To Read, Perchance to Dream: Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

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.

As a young adult dystopian novel, Delirium delivers what is expected. Society has deemed love to be a virus that is the root of all evil, so it must be destroyed. A young girl, Lena is days away from receiving the cure, and she meets someone who makes her doubt everything she ever believed.

The problem with this story for me is, there's nothing original about it except the social entity being controlled - love. Otherwise, it's the same almost cookie cutter plot. There's a good society member about to have the society-approved treatment, who meets someone against this societal control, falls in love and then turns against society themselves. Nothing overly surprising happens, there are no big plot twists.

That being said, the story was well-written. Lauren Oliver writes beautifully and manages to draw you into the story. She manages to show the horrors of having no love for anything, which keeps you reading.