Review:: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Lena lives in a world where love is a disease. It’s a disease Lena does NOT want. She will have the procedure that will stop all of the sickness within four months–on her eighteenth birthday. Until then, she has much to do–graduation and evaluation.

Evaluation is done by the government to determine the course of her life…in this way, her life will be safe and predictable. But on the day of Lena’s evaluation, a herd of cattle are released into the facility and Lena must be retested.

But for the first time, Lena is uncertain as to whether or not she wants to be evaluated. She saw a boy, Alex, that day…and it changed her life. Alex wears the three pronged scar that the cured wear, but Alex hides a dark secret.

Soon, Lena is no longer the obedient child she once was. She sneaks out during a raid to notify people at a party playing restricted music. At the party, she is rescued from the raiders by Alex. And begins to have feelings for Alex.

I really liked this novel, once I got it downloaded onto my Nook. It was a quick read and well-written novel. I liken it to Brave New World, The Handmaiden’s Tale or Carrie Ryan’s Dead Tossed Waves series. It’s a social dystopian novel. The government monitors phone calls for words like ‘love’ and ‘sympathizer’ and ‘Invalid.’ There is a border fence all around the country, including the area Lena lives in (Maine). Borders are closely watched and identification is needed at all times, for lack of a better term the whole place is a police state. All websites are written by governemnt agencies, there are lists of approved books, movies and music.

This is very startling read, and the idea that these types of things could happen are very scary to me, I believe in the first amendment, and I think that people should have freedoms, I am blessed to have my freedom. I received a copy of this from NetGalley in epub format in exchange for a review…Here’s a countdown meter to it’s release date.

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Delirium by Lauren Oliver
305 pages; Harper Collins
Hardcover: February 1, 2011 Retail: $17.99