Delirium by Lauren Oliver
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 Holoway 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.
First Line: "It has been sixty-four years since the president and the Consortium identified love as a disease, and forty-three since the scientists perfected a cure."
Review: This book was good, it didn't live up to all the hype for me but I still liked it and am interested enough in the characters and their world to go out and pick up Pandemonium the second book in the series. The beginning started off a little slow for me mainly because Oliver obviously took her time building up the society they live in and letting us in on every detail so we can understand it fully. Now the second half was much more fast paced and really grabbed my attention, especially those last few chapters, so much happened that I have to pick up the next book to see what happens next.
I really loved the concept of the book. The fact that they used love and made it to be a disease and then manipulated the people in their society with it in order to have control over them was pretty original. I did find the romance predictable but at the same time I expected it going in so that wasn't much of a disappointment.
As for the main characters, Lena didn't grow on me until the ending. For majority of the book I didn't really find her interesting at all but with the way the book ended I have a feeling I'm going to love the hell out of her character in the next book. As for Alex I really liked his character especially when we learned more about him and then that ending ... I need to know what happened to him, I don't think I realized how into his character I was until the end of the book.
If you haven't figured it out by my review the book ends with a heart-rending cliffhanger and I am so glad I waited to read this because there is no way I would have been able to wait a year to see what happens next. If you love Dystopian pick Delirium up, it was well worth the read.
