Delirium

Hiya, it's Heather! Here's a little post on Delirium, I ramble a bit here, so apologies in advance but I hope you enjoy regardless ^-^

Author: Lauren Oliver
Published: January 2011
Publisher: Harper Collins

In a state of procrastination, I found myself scrolling down the social science fiction Wikipedia page, one of the listed books being Delirium. The plot is the part which initially drew me to reading it, to sum it up: Lena lives in a society where love is seen as a disease, so is completely forbidden, thus when deemed old enough the individual will be assessed and then paired with a partner, a little after this they are injected with a substance that revokes the instinct to fall in love.  

The general idea of the novel is impressive to say the least. A fundamental aspect of our culture is that love is positive, be it through Disney and children’s television to horror and comedy films. It hence struck me as intriguing to go to a world whereby love is a disease. This led my thoughts into how some people view certain types of love negatively because of that socialisation they have had teaching them so, sadly homosexuals are sometimes thought of this way by certain people. Could it be that Oliver is trying to demonstrate that love is always positive?

The plot was brilliant and the general pace of the novel fast, making it an easy read. There’s a point where Lena and Alex, whose a boy that changes her perspective on love being diseased, dance which is adorable (I squealed and started singing Taylor Swift under my breath). The ending was on a real cliff-hanger and to be honest I would have read the next book immediately. HOWEVER, I read reviews on what the next one is about to avoid the book being scarred and found that there is a love triangle situation! I am not patient enough to read about another girl that cannot pick a boy – if you cannot choose between two boys, your feelings for them are not strong enough to be considered true love. Anyway, back to Delirium… Hana (Lena’s bestie) was a fantastic character. She’s that typical friend that challenges you to go out of your comfort zone and tells you to ‘chillax’ despite having few moments of spontaneity themselves.

Whilst I must underline that the book was an enjoyable read which I devoured in less than a day, there were some elements of it that I feel could have been improved. For instance, the start of the book was so focused on getting the reader to comprehend the social situation that the description was somewhat lacking. Though I do understand that this can be really hard when a vital aspect of the story must be obvious to the reader and a rose cannot grow without the soil being laid down first, it did frustrate me at first. Also, Alex, the male love interest in the novel, was frustratingly persistent to the point where he reminded me of Gatsby from The Great Gatsby. The protagonist was terribly rude to him at the start, making her intentions to stay away from him so clear (as was protocol in a place with gender segregation laws) that I thought it odd that he still tried approaching her. It can be argued that love makes people try hard to gain the affection of those they feel attracted to, yet I think when anyone is that obvious that they want to stay away you should respect that decision. Furthermore, Lena very suddenly changed her attitude towards him; she went from hating this guy to spending nearly every day with him? The last point I would like to address is that Lena is very difficult to visualise, maybe she’s very humble or maybe I skipped a page but Lena is scarcely ever described except as short and not pretty but not ugly. This is great but what about hair colour, eyes, for all I know she could have a tattoo of a badger on her leg. Also, a little game for you, count the amount of times that Lena is sweating because I’m worried about her.

What did I do after finishing this book? I cried. I'm a sucker for romance and I genuinely really loved this one (regardless of the sweating problem). If you want a cute love story involving internal conflict and teenage rebellion then I would definitely tell you to read it.

Alright, if anyone has any thoughts on Delirium then I'd love to hear from you! Have a lovely day or night or in between.