Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver (Delirium Trilogy #1)

A world where love is illegal
Aug 19, 2014
4 min read

In the future, the United States has been completely sealed off from the outside world. Children read from the Book of SHHH, a guide to how to be safe, happy, and healthy that also acts as a sort of bible. And when you're eighteen, you are opperated on to ensure that you will never fall prey to the most deadly disease in the world - love. After the opperation has been completed, you are "cured". Then you can pick a spouse from a list of approved matches, bear children with permission from the goverment, and live a happy, safe life that will never be touched by love. Of course, there are the invalids, rebels who the government denies exsist. They're not fooling anyone.

Seventeen year-old Lena can't wait to have her opperation and be free of love. She's counting down the days until her eighteenth birthday, half excited and half nervous. But then Hana, Lena's best friend since childhood, begins breakings laws - many, many laws. Listening to unapproved music is bad enough. Going to parties with unapproved music after curfew is even worse. But breaking curfew to go to parties where there will be member of the oppossite gender and listen to unapproved music? Unthinkable. Lena can hardly believe her friend would act in such a manner.

And then there's Alex. After a accidental run-in, Lena and Alex begin to see each other and meet more often. Lena feels uneasy, although she tries to reason with herself. Alex is cured. He can't transmit the disease, and vise versa. After Alex reveals a stunning secret, a betrayed Lena will hae to face the truth: She fell hard for Alex. Lena starts to question everything she has been taught about the disease, and she has to make a choice. She can follow the rules, or she can choose her own path.

I loved Lena as a character. She starts out as a very shy, quiet, and reserved girl, doing what she's told to. She leaves being reckless up to her best friend, Hana. Once she starts bending and even breaking the rules, she's both thrilled and scared she'll be caught, which I think many people can relate with. Lena is a very loyal friend. Even though she's not totally on board with Hana breaking the law, she keeps her friend's secrets.

Unlike Lena, Hana is much more out going and rebellious. She isn't afraid to speak ill of the government. She's not as concerned about being a goody-goody as Lena is and is going through a stage of teen rebellion, going to parties ad hanging out with boys. I say "Teen rebellion" because in the end, she's loyal to her country and will step into line. I didn't like that about her because I was hoping she would help Lena more. I can't say I think she and Lena have the best friendship, either. The girls don't have much in common besides their love for running. Hana is rich, Lena is not. Lena is shy, and Hana is outspoken.

Alex is simply amazing. He's always smiling or laughing, and it's clear from the start that he's not like the other Cured. Many of the other adults are nice, but they're also sort of empty. They don't really seem to care about other people, while Alex certainly does. Although he's usually sunny, joking around with Lena, he becomes a bit angry when talking about the government. This makes it clear he disagrees with the country's leadership.

The idea of love as a disease was scary and intriguing. It's true that love can hurt people. People will kill for love, and it's easy to get your heart broken if you love someone. (Just look at Romeo and Juliet, which, by the way, is used as a cautionary tale in Delirium to warn people about the dangers of love.) Love could never be a disease, though. Love makes people happy, and it gives you someone to care about and look forwards to seeing. As one of my favorite quotes from the book goes, "You can't be happy unless you're unhappy sometimes." The Cured aren't truly happy because they don't have the ability to be truly unhappy. They can't love anyone, so they don't know what it's like to really hate anyone, for that matter. I can't imagine a world where love isn't legal.

Delirium was a first for me. The world isn't something I've seen before, and the idea of love as a disease was very original and creative! Oliver had great world-building, even going so far as to use quotes from various books that exist in the world of Delirium to help teach the reader about the USA of the book. Oliver's writing style is beautiful. The words flow wonderfully and helped ensanare me. There are plent of touching and true quotes that were thoughful and popped out at me throughout the story. The plot was fast-paced with plenty of suspense and action with no small amount of romance! The ending was shocking and left the book off with a stunning cliffhanger that has me clamoring for the next book! A fan of love stories or no, Delirium is a must read for any fan of a young, strong heroine finding her way in the world. 5/5 stars!