Review Detail

"I love you. Remember. They cannot take it."

Probably among the most powerful last line of a book I have read. It perfectly sums up the theme of Delirium and everything that Lena has learned throughout the story.

I am still having trouble believing how much I loved Delirium! I have always enjoyed dystopian novels, comparing them to our own society today to see how easy it would become for us to become them. And Delirium is no different. While the concept seems so unbelievable, and impossible to happen to us, the way the society is portrayed, and how the people act made me realize it is somewhat plausible, while none of it is in danger of happening today, I could see how it could happen, which to me makes the world come to life.

Before reading Delirium, I never really thought about how integrated love is in our society. So many songs are about love, books about love, poems about love, even a whole day dedicated to love!(ironically the day I started reading Delirium). But as I read it I found anything about love standing out more and more, even just generally saying "I love you" to my family, or hugging my friends goodbye. I cannot imagine a world without love, or where it is thought of as evil. But Lauren Oliver has created a believable world where love is a thing to be feared, and on certain levels, it almost makes sense. Which was the most astonishing thing to me, at times the way it was described and the effects of it did seem like a bad thing that should be eradicated. But after building up our belief that perhaps in an alternate universe love was a bad thing. Then, the author went right ahead and broke down those notions, destroying them so utterly I couldn't believe I had ever thought that maybe it was a somewhat understandable thing. It was clear that love had been twisted into an unrecognizable thing in Lena's society, something untrue and terrible. But slowly she discovered the truth about love, and why it was such an important thing to have, to hold on to, and to die for.

Another thing I thought was so interesting about it, was the way they twisted Christianity. A religion based on a relationship of love, was created into a way to keep people believing love was evil. Whenever I came across "Bible passages" or "Bible stories" I found myself astonished at how twisted they were. Even the Creation story and heaven were recreated so as to agree with the assumption that love was evil.

Once again I noticed the destruction of love(no duh!), language and history used to keep the people ignorant. I really enjoyed reading the passages at the beginning of chapters that gave perfect examples of them. From falsifying history and what life was like, to deliberately censoring information and outright lying.

Oh, and just a brief note on the characters. I loved Alex! He is so much better than Peeta(sorry Peeta! You're still awesome, just beaten by Alex!) I just loved his whole personality, he was funny, sweet, and smart, and just his whole outlook on life was great(plus he was cute) I also loved Lena(though I kept chuckling at the thought she has the same name as the main love interesting in Beautiful Creatures), it was interesting to watch her chance and grow and discover the truth. Hana was great as well, though she annoyed me at parts for the most part I think she was a perfect friend for Lena....though now I feel bad for thinking for a moment that she turned Lena in to the regulators. Woops....And Gracie! I think she is my favorite barely mentioned character ever! She is so cute and sweet and a brave hero too!