Finally! I have just finished the Delirium Trilogy by Lauren Oliver! It taken probably over 2 years from reading Delirium for the first time to reading the last page of Requiem. This is down to the fact that I wanted to read the series straight through and therefore waited till they were all published and I owned all 3 books.
In this post I will first be doing a non spoiler overall thoughts on Delirium and the whole Trilogy. Then I will be doing a semi- spoiler version of the other two books.
Rating: 3/5
The series is a dystopian set of 3 (with a novella series that I am yet to read). Delirium takes us to a future USA that is trying to rid its people of Love and at the age of 18 gives them "the cure" to take the "disease" away. It follows a girl called Lena who is weeks away from getting the cure, but like all dystopian novels it's not that simple. Her and her friend Hana meet a boy who makes Lena question the cure and it's reason for it.
I did enjoy reading Delirium (for the 2nd time) but something about it, and I'm still not sure what, doesn't grab me like some other dystopian worlds. Maybe it was because it seemed a little predictable that the character Alex would come into Lena's life. Having said that though the ending was completely unexpected and actually left me a little angry that Oliver had written it that way! I was so wrapped up in the storyline that it was definitely a cliff hanger and a heart stopper!
If you like romance and dystopians then this would be a good book to invest your time in. Just make sure you know what your getting yourself into!
Read on only if you HAVE read Delirium, to write a review of Pandemonium I have to spoil the 1st book!
Rating: 3.5/5
We finish Delirium with Lena in the wilds alone. Now Pandemonium is written slightly differently, it is written in two periods of time( and jumps between them throughout the book). "Then" which directly follows Lena after she jumps the fence and begins her journey into the wilds and "now" which is currently whats happening to Lena. We're not told how long ago "then" was but I assumed it was a couple months up to a year in the past. The "then" portion allows us to follow Lena as she becomes accustomed to the wild lifestyle and how she is taken in by a group of invalids. The "now"section starts with Lena in New York on some sort of mission to spy on the DFA (Deliria free America). However in doing this she is captured by a group of Invalids called the Scavengers along with Julian Fineman the youth leader of the DFA.
I found it interesting to see how Oliver went about carrying on this series and it definitely kept my attention despite such drastic location changes. Due to the more action based theme I think I liked this book a little more than Delirium and that is something you definitely have to keep in mind that this book will have a completely different setting and feel.
Read on only if you HAVE read Pandemonium, to write a review of Requiem I have to spoil the 2nd book!
Pages: 391
Rating: 3/5
Requiem is the final book in the Delirium Trilogy and I had really high hopes for this book that I'm afraid the ending didn't live up to (this is something i've heard quite a bit from other booktubers on youtube). Requiem is again written differently from the first two books; its told from not only Lena's POV but also from Hana who we only heard from in the 1st book.
Now hearing Hana's side was something I really liked reading about and was probably my favourite bit of the book. We follow Hana after she's had the cure and the events leading up to her marriage with the mayor's son. I felt it was nice to see how things were still getting on in Portland since Lena's exit and how the mayor and his son were dealing with the cure and invalids.
With Lena we see her and her camp move to a refugee sight where hundreds of invalids live and see them make plans to defy the cure and the government.
DON'T READ ON IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE WHOLE TRILOGY!
So here's where my problem lies... the ending. Oh my the ending was bad in my opinion! I felt like it really didn't bring the trilogy to some sort of resolution and it felt that Lauren Oliver just rushed to finish the book! I remember getting to about 20 pages left and thinking just how is she going to finish this? I think it needed at least another 50 pages or even another book to the series! The bit where Hana walked away from her husband and house I felt really needed concluding, did the house blow up? Did she meet up with Lena again?
And then the whole love triangle was sort of just left for us to assume Lena got back together with Alex, but what happened to Julian?
I just feel Oliver could really of put so much into the ending that just wasn't there! What happened after the wall went down, is this happening in other cities? What does the relationship become with Lena and her mother?
So as my final conclusion I am a little upset that I gave so much time into this trilogy only to be given a half hearted ending that leaves you with so many questions!
If you've read Requiem let me know what you though of the ending
Sophie x
