delirium
By Lauren Oliver
Somewhere in the future, man has created a neurosurgical solution that rids humans of desire: i.e. the cure. It is a government mandate by the age of 18 and people are taught from a very early age that it is necessary for true happiness, peace, and well being. After a strange evaluation of emotional health, you are paired with your mate, attend college, then marry that person, have the assigned number of children, work at the assigned occupation with an unchanging assigned salary, and live out a cookie cutter life, void of passion and ambition. Anyone refusing the cure, will have to forcefully submit, be thrown into prison (the Crypts) or be executed.
Lena thought that's what she wanted. A life full of structure and the promise of a simple life. That is until she meets Alex, a rebel (Invalid) who shows her the demonized world she had learned about in school is really the true definition of freedom.
Let me tell you, at first it was difficult to read this one. I found myself not liking the main character and falling in love with her best friend instead. But as the story progressed, I got to see Lena step out of her comfort zone, and brave the world where love wasn't seen as a disease.
I won't spoil the ending, but it caught me off guard, nail bitting and images burning in my brain, waiting to see what happened next.
Lauren Oliver gives a beautiful example how to build anticipation to the point where the story ends in climax at a level that leaves the reader thinking, "Damn, that was good!"
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