Delirium Review!

Hello everybody! Hope you've had a good weekend so far and enjoyed the weather today, if you live in the UK chances are you had a glorious day today. Hooray for summer weather eh? As promised, here is my review of Delirium by Lauren Oliver, which I listened too on Audible during my trip to London. When I first purchased this book I genuinely wasn't sure whether or not I'd like it. I'd heard a lot of good reviews about Lauren Oliver in general but I hadn't read into what the actual plot of the series (Delirium is the first in a trilogy) so I went into the book feeling a little blind. 

I listened to Delirium on Audible!

Within the first chapter Lena, the main character, had already allowed me to understand that the book is set in the future, it's never specified, but judging by the time span spoken about, I'd guess around 100 years in the future tops. In this future version of America, and specially Portland, where Lena lives, love has been defined as the disease Amor Delirium Nervosa and a 'cure' has been perfected. Basically everyone gets administered the cure on their 18th birthday, and from then onwards are unable to feel love. They are then paired with someone, given a job and told how many children to have. 

The trilogy

The story follows Lena in the 90+ days leading up to procedure. As the novel begins you can tell that Lena is looking forward to it and cannot wait to be cured so she doesn't end up like her mother, who remained able to feel love despite having the cure and, as Lena explains, eventually committed suicide. Obviously as the book progresses Lena meets people and discovers things that mean she becomes less than happy about the prospects of the cure as her procedure date looms. However I won't give too much away. 

Firstly, my main appraisal of this book is how unbelievably original the plot idea is, the whole idea of the cure and how brainwashed the citizens become once they receive it totally terrified me. More so than the violent worlds in books like The Hunger Games and Divergent, the people in this world genuinely believe they are being protected rather than oppressed. 

Secondly, Lena is successfully.. Normal. She worries about how short she is and complains about how hot it is and gets angry at her aunt for asking her to do the washing up. This all means that she is genuinely shocked when unusual things start happening to her, which is both amusing and relatable as she is probably the most normally written character I've read about.. Maybe ever. She doesn't have a secret love of poetry and she's doesn't spend her life questioning and challenging the system which is all very refreshing. 

The cast at read throughs for Fox's Delirium

I loved Delirium, it's easily one of my favourite books ever and I plan on purchasing the hard copy as well as buying Pandemonium and Requim when it's released. The ending was rather surprising and I wasn't overly pleased at the time, but the plot blurb for Pandemonium has slightly reassured me. Plus it's not really Lauren Oliver's fault that I'm a sucker for a happy ever after. As I mentioned in the picture, it's also being turned into a TV show by Fox, and (I think) the pilot has already aired.

Characters: 4.5/5

Plot:5/5 

Overall 5/5 (yes seriously, I loved it that much)

Phew! I also managed to make my Dad buy me a copy of the 4th Mortal Instruments book, which I cannot WAIT to read, and I'm still reading One Day, which is taking me a while to properly get in too. However I think I'm going to start doing multiple books in one review so that they're less detailed but also cover all of the 25 books I aim to read this summer. That's the plan anyway, hope you guys have a good week and I'll see you on Wednesday or Thursday!