Book/Novella Review: Delirium Short Stories by Lauren Oliver

Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 208

Series/Standalone: Series Novellas (Delirium 0.5, 1.5, 2.5)

Synopsis:

Hana is told through the perspective of Lena's best friend, Hana Tate. Set during the tumultuous summer before Lena and Hana are supposed to be cured, this story is a poignant and revealing look at a moment when the girls' paths diverge and their futures are altered forever.

Lena's mother, Annabel, has always been a mystery--a ghost from Lena's past--until now. Her journey from teenage runaway to prisoner of the state is a taut, gripping narrative that expands the Delirium world and illuminates events--and Lena--through a new point of view.

And as the passionate, fierce leader of a rebel group in the Wilds, Raven plays an integral role in the resistance effort and comes into Lena's life at a crucial time. Crackling with intensity, Raven is a brilliant story told in the voice of one of the strongest and most tenacious characters in the Delirium world. 

IN A NUTSHELL

First I would like to start off by saying I enjoyed the Delirium series so reading the short stories of Hana, Raven, and Anabel was fun. I enjoyed taking a small step back into this deliria-free world. Hana and Annabel were the two I most looked forward too.

For these short stories you don't have to read the series, but I guarantee they will make much more sense if you have already read the books because Hana and Ravens story are just their POVs on what happened during a specific scene. Annabel's is more open I think. 

******MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS******

HANA

Hana is Lena's best friend and soon to be matched with the mayors son.
In delirium we don't see her much, so I was kind of glad we got a small glimpse into her life. Hana's short story was during a underground party that was raided. She had to hide.
As much as her parents tried to keep her from being friends with Lena, you saw that Hana still cared for Lena.

ANNABEL

Annabel is Lena's mother, who until book 2 we thought to be dead. She has a bigger part to the story then we initially thought. What really happened to her is she had gotten locked up in the tombs because she was believed to have the disease. This story revolves around this lock up. It shows how being locked up can drive a person crazy, but it doesn't have too. With help from the inside, Annabel continues to plan on how to escape from the tombs. I really enjoyed this story.

RAVEN

Raven's story was my least favorite. I didn't really enjoy her in the series either. Her story does give us different insights as to why she is they way she is. One is how she came to live in the wilds, who blue was to her, and her feelings for Tack. Then it goes into a scene from book 2 I believe where her, Tack, and Lena are at a rally for Julian who is about to get the procedure.

Reviews for The Delirium Series

Delirium|Pandemonium|Requiem|

Tv Show Trailer: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Pilot to the series Delirium by Lauren Oliver playing on HULU

Readers/bloggers and everyone else have you seen this yet? 

If not give it a watch and then read on.

What'd you think?

I'm sure if you've read the books then you have to have some sort of opinion about it. I actually just read all three books back to back in the past month or so...so I'm down for this to be a show. I really enjoyed the books. Okay, the last one, failed a little bit, but overall it really was a great series. Seeing it brought to life for just that minute and twenty two seconds was awesome. Now granted I saw Lena as a completely different person. I'm not sure Emma Roberts is right. I picture Lena as this stronger person not this tiny little girl. Sorry Emma I love you in your other movies. The casting looks all kinds of wrong, but that is just my opinion. Casting for any movie/shows that come from what we read will never fit what our image of them looks like in our mind.

My Reviews for the Books
|Delirium| |Pandemonium| |Requiem|

Book Review: Requiem by Lauren Oliver

AUTHOR: Lauren Oliver
PUBLISHER: Katherine Tegan
PAGES: 320
STAND ALONE/SERIES: Series (Delirium, Pandemonium)
SOURCE: Bought
OUTLINE:
As her country erupts in open rebellion, Lena fights for the resistance and must make a heartbreaking choice between two loves.

After saving Julian from a death sentence, Lena escapes with him and other members of the resistance. But as she embraces her love for Julian, a boy from her past returns and causes her to question everything. 

In the meantime, Lena's best friend, Hana, is engaged to Portland's young mayor and is living a safe, proscribed, loveless life. The story is told from both Lena and Hana's points of view.

As Lena struggles to save the people she loves, everything comes to a head in this exciting finale to Lauren Oliver's epic trilogy. REQUIEM is a sophisticated, wide-ranging novel that explores the large issues of society, government, and resistance, and of course, there is romance.

MY THOUGHTS

An Ashley Quirk

As you read my review you might notice my little hashtags at the ends of some of the paragraphs this is a summary of how I feel. Plus, I kinda like doing them.

Quick Thought
Emotions get the best of me sometimes....okay pretty much all the time, and I'm sure that my husband hates it because fights with me suck. I don't like being yelled at, and if you yell at me chances are I'll crawl into my shell.  Sometimes I think maybe being cured or "Deliria Free" would work in my favor, but then I think emotions like: hate, love, sadness, anger makes us human. #deliriafreeisntreallyfree

PACING
For me I would have enjoyed Requiem more had Lena's chapters been MORE than just walking through the wilds.I got enough of that from the second book. It took them forever to get where they were going, and even though I love learning what's going on I wanted more from the rebellion (see ending) I think Hana's chapters were more fast paced things seemed to always be happening with her. The wedding, meeting other characters, getting into trouble. It was fun to ride along with Hana. #rebellionsrule

CHARACTERS
If I tell you about the characters in this book it kind of gives away what does or doesn't happen in the first two books. Even though the synopsis gives away some clues. If you haven't read the books don't read past Julian. :)

Just know that I loved Lena in the first two books, but this one she seemed different I guess that's what the wilds will do to you.  I wasn't a fan of Julena either (yes you see what I did there) #thewildchangesyou
Like I said above Hana was definitely the character I most enjoyed reading about in Requiem. She seemed to start off on the straight and narrow believing in the cure, and then things started to unravel for her. Who was the mysterious ex-wife of Hanas fiance? Why did she feel the need to help these other people? :) #yougogirl
In Pandemonium, Julian was sheltered, led to believe invalids and those uncured were bad, and when thrown to the wolves (basically) he was skeptical about them, he was more or less a shadow of Lena, but in this book he grew as a character. He played with the big dogs Bram and Tack. He grew a set of balls. He wanted to stand up and help the rebellion, and for that I applaud him. #hegrewapair
Coral was a newcomer to the group of wilders (that's what I'm calling Lena, Julian and them.) She kind of came out of nowhere it seems like to me. So I wasn't to fond of her through the book, and especially not after being so chummy with "a ghost."#girlwhereducomefrom
Even though I wasn't 100 percent a Raven fan things happened that made me feel for her, everything she went through to get where they were only for it to end up like it did sucks, #ravenstrong
We finally get to meet Lenas infamous mom even though we saw a speck of her in book 2 we get to meet her head on in this book, and I'm glad I loved being able to see who she was, why she did what she did, and how Lena and her interact after all the time has passed them by.#infamousannabelle
Ahhhhhh Alex my one and only. You have no idea how happy I was that he was still alive after the ending of Delirium. I always thought Alex and Lena were meant to be instead of Julian and Lena so seeing the way the interacted in the book did hurt a little bit because I know Alex cared for Lena and vice versa. #alextheonetheonly


ENDING
I understand endings that leave a cliffhanger, and all that but those are usually books that have another book coming out in about a year or so. With Requiem I was kind of let down at the ending. Maybe, it's because I enjoyed the story, and I wanted to see more of the characters. It didn't seem to satisfy my need to know more. What happened with the rebellion? With Hana? After reading some reviews about Requiem I see that I'm not the only one that had issues with the ending.  I think Mr. Black says it all! 

This is how I felt! 

#imeanseriously

Book Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

AUTHOR: Lauren Oliver
PUBLISHER: Harper Teen
PAGES: 329
STAND ALONE/SERIES: Series (Delirium, Requiem)
SOURCE: Bought
OUTLINE:
I’m pushing aside 
the memory of my nightmare, 
pushing aside thoughts of Alex, 
pushing aside thoughts of Hana 
and my old school, 
push, 
push, 
push, 
like Raven taught me to do.
The old life is dead.
But the old Lena is dead too.
I buried her.
I left her beyond a fence,
behind a wall of smoke and flame.

MY THOUGHTS

Unlike Delirium, Pandemonium is told in two perspectives. There's a then and now. I want to say I haven't read a book with that P.O.V but I probably have. At first I thought it would bother me, but as the chapters went on I grew to enjoy them more and more. Just like Delirium it was still too slow paced for my liking, but when you have a good story and characters you love to read about it can be overlooked.

From kidnapping, falling for someone, death to escaping, a ratman, shock, and life Pandemonium definitely has a bit of it all. 

POVs

Then: starts almost where Delirium left off with Lena running, and it takes us through her time beyond the compounds that were once her life. She is now living with the "invalids" in their little homestead. This is where we get to meet a whole new set of characters. These chapter show how they all work together to survive, and when it's time to move from one place to another. 

Now: Lena is now sucked back into the world of the cure (She is after all part of a rebellion). She gets the job of watching Julian the son of Thomas Fineman, the founder of the DFA. When things go down at the rally it's up to Lena to figure it out. 

CHARACTERS

Lena was back (duh) and I definitely think she has grown up so much from Delirium. She realizes now that what she believed in was only a twisted view of her government. I loved being able to see her be this tough woman in the "Now" chapters trying to save herself and others

Raven wasn't one of my favorite characters. I always thought that she had something she was hiding. I need to get the book that has her short story in it as well as Lenas mothers.

Julian is the son of the founder of the DFA (Deliria Free America) and is set to have his cure done in front of thousands, but on the day of the rally shit goes down and he ends up underground with Lena. I don't know how I feel about Julian at the moment. I'm still wanting Alex I think. Julian starts off believing everything he's told just like Lena was. He's a pretty big baby if you ask me, but as the story goes on I think he begins to understand that he's been told lie after lie. I wanna say he begins to man up a little, but I don't know. Like I said I'm still on the A Train. (Ha A train get it? Alex Train. Yeah I know.)

ENDING

I can't decide if I want to throw this book like I wanted to with it's first one, or if I want to hug it, love it, and be all giddy. If you've read the books then hopefully you understand what I mean, and if not this is my second attempt to tell you that you need to read it. Don't be like I was and think "Oh, I'll get to it at some point" make it the point to read now. Okay? Okay!

Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

AUTHOR: Lauren Oliver
PUBLISHER:  HarperTeen
PAGES: 441
STAND ALONE/SERIES: Series (Pandemonium, Requiem)
SOURCE: Bought
OUTLINE:
Lena Haloway is content in her safe, government-managed society. She feels (mostly) relaxed about the future in which her husband and career will be decided, and looks forward to turning 18, when she’ll be cured of deliria, a.k.a. love. She tries not to think about her mother’s suicide (her last words to Lena were a forbidden “I love you”) or the supposed “Invalid” community made up of the uncured just beyond her Portland, Maine, border. There’s no real point—she believes her government knows how to best protect its people, and should do so at any cost. But 95 days before her cure, Lena meets Alex, a confident and mysterious young man who makes her heart flutter and her skin turn red-hot. As their romance blossoms, Lena begins to doubt the intentions of those in power, and fears that her world will turn gray should she submit to the procedure. 

MY THOUGHTS

Do you have Amor Deliria Nervosa? I'm pretty sure I do! Why you ask? Because I loved this book.

Why? Why did I wait so long to finish Delirium, please tell me? I started this book back in 2011 I think when it was on Netgalley. I read half of it and never finished it so I figured with the dystopian kick I seem to be on I'll give it another try, and start from the beginning again. I suck at life. Just saying. I really should have listened to all the hype and finished it the first time around (Sometimes I think maybe that's why I don't read books right away. I let the hype die down and then maybe I can enjoy it.) because ummm *whispers* I loved it. No other dystopian book has this "love thing" as a disease, and it was refreshing to see besides all this fighting *cough* hunger games -esque*cough* stories. Maybe, not so nice for the characters in Delirium that are cured though because they basically walk around like zombies and are emotionless per Lena.

There were times in my life as I'm sure everyone elses that the cure might have been seen as a good thing to have. Sometimes my emotions definitely get the best of me. I have this tendency to I guess cling on to others emotions. Let's say if Ryan (my husband) is having a bad day and I'm having a great day and I see he is in the dumps then I automatically feel like he does in the dumps. Yes? No? Yeah, so having emotions sometimes sucks, but then I think about it and realize it makes me who I am. It's what makes people...people and not zombies and the fact that we don't eat human brains (at least not that I know of) I know totally off topic. There are somethings that don't need to be fixed.

CHARACTERS
Most characters you either hate 'em or love 'em. With Delirium it was 50/50. I loved Lena, Alex, Hana, and Grace they all had personalities I enjoyed reading about,  while the aunt, Jenny, Rachel, and Regulators not so much. 

Lena's love for Grace is one thing I admired about her. When everyone thought Grace was stupid and slow, Lena knew better.  Her sense of what friendship meant was another quality I liked. Even when Hana and hers friendship was bumpy she was still there for her friend to try and keep her safe. As the book went on Lena grew as a character she realized that the life she was living and the things she was told weren't necessarily true.

Grace was so adorable although we didn't see her much. She reminder me of my niece Karlie, very quiet, but smart for a little kid. I can't understand having a kid and then treating them the way that Grace was treated by her parents and everyone. I guess it's a side effect of the cure so just another reason the cure hurts instead of helping.

Hana...these are the best friends I love. The kind you can sit in silence with and know life is good with them by your side. Knowing that you don't necessarily have to have a conversation for it to be good. At times Hana was stubborn, but I also saw that determination to go against what was expected of her. Too try and be that indiviual. I guess I need to read the short story about her.

I took me a bit to warm up to Alex, but by the end of the book I could easily understand why so many loved Alex. He showed Lena what life was really about. How it could be so much more than just a cure.  He gave up a lot to be with Lena. 

DOWNFALL
The only thing that bothered me was definitely the pacing of the book. I love fast-paced books, but I understand that sometimes need the details to understand.

ENDING
Oh, Lauren what an ending that was! I think I kind of wanted to throw the book at my wall, but I didn't because then I would feel bad. Also I figure there's always the second and third book so you have time to redeem yourself. :) If you haven't read this series which I'm not sure how many people haven't since I'm late on the train here, but I recommend having all 3 books so you can read them back to back. If not you will be holding your breathe til you get that next book.

QUOTES

• The deadliest of all things deadly. It kills you both when you have it and when you don't.
• You know you can't be happy, unless you're unhappy sometimes right? -Hana
• You came from different starts and you'll come to different ends.
• It's amazing how words can shred your insides apart. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt me---such bullshit.
• I prefer the ocean when it's gray, or not really gray but a pale in between color. It reminds me of waiting for something good to happen-Alex
• Everyone you trust, everyone you think you can count on will eventually disappoint you. -Lena
• When left to their own devices people lie and keep secrets and change and disappear, some behind a different face or personality, some behind a dense early morning fog, or beyond a cliff.
• I know life isn't just life if you float through it. I know that the whole point---the only point---is to find the things that matter, and hold on to them, and fight for them, and refuse to let them go. -Lena