Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Image and summary from Goodreads.com:

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 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.


For whatever reason, this book has been sitting on my mental TBR list, not getting read.  So when I finally decided to check this book out from the library, I was eager to begin.  Unfortunately, after finishing it, all I can say is "meh."


Sadly, the characters in this book struck me as lackluster.  Lena, the protagonist, just seemed like the run-of-the-mill revolutionary anti-government character, wrapped up in a romantic and slightly more timid package.  Now, I imagine that living in a world without love and ruled by fear would render one timid, but still.  Her hesitation lasted too long into the novel for my taste, especially given the massive case of "insta-love" in this book.  Truthfully, Lena's insta-love interest, Alex, was my biggest disappointment of the novel.  I was happy to see Lena fall in love, but other than his slight irreverence, I wasn't really sure what set Alex apart.  His character was left pretty flat, which made it hard to understand Lena's attraction.


Similarly, the plot left a little something to be desired.  There were certainly exciting parts, but the pages in between dragged somewhat.  To be fair, this might be due to my fatigue from grading massive amounts of diagnostic writing prompts (no matter how you slice it, 76 relatively identical essays just aren't exciting), but this book didn't captivate me the way I was hoping.  I found the storyline pretty predictable, and given that I wasn't invested in the love story the way I normally am, I just found myself apathetic.  Even the ending was predictable, and I hate when that happens.


Other than a few language issues, this book is pretty clean, which is a plus in the "teacher-safe" category.  This is the cover of the book I read, but there are several others that are a bit more enticing.  However, the bright blue might attract some curious glances, which could help draw student readers in.


Overall, I would recommend this book for the less discerning dystopian reader.  For ladies (sorry gents, too much mushy stuff in here for most of you) who enjoyed Divergent, Fever, and even The Hunger Games, I would perhaps offer this as something new to try.  However, I will probably be taking Delirium's sequel, Pandemonium, off of my TBR list, which does leave me feeling slightly accomplished.