Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Delirium is written by Lauren Oliver, the author of Before I Fall. Delirium tells the story of an alternative reality where love has been made illegal. Love is considered a disease known as "amor deliria nervosa" that can be cured by an operation performed on the brain. The society depicted requires every member to be "cured" as soon as they turn 18. Oliver tells the story of Lena, a member of this dystopian society, who is eagerly awaiting her "procedure," but this all changes when she meets Alex.  

While reading Delirium I was constantly reminded of a book I read when I was in middle school: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Both tell the stories of parallel universes, dystopian societies that require all members to receive a "cure". Both begin with the protagonist wholeheartedly believing in the values that their society perpetuates and both have their views drastically changed when meeting a love interest. 

Although I found Delirium to be particularly slow in the beginning, I found myself liking the book and as soon as I finished I went to purchase the sequel. Oliver is able to create a realistic alternate reality that causes you to think about the love that exists in your life. The ending was a bit of a let down, but I'm sure that the next book in the series Pandemonium  will fix that!



Some of my favorite quotes:

• "You can't be happy unless you're unhappy sometimes"
• "Love: it will kill you and save you, both"
• "It's so strange how life works: You want something and you wait and wait and feel like it's taking forever to come. Then it happens and it's over and all you want to do is curl back up in that moment before things changed."
• "[Love is] the deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't"
• "It's amazing how words can do that, just shred your insides apart."
• "Hearts are fragile things. That's why you have to be so careful"
• "And now I know why they invented words for love, why they had to: It's the only thing that can come close to describing what I feel in that moment, the baffling mixture of pain and pleasure and fear and joy, all running sharply through me at once"
• "Take it from me: If you hear the past speaking to you, feel it tugging up your back and running it's fingers up your spine, the best thing to do - the only thing - is run"
• "The past is nothing but a weight. It will build inside of you like a stone"