The Delirium Trilogy

So I have been reading since it's summer. (Yay!) I just recently bought Requiem by Lauren Oliver, which is the third book in The Delirium Trilogy and I'm already mind blown, even though I'm just at the 43th page.

(Spoilers!)

Basically, Delirium, the first book, is about Lena Halloway who is living in the present United States with a little twist--love is considered a disease. The government has identified love--amor deliria nervosa--as a disease and has introduced a cure for said disease. The cure is still being developed, so only those who get to a certain age are allowed to take the cure.

At first, Lena is your typical teenage girl--as far as typical can go in a world like that--nervous about the procedure for the cure, yet at the same time excited that she will finally be able to be"safe" from the disease. This is the usual thinking of the people in the book and this is the mindset the government wants them to have. You see, Lena's mother died because of the disease (or so she was told) and she was afraid the disease could be passed to her, although there is no indication that the deliria can be genetic. She wanted to get cured as soon as possible so that won't happen.

A while before her cure, a boy named Alex introduces himself to her and tells her about the Wilds and about love and how it is wonderful and not destructive. She thinks he's crazy and runs away from him for a few weeks. Soon, though, she meets with Alex and they venture into the wonderful world of love, hiding from the government in an old house in the middle of an abandoned community. Soon enough, they get discovered and Alex sacrifices his life for her to escape to the Wilds, the place beyond the borders of America.

In Pandemonium, Lena is living in the Wilds as an Invalid and, after a few months, go into the borders again, disguised and completely changed, focused on only one goal and that is to bring the government down. At the same time, she is coping with losing Alex.

The books switches from 'then' and 'now' wherein 'then' is about the early struggles of Lena in the Wild and lamenting about losing Alex and leaving her whole life. She is slowly getting trained by other Invalids, teacher her different tactics, which included reciting to herself mantras about how the past is dead and she is a new person. She is forced to stop caring about her life inside the borders and to be hardworking and strong. The 'now' part describes her new life within the borders with the "zombies" which is what hey call those who are cured. She rarely thinks about Alex and manages to act like a normal student in the school she is enrolled in, with two other Invalids pretending as her aunt and uncle.

Along the way, she meets Julian, the son of a very significant figure that is against the Invalids and their attacks. Somehow, she gets trapped with Julian in the hands of Invalids that are nothing like the ones Lena is with. She manages to escape with him, with both of them sacrificing their lives for each other. When they get rescued, they learn that it was all part of the plan of the Invalids and that they succeeded. The book ends with Lena telling Julian that she will be with him forever and Alex suddenly appearing and saying, "Don't believe her."

(I don't know about you, but I was both totally frustrated and enchanted with that cliffhanger.)

I have barely started on Requiem, but I am already so flabbergasted that I don't even know what to say! First of all, Alex has completely changed, but manages to take his indifferent mask off for a few seconds when Lena saves them from being mauled by a bear.

I also think that Julian is sweet, but it's not enough. If it were another love story, I would have supported Julian, but in this story, I don't. Sorry Julian.




Be sure to read the three books right away!