Review Detail

Panda Express, dinosaurs, any ex-Disney actress turned megastar, and of course, books. Here’s a list of things I love. Not just strongly like, but capital L-O-V-E, LOVE! So when I dove into Lauren Oliver’s “Delirium,” about a dystopian world where love has been scientifically cured, I was already heartbroken that nobody could have a love for the trivial yet amazing things in life you just can’t live without. So I was curious to see how people actually could get along without these things.

“Delirium” follows Lena as she heads into the months just before her eighteenth birthday. The present she’ll receive is an operation that cures the brain and body from ever feeling love. Love has been classified as a disease, one that causes people to act rashly and experience dangerous levels of emotions ranging from unstoppable despair to delusional euphoria. Lena can’t wait, since she worries she’ll catch this disease just like her mother, and all she’s ever wanted is to escape this ailment that could run in her blood. But wouldn’t you know it, Lena meets a boy, and as she starts showing signs of love, Lena realizes she might not accept that love is a disease after all, and she worries the supposed cure may ruin her completely.

As the disease of love was described in the first chapter of the book I thought, “Huh, they’re actually kind of right.” While I don’t think love is a disease, I definitely agree that love makes people do some crazy bidness. People go out of their minds if the love of their life leaves them; they justify horrible, and sometimes criminal, actions a loved one commits just to make his or her life better; and people instigate entire wars over love (I’m lookin’ at you, Helen of Troy). So while I can’t imagine living without love, I can see how the government powers-that-be were on to something. Although potentially sinister, the reasons behind curing love aren’t entirely evil, and I love a good villain who is equal parts good and bad, just a tad misguided.

What I loved most about this book is it shows the power of propaganda. As Lena is experiencing the bliss of falling in love, she’s simultaneously concerned out of her mind that she’s going to catch the disease in full force and become a raging lunatic. She has been so totally convinced by society and its shunning of anyone who falls in love, that she knows, despite what her body is telling her, love cannot be a good thing. Seeing her inner battle go down was so convincing that at times I rooted for her to forgo any relationship and just rush to get the cure.

This emotional back and forth experienced by Lena, paired with the understanding of why people would want to cure love yet the complete horror of thinking of a world without it, made “Delirium” an intense and captivating read. Thankfully, this is only fiction. To celebrate, I’m off to grab some Chinese fast food while I read a book about dinosaurs as Selena Gomez plays in the background. That’s a night I could fall in love with!