Delirium by Lauren Oliver

 

(Photo taken from Goodreads)

Title: Delirium
Author:  Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperCollins
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061726826

ISBN-13: 978-0061726828

Publication Date:  2/1/2011

Advanced reader's e-proof sent to the reviewer from NetGalley

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Rating:

This book is two of things I try to avoid when choosing books:  Sci-Fi, and part of a series.  But I kept seeing this on other blogs and I was curious to know what the fuss was about anyway.  When I read the blurb, it sounded interesting, so against my better judgment (I passed on The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood!), I requested for an advanced reader's copy on NetGalley and Voila!  I got a copy.   So let it be known that I got a copy from the publisher through NetGalley and this review is partly for them - mostly for me. :D

The Story According to Goodreads

"Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love - the deliria - blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love."

At first glance,  I thought the plot was a bit lame, but what got me was how would Lena manage to go through with everything?  I have a vague idea for an ending, but I wanted to see for myself what the author would do for this story.  

The story builds slowly, cautiously answering every question, taking you step by step through the entire plot to fully absorb the conflict's impact.  This book is written in a gradual fashion:  Gradually enticing, gradually amazing, and gradually shocking.  I like how the author feeds on the reader's curiosity and covers every minute detail, no stone unturned.  

With regard to the characters, I like their quirks, their distinct personalities, and the 'sheepness' of the 'cured' characters.  It is a given fact that love affects people differently, which gives us individuality, and here, by removing love, the author perfectly creates 'human robots.'  Lena is the perfect study of the troubled teenager, going through an identity crisis:  Does she really want to be 'cured'?  Is she really like her mother?  Or does she really want to be like her mother?  The story shows Lena's transformation from troubled teen to a strong and mature human being.  

The dialogue is good, if sparse, with the narration at times becoming verbose although clear most times.  I have this urge to skip through most of the descriptions of scenery, etc. and to just move on to the next conversation, I just tire of the enumeration of minor details - maybe that's the point of the whole writing:  Nothing is considered minor detail, every description is exhausted for the sake of the readers.  But that sense of urgency with which this book is written pulled me into wanting to go on to the next scenes than to keep reading on the present one when it's already settled and should really move on. 

The problem I have with this book is not the Sci-Fi bit, I'm past that now since the story is written convincingly (everything's possible!), what bothers me is the ending for this book.  This is not something you can read on its own, you really have to go check out the next book, and the next, and the next, until it reaches like HP 7 - oh wait, that's for Harry Potter, my bad.  Earlier I've already established that I don't like series much purely because I don't want to go roasting in my own juices waiting for the next installment.  I do not want to be like those people who lurk around the web and the bookstores looking for the next book in a series, threatening to kill themselves if they cannot read the next one.  I want to be able to read my book, finish it, and die happy.  But this one made me read it, made me like it, and now, it's making me go wait and get the next one.  Oh how I hate you, Lauren Oliver, for writing such a beautiful piece, that now leaves me hankering for me.  Let this not be just a simple review but a warning to you, dear author:  We are waiting for the next book, and we demand it to be as good, if not better, as the first.

Do You Have A Background Music?

I was looking for new Christmas songs that I could listen to without getting a thousand different versions of Let It Snow when I came across Owl City's Christmas Song.  When I listened to it, I found myself recalling lines, images, and pages from Dash and Lily's Book of Dares involuntarily.  I always said that reading a Levithan work (even a collaboration) makes me play a background music in my head, and I used to hear December 2 Chapter VII while reading Dash and Lily.  But when I heard this Christmas song, I felt that it was even more perfect because yes, the story of Dash and Lily happen during the holidays and Lily loves Christmas, Dash hates it, all the more making this song appropriate. 

Listen to it, to see what I mean:

I did not want a video with visuals, might interfere with the images from the book that come rushing in my head.

But even if I'm not reading a Levithan book, I still hear music while reading a book sometimes, especially if it's really good and really gets into me.  While reading When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead I heard Polite Dance Song by The Bird and the Bee.  When I was reading Wintergirls, I was hearing What It Feels Like for a Girl by Madonna.  As for what I'm currently reading, for Delirium I hear The Time by the Black Eyed Peas.  Okay, so it's not that appropriate, especially with the "dirty bit" thingy interrupting my thoughts every now and then, but that's what my brain plays and I can't do anything about it, unless I could get brain surgery, and I wouldn't want that.

How about you?  Do you associate any book with a particular music?  If you do, what song do you play in your head for what you're reading now?