a.k.a. love. She tries not to think about her mother’s suicide (her last words to Lena were a forbidden “I love you”) or the supposed “Invalid” community made up of the uncured just beyond her Portland, Maine, border. There’s no real point—she believes her government knows how to best protect its people, and should do so at any cost. But 95 days before her cure, Lena meets Alex, a confident and mysterious young man who makes her heart flutter and her skin turn red-hot. As their romance blossoms, Lena begins to doubt the intentions of those in power, and fears that her world will turn gray should she submit to the procedure.

My Review:

Delirium was absolutely amazing. One of the best books I’ve read for a long time. I’m so glad that I finally read it, because it’s beautiful. 

Lena is the main character and at the beginning she really annoyed me. I liked Hana the most, she was the outgoing, rebellious, outspoken one, whereas Lena was more quiet and stuck to all the rules and was frightened of most things. However, once she meets Alex -I’ll get to him in a bit ;) she changes massively! I loved the contrast between her at the beginning of the book to the end! She is more outgoing, secretive, becoming her own person. I loved it! She was a strong character and I loved reading about her. She wasn’t perfect and she had her faults which made her a much more believable character. 

Now Alex, he must be the perfect boy ever, in my opinion anyway :). The Elizabeth Barrett-Browning poem is one of my all-time-favourite love poems and for it to be in the book was amazing! It was perfect. I love Alex, he showed Lena what it’s like to love and help her to understand herself more. We also find out a lot about his past as well and why he’s the way he is. 

The ending. It nearly killed me. Seriously. I was like, WHAT???!!!! COME ON!!! Screaming at the book, I must have looked a little bit crazy. That cliff hanger was devastating, I was so sad. I really hoped everything would work out and be perfect, but of course nothing really does work out in the end. 

Plus, THAT TWIST!?? Argh, I'm dying to talk about it, but I can't! It's about The Crypts! Eeek. That was so good! 

The world structure was really interesting to read about. How the world is the way it is. The whole idea of love being a disease is very unique and a scary one to think about. I can understand why people would be afraid of straying from the right path, especially with those Regulators. The absence of love was so sad, I think that’s why I loved the relationship between Alex and Lena even more. 

Some of the scenes were so perfect. I don’t want to go into all of them, if you haven’t read this book yet but they are so sweet. I want my own Alex! :D 

If you haven’t read this yet, I seriously suggest you read this pronto! It’s amazing, will definitely make you think about the book a lot afterwards, like me! I went to bed thinking of it and woke up still thinking about it! I received Pandemonium in the post today from a contest that I won, so I’m going to start that so I can find out what happens! Although I’ve read a couple of reviews and Alex is not in it??? Whyyyyy?! :( 

Overall, 5 out of 5 stars.