Review of Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Delirium by Lauren Oliver


Series: Delirium (#1)
Pages: 448
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: February 2011
IBSN: 9780340980927

There was a time when love was the most important thing in the world. People would go to the end of the earth to find it. They would tell lies for it. Even kill for it.

Then, at last, they found the cure.

Now, everything is different. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Haloway 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 then, with only ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable...

Lena's content with having life without love – she does, after all, believe it to be a disease. But as she falls in love she realises that it isn't a bad thing at all. Thus begins her development from naive into a stronger and more aware protagonist who thinks for herself in a world where people who do so are few and far between.

I was already familiar with Lauren Oliver's writing style from Before I Fall, but, it still struck me again how lyrical and beautiful it is. The first person narration made Lena feel more like a real person with real thoughts and concerns than a character. It was easy to feel sympathetic for a character whose emotions were so raw.

The romance between Lena and Alex felt natural, and they had a lot of chemistry. It wasn't 'love at first sight' (a concept that I never find endearing), but rather, grew slowly and with apt hesitancy given the setting. Delirium was a very good example of successfully having a romantic relationship as the centermost part of the novel.

The omission of unimportant in-between scenes kept the read intense and suspenseful up until the very end, where we’re left hanging and anxiously anticipating the sequel (Pandemonium, March 2012).

Overall, Delirium was a touching and beautifully-written story of how far people will go for love. 

I give Delirium a 5 out of 5.

Review of Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver.

I read Before I Fall because of all the good reviews I was seeing about it and the recommendations I was getting. In hindsight, I can say that I'm glad I decided to read it.


Samantha Kingston has it all—looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12th should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it’s her last. The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. In fact, she re-lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she had ever imagined. - Goodreads.com


Before I Fall starts as Sam Kingston wakes up on Friday, February the 12th. Cupid day at school, in which popularity is measured tangibly by how many roses you've been sent by friends or admirers. Other than that, it's a fairly typical day for Sam. Her friends are waiting to pick her up for school. She flirts with her calculus teacher. She skips lunch period to go for yogurt with a friend. There's a party to be at later. Same same. Except she dies in a car crash after the party.


And then everything becomes strictly not usual. She wakes up, miraculously, the next morning, to find that it's once again February the 12th. She goes about the day uneasily, as though the day before were some lucid and horrible dream. But when she wakes up again on the 12th of February, she assumes she's stuck in some sort of purgatory. She starts living like there's no tomorrow, which for her, there really isn't.


Though, when Sam finds out the girl she and her friends have been bullying for years, Juliet Sykes, killed herself on the same night as her own death, it's a kind of turning point for Sam. She begins to think about the differences between each repeated day, and about how the small things she does without thinking effect the people around her dramatically. 


It's from then on that she tries to effect people for the better, though it takes until the seventh day - the last day - to actually achieve her main aim: to stop Juliet from killing herself.


The thing I really love about Before I Fall, aside from the captivating writing style, is the character development. After the first day, I was about ready to put down the book. I could only agree with Juliet: Sam is a bitch. But then, Sam implores "is what I did really so bad?" and "is it really so much different to what you do?"


And that made me realise: it isn't. It isn't any worse than any teenager, really. But no one wants to believe that they themselves aren't any better or different than the people they look down on. That Sam accepts and notes in hindsight that she is as bad as anyone else just perfectly shows the way her character develops. As the days go by, she grows to care about more than herself, more than about how many roses she gets. 


So, Before I Fall is, in summary, about a girl who dies before her time, but in doing so, learns how to really live. It's about a girl who falls in love for the first time just a little too late.


I rate Before I Fall 4 out of 5, and I anticipate the release of Lauren Oliver's second novel: Delirium, coming out on the 1st of February, next year. In the comments, tell me what you think about Before I Fall, if you've read it. If you haven't, tell me if you'd consider doing so after my review.

So, goodbye, and here's to hoping I never have to write February so many times in one piece of writing ever again (it's the one word that I will never spell right the first time).