Book Review :: Delirium, by Lauren Oliver

Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Series: Delirium #1
Also in this series: Pandemonium
Published by Hodder & Stoughton
on January 1st 1970
Genres: Young Adult
Pages: 393

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.

Last updated on 19 January 2022

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase with one of these links, I recieve a small commission at no additional cost to you. Read the full Affiliate Policy.

My thoughts on Delirium

Delirium, by Lauren Oliver, is about Lena Haloway and her life in a society where love is a disease, and everyone, soon after they turn 18, undergo the Procedure to be cured of the disease. The cover says it better than I would:

“They say that the cure for Love will make me happy and safe forever. And I’ve always believed them. Until now.

Now everything has changed. Now, I’d rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie.”

Love is a disease; her mother committed suicide because of it. But when Lena meets Alex, an Invalid (someone who lives out in the Wilds…basically, it’s the countryside, out of the boundaries of the city) who is pretending to be a cured young man living in the city, she starts to wonder about the life that is planned for her: school graduation, matched with a young man she doesn’t really know, University, marriage…Of course, Lena falls in love with Alex and everything she knew and previously believed is called into question.

I really did enjoy Delirium by Lauren Oliver. It’s a great idea, looking at a world without love, and though it sounds sappy and girly, it’s a nice reminder about how important love is.

The only criticism I would give this book is the lack of dialogue. Seriously! You could read for pages without having a glimpse at speech marks at all! I would rather read too much dialogue than not enough, so at times I felt like I was reading the blocks of paragraphs because I had to, and not because I was reading a story I wanted to read. Does that make sense? I have to admit, I did skim read my way through a few especially lacking-in-speech-marks parts. So that was a bit annoying and frustrating at times. Hence the 4 stars.

But it has fun characters like Hana, Lena’s best friend, who is a bit of a rule-breaker; Grace, Lena’s cousin who doesn’t say a word and barely ever has; Aunt Carol who probably lets Lena out and about more than she should, and of course Alex and Lena, just two crazy kids in a crazy society with crazy rules and crazy walls…falling in crazy love.

Have you read Delirium? What did you think?