Literature Never Have I Been so Bored of a "Dystopia"
I really and honestly hate this book. I so wanted to love it. I wanted to contract amor deliria nervosa from this book. But instead, it cured me.
The book follows Lena as she prepares to receive her Cure from love, which is outlawed. But she falls in luv. Sounds good in theory, but the book's as boring as watching paint dry except when paint dries you feel a sense of accomplishment. This book gave no such satisfaction.
Lena is a bland girl who constantly compares herself to her friend Hana, who is attractive and blonde. Honestly I don't remember what Lena is supposed to look like except she is short, whiny, weak, indecisive, and acts like a child holding her breath till she passes out. At first she had total conviction in her government. She fell in love and became a madwoman.
Alex is just as bland. He has a constant smile, stony expression, or is expressionless completely. He gets mad at Lena for things out of her control. He whispers sweet nothings at her, recites poetry, tears holes in ceilings so that he can see the stars. He is constantly looking hurt about something. He is be able to change his demeanor to a confident adult at the drop of a hat. And people let him go anywhere. Sorry. I've played too many video games to buy that noise.
Although both of these characters is supposed to be an older teen, they act like 14-year-olds. Hana is actually interesting, which is likely why she got a novella. She has so much to offer this story, but is overshadowed by the incessant whining of Lena.
The writing is Purple Prose throughout; totally boring about halfway through. Coincidentally, this is around the same time Lena begins "falling in love" with Alex. I was bored to tears of Portland and Lena with her melodrama and romance. She began as a hopeful and overly-trusting young girl, but devolved into a bucket of hiccuping tears and craziness.
The audience knows love is not a disease in real life. So Lena is suffering from some other malady that will never be diagnosed in-universe (Web MD says she may be bipolar, or suffering from adolescent depression). I skimmed through the entire middle of the book. I read the ending. After reading that, all of my loose ends have been tied, as far as I am concerned. I have no motivation to read the rest of this series. And will not ever do so.
Literature A good book!
Contrary to the other review, I actually found the book Delirium very enjoyable.
To be fair, when I first heard of the plot about love being a disease, I thought "okay, this is stupid." But Oliver actually executes it really well. I like the character of Lena. She is relatable, especially in the first novel, and she gets a massive amount of character development throughout the series. I also like the foil she has with Hana, her best friend. Yes, Alex is a little bit of a cliche "lover boy," but he's SUPPOSED to be like that. He's the love interest in a world where love is outlawed, for Pete's sake. Of course he's going to want to show Lena the world of love, and of course he's going to do it in a mushy way, including showing her old poems and the like.
I love dystopian novels, and the more unique for me the better. This was definitely unique for me, though I would like to know how in the world they decided that love came to be known as a disease in the first place, and why in the world everyone just went along with it. But I digress. Also, the underlying themes of the controlling-ass government and even animal and child abuse really hits home, and it actually evoked a lot of emotion out of me while I was reading. It made me absolutely irate, and I just wanted to shake some of the characters and shout "Wake up!" It's always an amazing feat when an author can do that to his or her readers, and I take my hat off to Oliver for that.
The one thing that really stood out to me in this novel, however, was how beautifully it was written. Oliver is so descriptive, and I love it when I read a book and I'm just in love with every single word, every single sentence that is typed onto the paper. And that was the case with this novel. I could imagine every scene, as well as every character's physical appearance perfectly in my head as I was reading it. And that's what really made this book shine in my opinion. The pacing of the whole novel was also spot-on.
Overall, I'm giving Delirium a 9 out of 10. Good work, Oliver!