A Book Review | Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Rating: 3/5

Pages: 470

So I've definitely neglected this blog for a while mainly due to finishing my course at college and then withdrawing from my course at uni ( I may go into this in more detail at a later date but for now its still a little raw). One thing I also regretfully have been putting on the back burner is reading, I did quite a bit at the end of August when I was on holiday but since being at uni I had no desire to read. However today I finally finished "Before I Fall" by Lauren Oliver.

When I first picked up this book back in early September I was excited to read something else by Oliver as I previously have read the "Delirium" Trilogy ( click here to read my review on the series). However I quickly realised that this book wasn't grabbing my attention and that I wasn't fully engaging with the characters.

The plot line follows a girl called named Samantha Kingston who is in the "popular" group at her school. Early into the book we learn that one Friday night she is in a drink driving accident which leads to what she thought was her death. However the next day she wakes up reliving that Friday morning and the same thing happens the day after that and the day after that. 

At the start of the book I took a huge disliking to Sam and her 3 friends as they came across mean, overly cocky and that nothing or no one could touch them. However as the book progressed and Sam was made to relive more and more of the same day she started to change how the day panned out and started to realise why she is disliked so much. She tries to put right some of her past mistakes and becomes a better person and by the end of the book I appreciated her efforts however I still wasn't overly fond of her character. 

As the story unfolds I feel that Sam starts to listen to her own mind rather than being brainwashed by what her other popular friends think. We also learn that each of Sam's friends no matter how popular they are still keep a dark secret or have an issue they'd rather not talk about. 

The rest of this review contains spoilers to the plot line and ending therefore do not proceed unless you have read the book.

One aspect I did like in the book is the relationship development between Sam and Kent as Sam finally sees that he isn't as weird as the populars made him out to be and she remembers the bond they had when they were younger. This relationship is one of the reasons why I hated the ending! You get so wrapped up in the idea of them being together that I just couldn't imagine Kent having to live without Sam. I also feel that when Sam throws herself into the road to save Juliet its left a little misty as to what happens next and we're left to guess. Personally I wanted to know how Kent and Sam's friends were feeling after her death and why Sam was living in the state between life and death. Naturally I wanted there to be some kind of loop hole that meant Sam could carry on living her "new life" as if that Friday night accident was all a dream.

Overall I was a little underwhelmed and I am yet to be wowed by Lauren Oliver's work.

Sophie 

Book Review - The Delirium Trilogy by Lauren Oliver

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.

Pages: 441

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!

Pages: 375

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

Books I want to read in 2014

My target for 2014 is to read a minimum of 40 books, below is a list of some books I really want to get to reading this year!

1. Allegiant by Veronica Roth 

Believe it or not I still haven't got my hands on this book, now this for a few reasons:

• I'm waiting to order the US cover so it matches my other books as I really dislike the British editions!
• Im trying to finish up some of my other unfinished series
• Finally it means i'm going to have to re-read Divergent and Insurgent, I have quite a bad memory so I tend to forget book plots easily

2. Jump Ship by Josh Shipp

This is Josh Shipp's second book that was released mid December, i've read his first book called "The teens guide to world domination" it is an amazingly inspirational book that I would recommend to any teenager who's questioning people in their life or what to do with their lives. In this second book Shipp advises on how to turn your passion into a profession. 

For anyone in the UK you can get shipps books off Amazon or The Book Depository. 

3. 10 things I hate about you by David Levithan

10 things I hate about you is one of my absolute favourite films partly because the cast includes Heath Ledger! I really want to read the book that inspired the film however this book is extremely hard to buy and I will have to do some major searching to find it.

4. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

In 2013 I heard nothing but good things about this book by various booktubers and knew it was something I was interested in reading. It is part of a trilogy which is why I've hesitated to start it as previously stated I want to tie up some unfinished series.

5. Requiem by lauren Oliver 

Earlier this year I read Delirium which is the first book in this trilogy, it is about a dystopian world who are trying to cure "love". I remember really liking it and proceded to buy Pandemonium ... however I still haven't read it! My thoughts are to buy this book and just read through them all then I can just pick up the next book and not have to wait.

6. Legend by Marie Lu

This book had been on my " To be read" book for nearly a year! I first saw it on Elle Fowlers Vlog channel in one of her glitteratures. It is a trilogy but I definitely want to set time aside for it!

These are just a few of my top books that I want to read this year, if your have any recommendations then leave them below and also let me know what books you want to read this year.

Sophie