Love Triangle? Epic Battle? Mommy Issues? Don't look for Answers HERE!

Requiem by Lauren Oliver

The finale to the Delirium series could not have disappointed me more.  I looked up the name of the book Requiem because I was not familiar with the word.  It means a mass for the dead or a song for the dead.  I just knew either Alex or Julian was going to die and then Lena was going to have her decision made for her.  Well stop reading if you don’t want spoilers.  This blog is for the pissed off fans of the Delirium series!  Again, spoilers ahead!

What the heck was that ending?  “Take down the walls.” I expected 3 more chapters, that was no ending.  Ok, so we know that Alex, Julian, her mom and Grace were alive, who cares?  I want to see someone (besides Raven) die in this epic battle.  Actually there was no epic battle.  Common sense tells us that since it is the entire nation that has the cure that the capital will send in reinforcements and level Portland to the ground, taking out all cureds and invalids.  It’s ridiculous to say that the Invalids won.  They didn’t win, this was really their first battle and for it to end with no questions answered, it’s stupid. 

I have enjoyed Oliver’s writing throughout the entire series, even this book while throwing a curve ball of Lena’s questioning of the entire reason she is free.  Thinking that the cured have it so much better than the free people was a weird thought process going on with Lena, when we know that she does not believe that.  Besides those side bars, the writing is good.  The character development is good, and I enjoy the love triangle.  However, authors I believe have to make hard decisions.  They have to kill great characters, they have to choose a man in the love triangle and there was no real clear distinction on who Lena was going to end up with and who was going to get their heart broken.  She loves both Alex and Julian, dangit, Oliver, who did she end up with?!?! 

So, where does Lena go from there?  Like I said, she wasn’t happy with life in the wilds, so does she stay in the city?  Does the rest of the country come in and regain order?  So many questions, no answers at all.  Don’t start something you can’t finish. UGH! 

I loved Delirium and Pandemonium, now that was an ending!!! Alex walking in and saying “Don’t believe anything she says.” Or something like that, it was the best ending to a second book in a trilogy ever, but this Wall crap is for the birds.  The ending was rushed and too many questions! 

If you can’t tell, I’m quite upset about this book.  I am demanding a redo, a mulligan!  If you haven’t read this book, don’t waste your time.  Keep Reading My Friends!

Love Cannot Be Stopped

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

This is the second book after Delirium, where the government and religious leaders have found that love is a disease.  When a person turns eighteen they are taken to a clinic to remove the section of his or her brain in order not to love.  Spoilers for Delirium from here on out, you’ve been warned!!!

Lena and Alex were caught.  The gate to their condemned hide out was found and she was taken back to her house and the procedure was scheduled for the next morning.  She ends up escaping with Alex, wild chase both Lena and Alex are hurt.  Lena makes it over the fence, Alex does not and the last we see of our hero, he is shot, bleeding and on the wrong side of the fence. When we come back to Pandemonium Lena is dying.  She is found by Raven an Invalid or otherwise known as free.  The book is a great show of what life is like on the other side of the fence.  We meet new characters and learn of a new life. 

The book is split into “now” and “then” and we switch back and forth between the past and what it currently taking place, all events are after Delirium.  Oliver did an excellent job of balancing the past and present and it makes Lena a deeper character and helps us understand her as a free person better.  In the present, Lena, Raven and Tack have joined the Resistance in New York and Lena’s job is to get close to the DFA, an organization against love and for the procedure.  She is supposed to go to all meetings and stay unseen.  This poses a problem when the leader’s son Julian is kidnapped and in order to stay close, she follows him down into the unused subway tunnels and is taken along with him.  As they are trapped for days and Lena keeps slipping about who she is and about her procedure being fake Julian learns a lot more about the resistance that he bargained for. 

The ending of this book will remain in my mind as a one of the craziest endings ever.  “Don’t believe her.” When those words were spoken, my heart leapt into my throat and I couldn’t believe what was happening.  I won’t spoil it, you just have to read it to see what happened.  I cannot wait for Requiem, the third and final book. 

If you are looking for a fresh new young adult series, look no further.  Delirium is different, outstanding and well written.  Keep reading my friends!

Love is a Battlefield

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

There is a cure for love.  The disease that can be transmitted causes horrible side effects and in some cases, even death.  Lena waits in anticipation for her procedure to be completed at the end of the summer on her eighteenth birthday, she and her best friend Hana have looked forward to their evaluations and being matched with an acceptable mate, career path and even the number of children the couple will have.  The government takes care of all of this for the citizens of the United States. But what happens when Deliria is contracted and love is caught?  This summer romance my not end exactly the way the reader anticipates.

I loved this book.  Delirium came highly recommended by my friend Traci.  She said it wouldn’t disappoint, and she was right.  It was well written with interesting characters.  I loved Lena and how she grew as a person throughout the entire story.  She kept surprising herself and doing activities that she would have never done months previous.  I also loved Alex, he was sweet and caring and had a good personality.  Hana was a little harder to understand and get to know.  She had this bad girl exterior but was contradicted with Lena’s perspective of her best friend whenever the law was supposed to come down. 

I love these young adult books that are different concepts.  I would put this book in the Hunger Games genre of a futuristic USA/North America.  I want to have creative juices flowing like this, I mean, who thinks of the concept of outlawing Love?  That’s crazy, but Oliver came up with it and sold lots of books, it will probably be a movie and make a few select people a lot of money.     

I would highly recommend this book to anyone that likes a good young adult read.  I can’t wait to start the next installment and then I will wait with crazy restraint for the third and I believe final book of the series. 

Let me know what you thought about this book!  Keep Reading my Friends!