Books In Her Head

Well, even though I know a lot of blogs, most bloggers don’t know me. However,  I’d say some of my favorites are Katie from Katie’s Book Blog and Aneeqah from My Not So Real Life.

Ninety-five days, and then I’ll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It’s hard to be patient. It’s hard not to be afraid while I’m still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn’t touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don’t.

Towards the end of May I read my first book by Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall.  This book went on to become one of my favorite books ever.  The Delirium trilogy has been on my list to read long before that, but after my first Lauren Oliver book it moved up the list.  

I got this book off of Amazon when I was making an order for Divergent, Insurgent, and a preorder of Allegiant.

I found Oliver’s writing to be just slightly less impressive as her first book, although that might have had to do with the genre jump and less seriousness of this book.  Well, her first book was quite Realisitic, where as this was a new kind of dystopian romance.  To be honest it’s quite hard to compare this book to her second.  Although, she did have just the right amount of description, and was able to keep an interesting plot going through out the book.  The premise is absolutely gorgeous too, it draws you in!

I find the settings of dystopian novels absolutely fascinating.  This one was set in a futuristic version of Portland, Maine.  The more interesting of the setting is the society that she is part of.  Which, in a way is part of the setting.  The United States has closed it’s boarders to keep out a disease known as amor deliria nervosa, which is essentially, love.  When you are 18 you get “cured” and assigned a mate by the government.  Eeek!!!!!!  Another part of the book that involved the setting was that at the beginning of every chapter there was an excerpt from some sort of propaganda about the deliria, such as something from The Book of Shhh, which is their book of rules.  All in all, I discovered that Oliver created an eerily believable world.  

Characters:

Delirium had three main characters.  

Lena (The Protagonist).  

Alex (The Love Interest)

&

Hana (The Best Friend)

Lena was a model protagonist.  She and others doubted her, but she managed to prove them and herself wrong.  In the beginning she is obviously brainwashed by the traditions and propaganda, despite her mother.  However, as the story progresses, and as her relationships with the other characters change, you realize as the reader how restless Lena really was.  

Alex comes across as a typical teenage boy, except then you realize that he’s supposed to be cured, and anything that a typical teenaged boy would do is the opposite of what he’s supposed to be doing.  When his true identity is revealed, it is obvious that he want’s nothing more than Lena to be happy.

Hana starts off as the more dominat friend in her relationship with Lena.  As we later learn, in spite of that, Hana wants nothing more than to dip her toe into rebellion, and when a close call happens, she is ready to end it all.  Lena on the other hand, gets buzzed and wants to continue.  Hana is a good friend throughout the story, and has Lena’s back when worse comes to worse.

Final Findings:

An exciting ending left me breathless and craving more.  I will be getting the sequels ASAP and look forward to more Lena/Alex in the future.

~Remedyleaf