Delirium, by Lauren Oliver, is a great story about a girl named Lena, who's fighting between her heart and her society.In this future world, love is considered a disease, called amor deliria nervosa. The book begins with Lena counting the days until her brain surgery, to make her immune to falling in love. Lena looks at herself as an in between girl, not pretty, but not ugly. Since Lena's mom committed suicide, because the brain surgery didn't work on her, and they had done the operation on her 3 times and were coming to do it again, Lena lives with her aunt. Lena meets a guy named Alex, who makes her question whether or not love is a bad thing. When Lena's best friend show signs of being a rebel, Lena gets scared, but she ends up going to an illegal music party with her. As she's about to leave, someone calls her name, Lena turns around to find Alex, they talk, and she agrees to meet him the next day. Lena feels safe around him, he has the procedure mark, he told her he was safe, and he couldn't giver the deliria, or could he? When they're swimming at the beach , Alex tells Lena that he's an Invalid, and lives in the Wilds. After Lena forgives Alex, and stops caring about what her society thinks of her, or if she is labeled a sympathizer they decide to run away together and live in the Wilds. When they meet to gather supplies, the police catch them, Lena is taken home, and put on lock down, but where did Alex disappear to? When Alex comes for Lena on a motorcycle, they escape, they drive to the city's border, Alex convinces Lena to jump over the fence when the motorcycle is in midair, telling her he'll jump right after her. When Lena gets over the fence she sees Alex, he's not jumping over the fence, he's being attacked by the police, Alex is dead, but before he is engulfed by the attackers, he tells Lena to run. That is what the book Delirium, by Lauren Oliver is about.
Lena is a very interesting character. She obviously doesn't think very much of herself, she always talks about how she isn't ugly, but not pretty. Lena also cannot make up her mind, should I be with Alex, or not, or, should I break the rules? Frankly, I think Lena is a bit of an annoying character to read about. Lena is not good under pressure, "Sometimes I feel as though there are two me's, one coasting directly on top of the other: the superficial me, who nods when she supposed to nod and says what she's supposed to say, and some, deeper part, the part that worries and dreams and says 'gray.'" (Oliver, ) Lena has dark hair, and her birthday is on September 3. I think Lena is afraid of authority in beginning of the book, because she never does anything wrong and does everything her aunt says, and doesn't act like a normal teenager. Also, when she does do something wrong she acts like she's murdered somebody, but by the end of the book, she's breaking all the rules, and sneaking out, which, I think, makes her less annoying of a character to read. That's what Lena, the main character in Delirium, is like.
One theme I found in the book is sacrifice. I think sacrifice is one of the themes in the book because Lena sacrificed her whole life to be with Alex. She gave up her family, who would never approve, just to be with him. Also, she gave up the fairy tale of a perfect life with no problems, she could have kept on living the life she was, then had the procedure and she wouldn't even know what love felt like. If she had never agreed to meet him, then she wouldn't have had to go through the pain of losing him, but she sacrificed that too, her emotions, and she gave them to Alex. Now the biggest sacrifice of all, Alex gave his life for Lena, He knew she would make it far into the Wilds if he distracted the police, he gave his life, knowing she would get to keep hers. That's why I think sacrifice is one of the themes in the book, Delirium.
I thoroughly enjoyed Delirium, by Lauren Oliver. I found it to be entrapping, and hard to put down. Although some people may look at it and say it's too long, it goes by fast, and when it's over you want more. Even though I found Lena's character whinny and annoying, Delirium was still a really good read. Overall, I thought Delirium was a complete page turner. I would recommend this book to girls looking for something good to read, and doesn't mind a 450 page book. I think this book would appeal to almost any girl, because it has a little bit of everything in it, romance, sci-FY, and action. I enjoyed Delirium and hope to read more books by Lauren Oliver.
Lauren Oliver has written a lot of books. First of all there's Pandemonium, the second book in the Delirium series. Then there's the third one, Requiem, which comes out in March next year! Lauren Oliver has also written the books Before I Fall, Hanna, Annabel, and Raven. I hope to read some of her other books and will definitely finish the Delirium series. I like Lauren Oliver's style of writing, I find it poetic like and easy to read. Those are some other books by Lauren Oliver.
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