Book One
by Lauren Oliver
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Read an excerpt
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 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 with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: she falls in love.
IBT REVIEW
This books stands as a unique addition in the dystopian genre. War, plagues, natural disasters, or zombies are the most common catalysts for an apocalypse in dystopian reading. Delirium is completely unique in that Love is what the powers that be used to brainwash their citizens with hyperbolae and a manipulation of the past in service of their anti-love agenda.
I was drawn in by the idea that love is the root of all evil. Scientists and those in government came together to eliminate this threat from society. Each citizen having to undergo a surgical procedure called The Cure(basically brain damage) to eliminate ones capability for love. I found this heartbreaking, imagine what it is to be a child of an emotionally vacant parent. Or worse someone who loved and didn't want to lose it. To be forced or to be imprisoned. Then there are those for whom the procedure doesn't work, despite multiple tries, they are ultimately eliminated from society as well.
Because love was so taboo in this book, it made the actual love story within this hostile and big brother environment, so thrilling. The pervasive government surveillance made the courtship dangerous at every turn. There was almost no one they could turn to for help, the incessant public mind control concerning love pitted nearly everyone against the lovers.
Without going into too much detail, the ending is a heartbreaking shocker that leaves you on the edge of your seat. If I didn’t know there was a sequel in the works I might have completely fallen apart, I need to know what happens to Lena and Alex next. Fans of Romeo and Juliet and all dystopian fans should love this books, I know that I did.
