Book Review: Delirium

TITLE: Delirium
Book 1 in the planned Delirium Trilogy
AUTHOR: Lauren Oliver
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: dystopian, romance, drama
PREMISE: A girl finds love in a future where love is considered a disease.
MY REVIEW: What if love was considered a disease? This is the scary reality that Lena lives in. The government declared love a disease and has found a cure for it. When you're eighteen you get cured and Lena can't wait. Being cured means stability and safety and will stop people from looking at her sideways because of her mother who killed herself rather then be cured. Then she meets the mysterious Alex and starts to question the world around her. Is love really that bad?
Okay, I'll admit, the idea that you can get rid of love seems a bit hooky. But that is one small nagging detail in an otherwise very awesome dystopian novel by the brilliant Lauren Oliver. I was afraid that she would have a sophomore slump and was especially wary of this from the summary given (really, that is a bad summary publishers) but I gave Oliver the benifit of the doubt because I loved Before I Fall so much (if you haven't read it yet, you should). I'm glad I did because this has become my favorite book of the year so far (right next to Clarity by Kim Harrington). First off I love Oliver's writing. True, she's not always subtle but she manages to get to you without going over board and has some really great prose in here that are eloquent without being flowery.
But the main reason I dug this was the world-building in here. Again, the love cure does sort of bug me but it is one tiny detail that I can let go of because it creates this really scary future where feelings are repressed like they have never been repressed before. Think Vulcans but worse because it's practically law that you can never show love without getting arrested. Somehow this world seems even more scary to me then The Hunger Games because I seriously would not last in it. I like to express myself too much.
I would have maybe liked a little more buildup to the relationship in here but it's still ten times better then what I've seen in the past and it's rather sweet and given the circumstances I can understand the quickness so again, I'm letting it go. Characters were nicely fleshed out, dialogue was fantastic as always with Oliver, and there was nice pacing. May have dragged in the middle a bit but for the most part this was a fascinating book to me because it just made you think about how much love goes into stuff we do. From family, to our hobbies, to outright living. And I love that this book addresses that.
If you have been wary of this book because of the hype (and the idiot people trying to say this is at all like Twilight. What?) then please ignore all the hoorah. This is a good book. Sometimes they do get it right. I highly recomend it.
WHO SHOULD READ: anyone inclined too pick it up, dystopian fans, fans of Before I Fall
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five books of