10 Reasons: Delirium

I was LUCKY enough to score an arc (or two) of Lauren Oliver's upcoming release Delirium. And if you know anything about me, it's that I LOVE Lauren Oliver. Before I Fall knocked my socks off and changed the way I saw life and...well, basically it turned me into a pathetic pile of mush and tears.

And Delirium....

I'm still pulling myself off the floor.

Here's the product description from 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.
Lauren Oliver astonished readers with her stunning debut, Before I Fall. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called it "raw, emotional, and, at times, beautiful. An end as brave as it is heartbreaking." Her much-awaited second novel fulfills her promise as an exceptionally talented and versatile writer.



So I present to you....

10 Reasons Why DELIRIUM made me Delirious!

1. The Premise! This is a dystopian novel and the world that Lena lives in pretty much looks and sounds exactly like ours except that love aka deliria is a disease that is cured when you turn 18. You undergo a procedure and then...you're completely apathetic and everything is decided for you, who you'll marry, what you'll do. It's scary sounding and boring as crap! This also makes a killer set up for a love story.

2. Philosophizing. I'm convinced Lauren Oliver is really like a 1,000 year old philosopher hiding in the guise of a 20 something year old woman, because her novels have a way of making me want to take apart my world and how I live and look at them from another angle. She slips in these little bits of truth that you know already but probably forgot or never gave much thought to, and I can't help coming away from her writing feeling like I've truly gained something beyond just a great reading experience.

3. Rounding The Bases! This is probably always going to be one of my reasons for loving a book--or at least a bonus feature. But what can I say? I'm a sucker for romance. I'm a sucker for kissing. And I'm a sucker for...other things:-) And Lauren Oliver does it right..you know, the writing of that stuff. Also, she nails the emotional aspect too when it comes to this territory. Yay!

4. Character Arc. Lauren Oliver is fabulous at this--taking a character who is totally A and tearing them apart and putting them back together until they are Z! Lena goes through a massive journey in this book from completely buying into the party line--Love is EVIL, the cure is GOOD. We wants it NOW! To....OMG the cure is EVIL, love is AMAZING! RUN!!!!!

5. ALEX! Lauren, you had me at Kent McFuller....and now...ALEX!  I don't want to talk about Alex too much because I don't want to spoil the story for everyone but....I love Alex! He'd make me change my beliefs about everything I thought was true too. And once I finished Delirium, I had one thought in my head....ALEX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6. The Swooning. There were some MAD cute scenes in this. When Lena was first falling in love with Alex, they were soooooo adorable with each other, giving secret looks, making up excuses to see each other. It made my heart melt with cuteness. And then....there were other scenes like when Alex reads love poetry to Lena that just....SWOOOOOOON!

7. Love is worth it! In this book, LOVE isn't just something you want or desire or makes life worth living. Love IS life. Love is worth dying for, and it makes you remember how unbelievably special and important it is and that it's worth sacrificing your life to experience it, save it, or just hold onto it. I'm telling you....1,0000 year old philosopher!

8. The Suspense! Seriously the last 100 pages had me on the edge of my seat biting my nails and freaking out until I got to the very end and cried and then started thinking....ALEX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9. Hana! Lena's best friend had some of the best lines and was a real eye opener for Lena in her quest. I was kind of surprised by Hana's character arc, but she made a fabulous foil for Lena and really played an important role beyond just being the  cliched obnoxiously annoying best friend filler because every girl in a YA needs a BFF. Hana was not that character at all. She was so much more.

10. ALEX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry, I had to get that in there one more time. Seriously, I LOVED this book! It had everything you could want. Love, romance, action, philosophizing, ALEX!!!!!!!!

Ok, I'm going to go cry now.

Some more.