Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Release Date: February 7th 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥1/2

I've been looking forward to reading this for agessss, and finally got the opportunity to when the lovely Rebecca from Reading Wishes sent me a lovely surprise in the mail :) Thankyou Rebecca <3

It's difficult to rate this book, but I think I'm going to go with a 3.5 star rating.

In some point in the future, love (amor deleria nervosa) has been declared a disease. They've also found a cure. The cure is administered to those who have reached age 18. Each person goes through an evalulation and are ranked according to how well they answer questions and whatnot. The cure sounds horrible to me; you lose all feelings of love, friendship, ambition and dreams. Once you've been evaluated, your future education, partner and career are all decided for you. It's quite an interesting concept and I think Lauren Oliver has done a good job of executing it. Lena is looking forward to her evaluation (she, along with everybody else she knows, have been taught that love is the worst thing to happen to a person), she is a pretty regular girl just hoping to get "paired" with someone decent and to be granted the right to an education. She meets a guy named Alex. Then she falls in love...

It definitely wasn't the writing that let this book down. I've heard so many good things about Lauren Oliver's writing and who am I to disagree :P. Her writing is beautiful... It's purple, but not so much purple that makes you want to gag. The thing that stood out to me most about her writing was how she began chapters. Firstly, she has these little snippits of something from Lena's world, say a textbook or a pslam from their version of the bible (The Book of Shhh), secondly, they are intriguing and give you a lot of backhistory into Lena, or the other characters.

The first half of the book really let it down. It was quite uhh, bland? And Lena didn't really have much of a personality. She was just a boring, rule-abiding, scared teenager - This would probably be the reality of a teenager in a dystopian world, but I just wanted her to be a little more rebellious, or less frightened or more like her friend Hana (I LOVE YOU HANA, come be my best friend?). But after the halfway point, Lena developed a personality... Sure, it was due to her meeting and hanging out with Alex, but it was a personality nonetheless!

Alex... Oh Alex. Why are you so damn gorgeous? And just overall awesome? I love that you're not an asshole, I love that you didn't treat Lena like a child, yet still cared for her. I love your secrets, I love your passion and I love your determination. I also love your name, I have this theory that naming hot, awesome boys in YA, Alex will be the latest trend... First there was Alex in Hunting Lila, now there is you... <3
(I'm aware this is basically a letter to Alex declaring my love for him... Well. Do you see me trying to make any excuses :D)

Now. The reason I've given this 3.5 stars is not only because of my undying love for Alex *swoon*, but because of how much Lena grew toward the end (I much prefer, as she calls it, "the New Lena") and the actual ending itself! It was a cliffhangerish ending, but it didn't result in me wanting to commit crimes to get a hold of the next one (I know it's already out now, but book buying ban= my own personal hell) ("You're like my own personal brand of heroin, you're like a drug to me...." HA! Sorry, had to throw that in there - Edward's seedy looking face just popped into my head). ANYWAYYYYY.... The ending had action and suspense and defintely left me wanting more, what DOES make me think of committing crimes for Pandemonium, is the first chapter sneak-peek.

I will definitely be reading more Lauren Oliver in the future, because her writing is just beautiful and the ending in this definitely made up for the slow-paced and somewhat boring beginning :)
Well worth the read ;) ESPECIALLY if you're into romance...