Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

The book Delirium focuses on a seventeen going on eighteen year old named Magdalena "Lena" Haloway and an alternate United States where choice is taken out of the average mans hands. Love is now considered a disease called Deliria Nurvosa which is often called simply deliria and there is a cure to it that by law one must receive on their eighteenth birthday. Lena is counting down the days til' she is cured because she has seen what happens to the Uncured due to her mother being immune to it which eventually lead to her apparent suicide. Though, it does not stay like that for long after Lena meets Alex who makes her begin to doubt the way she once viewed things in her world and fear the world would turn to gray once she is cured.

Love being considered a disease that can be cured with a simple procedure is an interesting thought. Though, it seems like once you rid a person of the ability to love other things follow such as empathy, joy, remorse and so many other emotions. All the Cured characters in the book seem to be unfeeling, monotonous shells of their former self. Though, they seem content with the repetitive government chosen path set out before them because they have been taught to expect it since a really young age and they do not have the emotions to even notice and question it. Really, the only strong emotions I've seen from the Cured are hatred and disgust.

In this alternate reality the government controls everything, and I mean everything. Before receiving the cure one must be evaluated to be paired with their spouse, be notified how many children they are required to have, what occupation they will have and

what college they will attend if the government sees it fit for them to attend one. At the beginning of the book we see Lena reviewing the answers that she had rehearsed with her aunt down to her favorite color expecting them to give her the best match possible for her. Most music is banned along with literature, paintings and movies, though, I don't remember the exact reason. Free will is nearly non-existent. If you refuse the cure it will be administered to you by force like with Lena's mother three almost four times. If you try to run away to the Wilds, where Uncured otherwise known as Invalids live, and are caught you will be imprisoned or killed, rather gunned down, on site.

At the beginning, Lena was happy that she was finally going to be cured because she seemed to have a slight phobia of love after seeing the horrors it could bring. She could not say that her favorite color was gray or that she thought Romeo and Juliet was beautiful without being judged and deemed, at the least, morbid. The rules and standard of her society were basically ridding her and others of the right to be themselves before turning them into nearly lifeless puppets. For once it was actually enjoyable to see a character fall in love and it be a key point to the book because it was for the better. It gave her the will to rebel, though silently, for her rights.

This book turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable. I would recommend it for a beach or lazy Sunday read since it would not take most very long to read. Though, it still has a lot of romance in it, so, if you do not enjoy or borderline despise it I would advice you to avoid this book.