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Delirium (Delirium, #1)

Lauren Oliver

Start date: May 1, 2016

Finish date: May 31, 2016

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Mar 16, 2013 Steve Lindahl rated it really liked it

I've heard a number of writers say that the primary responsibility an author has is to keep readers turning pages. Lauren Oliver has certainly done that with her YA novel, Delirium. Oliver gets into the head of her main character, Lena, thoroughly and writes in a way that allows her readers to feel the world around this young woman. That world is a scary portrait of an out of control government.

The story is set in Portland, Maine, in a future time when the government forces people to have an ope I've heard a number of writers say that the primary responsibility an author has is to keep readers turning pages. Lauren Oliver has certainly done that with her YA novel, Delirium. Oliver gets into the head of her main character, Lena, thoroughly and writes in a way that allows her readers to feel the world around this young woman. That world is a scary portrait of an out of control government.

The story is set in Portland, Maine, in a future time when the government forces people to have an operation at age eighteen, leaving them passive and compliant. The first sentence of Delirium reads:

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.

There are subversives, known as invalids, hidden among the population and more of them existing beyond the borders of the US in an area called The Wilds. When the novel begins Lena doesn't know much about the invalids, but she does know that her mother had some issues twelve years earlier. Those issues caused her mother to kill herself and left Lena to be raised by her Aunt Carol, a woman whose life revolves primarily around cooking and washing dishes.

There are scenes in the story that kept me on the edge of my seat with fear for what was happening to Lena. However, I had an issue with the believability of some of those scenes, because Lena seemed to bounce up from situations that should have hurt her seriously. I also had an issue with an escape that occurred later on in the work, when someone writes so hard on a cell wall that her marks go through the stone, without, of course, any of the guards noticing. Yet I could suspend disbelief enough in those scenes to stay involved with the story.

Lena changes and grows through the course of the novel and I loved sharing that experience with her. This is the first book of a trilogy, so even at the end she's still a bit whiny and very self centered. But there are hints she's growing out of those flaws and at one moment in the story she puts herself at risk in an attempt to help her friend Hana. She did it without a second thought. That was a wonderful scene.

Steve Lindahl - author of Motherless Soul ...more

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Nov 03, 2016 Katt Hansen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult-dystopic, young-adult-romance

A quick read, I found myself just about running through this book. The idea of love as a disease is interesting (and even can be argued given a lot of the points here.) The whole concept made me stop and think about what it would take for any of this to get passed into law, which scary enough - I could actually see happening with the right spin put on it.

We truly are a warped society.

Ah, the nature of love. Now I want to read the rest of the series and will have to set out to find them all. Over ...more

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Feb 19, 2011 Cheer Papworth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian, ya

I really liked the premise for this book...a world without love or passion; a world that "fixes" teens in order to anesthetize them from love for it is the root of all of the world's problems...war, suicide, depression...but seriously why would you want to exist in this environment? I would give this book 3.5 stars...I thought the premise was better than the characters themselves. I just want a story with characters that I can stand-up and cheer for and this wasn't it. Still, I will read the nex ...more

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Dec 13, 2010 Mark rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult-literature, dystopia

Lena lives in a world where love is a disease, a disease that can be cured through "the procedure." Upon turning 18, every boy and girl in the United States is supposed to undergo the procedure, after which they can live a calm and productive life. Lena's family has been touched by the disease before; she knows that her mother committed suicide because of repeated procedure failures. And Lena is eagerly anticipating her own procedure, until she meets Alex, learns more about life outside the prot ...more

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Dec 21, 2010 Jessica rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own

I'm bummed to say that I had high expectations for this book and the story kind of fell flat. I know some people loved it, but it was hard for me to get through.

I think one of the problems is that there was so much hype for this novel. I went in expecting great things, and it didn't live up to the hype (in my opinion).

The biggest problem for me was that the story moved so slowly. I seriously fell asleep numerous times while attempting to read this. Lauren Oliver has a beautiful writing style, do ...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Angie Taylor rated it really liked it · review of another edition

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." What if you were told that all the feelings or emotions that bring you joy, happiness, heartache, and pain, if left unchecked, could result in a disease called 'amor deliria nervosa'? And what if you were raised in a society where showing any true or real emotion was looked at as someone having contracted this disease? I loved this book for so many re ...more

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Jun 10, 2013 Tara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: physically-own, 2013-june

Oh my. This book was absolutely amazing. I just need to let it all sink in on what happened in the last chapter. Whew. I feel like my heart has been sat on and crushed. Goodness, feels. c;

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