Publisher: HarperTeen
Date: February 2011
Format: hardback
Acquired: won from Truly Bookish
Read: because I'm trying to catch up with all the dystopian sequels
Pages: 441
Reading time: four days
From 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 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 with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.
My review: I've gotta admit, I was kind of skeptical about reading a "girly" dystopia. I'm used to the older dystopias - the ones aimed at social or political commentary - so one dealing with the treatment of love as a disease is a bit out of my usual range. Maybe with another author such a plot would be a disaster, but Lauren Oliver certainly makes it seem realistic and almost believable.
I loved the character of Lena. She's not like your normal kick-butt heroine of sci-fi/fantasy. Lena's a "good girl," always sticking by the rules, never lying, and trying to fit into her society as best she can. She genuinely believes in the cure and the way her world is structured - well, at least until she finds evidence to the contrary. Lena's kind of like me, small and quiet, a very welcome change from the usual rather loud, brash, and already anti-authoritarian character.
For once in YA books, I could connect to the romance. Things seemed to really "click" between Lena and Alex, so I was very disappointed with the ending. But the next book, Pandemonium, looks like it promises many more twists and some turning-on-the-ear of the events of Delirium...
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