Delirium Series by Lauren Oliver | Review

Delirium (Delirium #1) by Lauren Oliver

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: February 1, 2011

Narrated: Sarah Drew

Received: won ARC via Goodreads years ago, finally listened to the audio in lieu

Find Online: Goodreads | Amazon

Ninety-five days, and then I'll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It's hard to be patient. It's hard not to be afraid while I'm still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn't touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't.

Pretty much this will be a summation of my thoughts on the entire Delirium series. I listened to them all back to back via Overdrive and read all of the novellas in ebook format. I'm currenty reading the enovella for The Book of SHHH. I'll try not to give any spoilers, but be warned this covers the series and not just the first book! Why I waited so long to get into the series is beyond me. I was seriously missing out.

“Now I'd rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie.”

Amor Deliria Nervosa - ever think that love could be considered a disease? Me neither. But in this world it is considered the most deadly of diseases because it has so many side effects. Crazy, right?

“Love: a single word, a wispy thing, a word no bigger or longer than an edge. That's what it is: an edge; a razor. It draws up through the center of your life, cutting everything in two. Before and after. The rest of the world falls away on either side.” 

I loved this world so much - it was so different from other dystopian novels I'd read and I felt like it was so well written. It's beautiful and quotable. 

“‎...love will turn the whole world into something greater than itself.”

The history of how the deliria started and why they developed the cure was fascinating. I enjoyed seeing the difference between the cured and uncured, which made you think of mindless zombies sometimes as the cured seemed to lack emotion of any kind. Why someone would want to have that part of them shut off or deleted or altered is beyond me. I loved the idea of the resistance and the uncureds that were fighting for freedom and the right to love. Seriously... the right to love and to feel. WTF! RIGHT?

Lena starts off as a goody two shoes that follows the rules, who knew she had it in her to do an about face and leave everything behind for love? She gets "infected" when she meets Alex by chance and begins to have feelings that she didn't understand at first - wonderful feelings that she couldn't get enough of. Her life changes the day she decides to leave and run before she can be cured. But things don't go as planned and her entire life -changes in ways you cannot imagine. Her entire story is so full of heartache, ever changing emotions and strength! She is so much stronger than anyone ever gave her credit for. It's like her eyes are finally open when she lets herself understand and believe what is really going on around her. Her voice is strong and I adore her for it.

Lena's life changes so much from living within the walls of her city, to being on the run outside the walls and surviving alongside other uncureds. And finally becoming part of the resistance itself. So many people that were a part of her life come and go, but her determination to fight for what is right is always there and inspiring.

I also have to say that you cannot just stop after reading the first book, you need to read them all to really understand this world and the injustice that is happening. You'll be cheering on the resistance, holding your breath each time a plan doesn't go right and hoping beyond hopes that everything will be alright for your favourite characters. The emotions will get you, you'll get infected yourself with all the feels.

Sidenote: Reading the novelles for Raven (2.5), Hana (1.5), Annabel (0.5), and Alex (1.1) adds a lot more detail to each character and helps you understand them all. I think Hana is the most misunderstood of the three and I enjoyed the POV in her story. You'll think differently about Alex after reading this additional short piece about his life and Raven's story just rounds out why she is the way she is. Annabel's story is a great one to understand just how amor deliria nervosa works and why the cure is so terrible. They are extremely beneficial to read and I read them in the order they are numbered (in between each main book). 

Overall, if you love a good dystopian and are looking for a series to try, pick this one up. You won't be disappointed. And really give the audiobook versions a try - Sarah Drew (THE April Kepner from Grey's Anatomy) does an amazing job narrating this series and I knew her voice the minute I heard it (honestly, I never much paid attention to narrator names before this audiobook series). She will make you feel EVERYTHING! The despair, the pain, the anger and the love! So what are you waiting for? 

About the Author:

Lauren Oliver is the cofounder of content development company Paper Lantern Lit. She is also the New York Times bestselling author of the YA novels Replica, Vanishing Girls, Panic, and the Delirium trilogy: Delirium, Pandemonium, and Requiem, which have been translated into more than thirty languages. The film rights to both Replica and Lauren's bestselling first novel, Before I Fall, were acquired by AwesomenessTV; a major motion picture adaptation of Before I Fall was announced by Open Road Films in 2016. Her novels for middle grade readers include The Spindlers, Liesl & Po, and the Curiosity House series, co-written with H. C. Chester. She has written one novel for adults, Rooms.

A graduate of the University of Chicago and NYU's MFA program, Lauren Oliver divides her time between New York, Connecticut, and a variety of airport lounges. -source

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