Review: Delirium

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This book started off promising because I really enjoy the dystopia that Lauren Oliver has created, but it was only okay. The idea that love is an illness that humans have created a vaccine or cure for was pretty original and interesting. All of the chapter intros are well ingrained in the fantasy future and the Book of SHHH is a very cool idea. Oliver is also a very good writer with a gift for unexpected imagery. Some of the descriptive passages are breathtaking. Most of the story's problems lie with the book's female protagonist. Our heroine Lena Holloway is very typical and run of the mill, and boring...I understand using relatable characters, but this girl felt like a stock character of "teen girl"...a composite of all of the other dystopian teen heroines that are now crowding the YA market.

She's a good girl (of course) very obedient who follows all the rules, she doesn't think she's pretty, she has one or more missing parents, she likes a forbidden boy (in this book Alex Sheathes)who changes everything she believes about the world, she can't control her feelings, she's scared, she's clumsy, she needs to be rescued...She's one big fat huge cliche of a character. And after having her hand basically held throughout the entire story and after said boy tells her his perspective and shows her his world, after she's ready to throw away EVERYTHING she knows to adapt HIS viewpoints, wholeheartedly and unquestioningly, then SHE feels EMPOWERED and STRONG, and I have no idea why.

Essentially she trades one set of ideas for another, and never seems to come to any of them herself. I feel like this novel just underscores the idea that a normal girl is living in a fog of obedience until some hot young guy comes along and shows her a new way to think. This character had no real growth and her passions were very PG rated for a nearly 18 year old girl. Even if she was choosing to move slowly with her newfound passions, I think she would struggle with them a bit more.

All the supporting characters were there like an afterthought, except her best friend Hana Tate who I would have preferred as the main protagonist. Please write a story about the pretty confident girl who may or may not be quite as brave...or just didn't meet her eye-opening prince yet, who actively seeks to think for herself, even if she's not sure if she's ready to act on it or not. Tacking on the concept of sacrifice as the ultimate expression of love is not enough to save this. Plus there are some dangling loose ends which are not wrapped up, nor are they sufficiently enticing to warrant a sequel.

Anyway...if you love Dystopia and are interested in well-developed female protagonists, check out Divergent by Veronica Roth or Matched by Ally Condie...and of course The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Delirium has lots of potential but is ultimately unsatisfying.



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