Rating: 4 stars (Spotlight Review)
Delirium is a dystopian tale set in a new America. A world where Romeo and Juliet is no longer one of the greatest love stories of our time—but a cautionary tale.
Where strict rules to live by are contained in The Safety, Healthy and Happiness Handbook aka The Book of Shhh—and under penalty of severe punishment, need to be abided.
A world where love is a disease, something to be feared—and permanently cured.
Lena Haloway Tiddle has lived in Portland, Maine her whole life. Lena’s father died when she was born and her mother committed suicide when Lena was six, having been so infected by love that three procedures failed to cure her.
Now orphaned, Lena and her sister Rachel were sent to live with her aunt and cousins, taking their surname of Tiddle, as the Haloway name had become synonymous with “sympathizer” and “suicide”.
In Lena’s world, there are no choices to make. Everything from your music to your mate is chosen for you. Those under the age of 18 are forbidden to associate with the opposite sex and must obey strict curfews. As if that’s not enough, the government conducts random raids where what few rights you do have are temporarily suspended.
Now, only 95 days from her 18th birthday, Lena remembers her mother’s pain and the day they dragged Rachel from the house, kicking and screaming after she’d been infected; and she can’t wait to be cured.
When Lena meets a mysterious boy named Alex, she begins to question everything she has ever been told—especially about love. Now only days from her procedure, Lena worries that time has run out.
Once again, Lauren Oliver masterfully creates new worlds and characters that leave the reader little choice, but to be swept up and away. Oliver’s deeply emotional and incredibly-honed prose commands the readers’ attention and often their hearts.
The Delirium trilogy is a rapid, pulse-pounding adventure into the future, where those who dare to love are punished. But for some, life without love isn’t worth living anyway.
Book two can’t come soon enough.
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Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (February 1, 2011)
ISBN-13: 978-0061726828