Sunday, November 20, 2011

Title: Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: February 1st 2011
Pages: 441 pages (Hardback)










Review:
I really don’t understand the hype.
This was just your typical YA dystopian novel: girl likes boy at first glance and of course the guy likes the girl too, and they fall in love despite the world around them being against it. Ick. This was just too slow and boring for me. The idea behind love being a disease that the government needs to “cure” you for is just so bizarre. I read this thinking it could be either awesome and unique or just a big boring mess. About 100 pages in I realized it was the latter. It was just extremely slow and dragged on forever; it was like trudging through a big muddy hole. You would think that with how slow it was there would be some kind of slow but sweet development in their romance, but of course there wasn’t. I just couldn’t understand the attraction.

I had a hard time reading this one, I found myself taking frequent breaks and getting frustrated at the pace and lack of character development. It was predictable and did I mention boring? The first half of the book built you up on understanding Lena. I get that she’s afraid to fall in love because of what happened to her mom, but the whole idea of having an operation to remove love is just a bit too farfetched for me. Lena was boring and I had a hard time connecting to her. I felt like most of the characters in this book were never really developed and were mostly just flat. I really like Oliver’s writing style but the pacing was awful, and I never really understood the love interest. I got tired of the constant make-out and lovey dovey scenes with them and just wanted to skip the romance and go back to some butt kicking action. Lena and Alex spend most of the book making out, and lying to their families. I just couldn’t really see the interest in Alex. The characters were just a bit to angsty and flat for me.
Despite all of the negative, there were a few good aspects to the book as well. Lauren Oliver is a master of description. I really loved the openers at the beginning of each chapter. Oliver quotes books, songs, and essays that she made up to give you an understanding of the way the people in her world thought. I felt like that really added to the story and loved that she did that.

Overall I didn’t hate this book but I didn’t like it either. It just didn’t hit it for me. If you like your dystopia with a whole lot of romance and only a teeny bit of action then this is the book for you. It just wasn’t really my cup of tea. I rate this book 1 star!

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