Delirium: 1/3 (DELIRIUM TRILOGY)

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More importantly, Oliver's writing was flawless. She vividly described each scene, allowing readers to visualise each event as it occurred. Through her writing, Oliver also evokes a vast array of emotions from her readers. When Lena is enraged, readers are fuming. When she breaks down, crying hysterically, readers are right there, sobbing along with her. Her feelings of love, betrayal, and loss transcend all boundaries, lodging themselves in the hearts of readers around the world. here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

Pandemonium: The explosive second book of the Delirium trilogy brings us a new Lena: strong, fierce, and defiant. But the chaos of a loveless world will lead her into the fight of her life. While I don't think it it is as good as Before I Fall, I will read the sequel because c'mon Lauren Oliver, that ending was just harsh! Lol. Delirium is a dystopian young adult novel written by Lauren Oliver, published on January 1, 2011, by HarperCollins (HarperTeen). The story focuses on a young woman, Lena Haloway, who falls in love in a society where love is seen as a disease. Delirium is the first novel in a trilogy, followed by Pandemonium, and Requiem. The focus of the story, and an excuse to write this dystopia, is, of course, a romance. I wish I could say I enjoyed at least this aspect of Delirium, but I didn't really. It is mildly more exciting than the one in Matched, slightly steamier, and at least doesn't have a love triangle (yet). But there is still a self-insert main character (shy, ordinary, plain) and the main male emo squeeze, quoting poetry, who falls for her anyway. I am exhausted by this arrangement. I never thought I’d say this because, in my mind, Oliver is – and always will be – a fan­tas­tic writer. But there were aspects of the writ­ing in this book that were obvi­ous, cliche and sim­plis­tic. For exam­ple, Lena is emo­tion­ally stunted but it’s an obvi­ous par­al­lel. When­ever she feels intense emo­tion she blames it on the air con­di­tion­ing or weather etc. She is the result of a child­hood of emo­tional detach­ment – but not really – and this is where it gets per­sonal for me.

I really wanted to love this book. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, but it just didn't add up to the hype I thought it would. I would say I give it more of 3 1/2 stars. It’s not Oliver’s fault. But what I wanted from this is a deeper under­stand­ing of soci­ety from the point of view of some­one will­ing to delve into a harder, grit­tier, more real­is­tic story. Some­one will­ing to ask the tough ques­tions and write the tough char­ac­ter­i­za­tion. Instead the novel glosses over a lot of those things and thus felt cheap and shallow.

The idea that love is a disease was so unique. The way they describe it, had you never felt it, you might truly believe it was something dangerous. People do crazy things when feelings are running high. Love can make you feel great and can also make you depressed. The writing was so beautiful. I especially loved the way they explained without love you wouldn't even love your pets or children. That would be so sad. I think to feel the high you must feel the low. A book that will keep you thinking! Oliver, Lauren (January 23, 2013). "ANNOUNCING THE DELIRIUM TV SERIES!". Tumblr . Retrieved March 2, 2013.

Another thing I did not pay enough attention to before (because I was eagerly rushing trough the story) is the small fragments of society – the quotation of official documents, rules and regulations, children’s songs, and poetry, which help the reader to mentally construct and imagine the world that Lauren Oliver has created. Even though the story mostly focuses on Lena and Alex’s relationship and the things they discover about each other, we’re constantly aware that they live in a restrictive and severely controlled society. I really did enjoy the book tho. It was beautifully written, especially the prose in the beginning of each chapter. Sometimes I feel like if you just watch things, just sit still and let the world exist in front of you—sometimes I swear that just for a second time freezes and the world pauses in its tilt. Just for a second. And if you somehow found a way to live in that second, then you would live forever. She was whiny but brave. She was weak but able to stand on her own. She knew how to love, but she also knew hate.