molly_is_a_beast's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I found the plot to be obvious and predictable and the love interest was unlikable. It felt almost like he had no life other than her.
Spoiler
I also found that it was silly for the first boy she ever meets that’s not part of her family is what we now have to call “the love of her life.” I felt very distrusting of Alex until he left himself die for her which was odd considering this is only the first book of three and if he’s going to die I would at least hope that they would discover that he was actually planning something sinister or wasn’t all that he seemed otherwise he’s just dead?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Suicide, Death of parent, and Animal death
Minor: Blood and Cursing
kendallthefire's review against another edition
3.0
If I hadn't read Matched and the Uglies series this would have been great. So 3 stars it is.
lovesbn's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
antiigonaa's review against another edition
2.0
This could have been so good, but I really couldn't move pass the main character's obsession with comparing her "in-between, not-special-at-all" face with her best friend's perfect height, hair, face and just evertything she has. Not only that, but her decisions made zero sense (girl make up your mind about who to be upset with and your values).
The romance felt really forced and I kept asking myself what the point of the ~450 pages were (the first 200-300 pages felt very introductory to the world/characters, and I couldn't really tell what the purpose of the story was or where it was headed).
The only thing that saves this book is the ending, which is the only reason I will be reading the next part.
In hindsight, idk what I expected of a dystopian book written in the early 2010s.
The romance felt really forced and I kept asking myself what the point of the ~450 pages were (the first 200-300 pages felt very introductory to the world/characters, and I couldn't really tell what the purpose of the story was or where it was headed).
The only thing that saves this book is the ending, which is the only reason I will be reading the next part.
In hindsight, idk what I expected of a dystopian book written in the early 2010s.
erinarkin20's review against another edition
4.0
I remember why I loved this book when it first came out...Alex is swoony although I didn't remember Lena being so annoying. Regardless, I enjoyed this and thought the narrator did a great job. Check it out!
vivianne's review against another edition
3.0
Actual rating 2,5 stars!
Delirium has been on my TBR list since…. like forever! Came across the whole series in the library and decided it was time to read this right now. So I picked up all three books in this series and started reading right when I came home.
This was an enjoyable, fun read. I liked the characters and the world building, especially in the beginning. But everything about this book was cliché and predictable. The story didn’t really build and the plot, world building and characters really started to drag half way in the book. The ending was an anticlimax for me, it lacked twists and everything a good ending needs.
SPOILER FREE!
Note: Those wonderful arts were not made by me, but since I couldn't mostly find the sources, I just want to thank the artists for their awesome artwork.
Overall Concept (4,0 stars)
I thought this concept was super cool! A world where love is seen as a deadly disease, with as a main character a girl that falls in love. I think the execution off this was extraordinary good, maybe a little too good. The main focus was a little too much on their relationship for my liking. But I did really enjoy the concept off this brainwashed, emotionless society.
Design (2,0 stars)
Yeah I’m not that fan of this cover. But that’s mainly because I don’t particularly like faces this big and clear on covers. And the color green and brown are not my favorite, I wished they did a little bit more with the things mentioned in this book, like the color grey. I hated all these cursive texts in the beginning of the chapters, and once I figured out they weren’t important to the plot I skipped every single one. I didn’t like the too big chapters, they could have been way shorter, that way it would read easier.
Start of the book (4,5 stars)
I really liked the beginning, it was fast, clear and enjoyable. I flew through the book and it was super fun. I enjoyed Lena and the plot was quick. I was interested by the world building and really wanted to know what would happen next!
The writing style (2,5 stars)
Note: read in Dutch.
The writing style was fast pace in the beginning but after a while I got so annoyed with the huge unnecessary chunks of text. There where PAGES about how someone would look at Lena, PAGES how she felt when Alex touched her, PAGES with how scared Lena was, PAGES about some flashback about her mom… I had already forgotten how the plot had developed or how a conversation went after these intermezzo’s. That made it super hard to read. So.. after a while I started to skip them, and I realized I could skip PAGES without missing anything!! Another thing that was really annoying was the huge amount of repetition used in this book. I get it the first time that Lena is short, or that Hanna is pretty or that Lena’s mom was different. It doesn’t need to be mentioned every chapter! I also had a problem with the summarizing in this book. Some things that I wanted to be present with and not just read over in two lines. Like the second test Lena had to go through.
I did however like the playful writing style Oliver has, she can create a wonderful world building and lovely characters. Her books read really fast and are enjoyablebesides the latter mentioned things.
The world building (3,0 stars)
When I started reading I thought the world building was very well done in this book. I enjoyed the Portland Oliver sketched and think everything was worked out well into the details. I loved the society and was super curious what else there would be in this society. But about halfway in I started to get super bored with it. I think the reason of this was because everything about the world got spilled in the first 50 pages. The other 400 pages don’t have anything new in the world building. Also the scenery’s kept being the same, Lena’s house, the store, the beach or the abandoned house. Come on give me something else?! I also feel like the book is lacking some history about the society. How did they come up with love being a disease? How did they find out that they could terminate that with a operation? Who came up with this? And why did the population think this is ok? What happened with the things we are afraid of in our normal society? Diseasesthat actually kill humans, hunger, hate, murder, terrorism? Furthermore I found things very unrealistic; this book is classified as a dystopian. These are mostly controlled societies where citizens don’t get to have an own opinion. And I think that is what Oliver tried to create, with the street patrols, the curfews and the house invasions. So why can two teenagers sneak to the streets after curfew, how can they claim an abandoned house and make out every day, how can they just walk across the “heavily protected” border, break in the most heavily guarded prison, and do all this a summer long..
Main Character (3,0 stars)
Lena was a great main character. I could identify with her on many levels.(I have a sister who is incredibly beautiful, everybody looks at her, and I always have the same thoughts as Lena had). I really enjoyed that in the first half or so of this book. I also enjoyed that for once the pretty girl wasn’t the main character, for once the bravest girl wasn’t, but just for once an average citizen was. I found she made a cool character improvement from a scared girl to a daring woman. But I think just her opinion changed and not really her personality and it took a lot (and then I mean A LOT) of time, hints and characters to persuade her. And what also disturbed me about this was that she needed Alex for this. I did enjoy the running hobby very much, made me excited to pick that up myself again.
After about 200/250 pages Lena started to really annoy me. I got annoyed with her not daring things. I got irritated with her thoughts and she felt really weak in my eyes. I didn’t like her all of a sudden confidents or whining. Her emotion(swings) just didn’t make sense to me. I felt like Lena made a big deal out of things I would like a main character to really enjoy, things like the music Hanna played in her room or the secret parties. I would at least listen to what Hanna had to say. She just sheltered behind Alex’s back. I think I started to lose my connection with Lena and she didn’t really became the person I wanted her to become.
Other characters (2,5 stars)
The other characters in this book where OK. I felt like they weren’t as much present in this story. Mostly Lena’s family was present in some flashback or quick summaries of the day. Some characters we never even meet like Hanna’s parents or other kids from school. I think this story just lacked some more interesting characters, with cool background story’s. It felt like they all had some goal or function for Lena and they were just there to serve the plot, not to enjoy the reader. And in a book with over 400 pages this is really necessary to keep me interesting. There are ONLY TWO frequent side characters besides Lena’s family and that’s not much.
I really REALLY loved Hanna. She was this badass girl and at several point in the book I wished she was the main character, this book would have been a lot livelier and exciting. I really loved all the challenges she took on and liked her opinions on situations. I loved her friendship with Lena, and loved how she supported her.
Another character I thought was interesting was Grace. I liked that she was some sort of quite support for Lena and I found her fascinating. But we never get an explanation or a back ground story, I missed a bit off a personal story with Grace. Now it just felt like she had one function; The other family members where just empty shells and I don’t really have much to say about them besides that I found them annoying.
I don’t really know what to think of Alex. He suits Lena, but I didn’t know that much off him. I think I don’t fully trust him, I’ll see in the sequel I guess. But I found him quite flat. The thing that did really disturb me was that he spilled all his secrets too Lena after seeing her twice!
Romance (2,5 stars)
I liked Lena and Alex together, their relationship seemed sincere and I think they’re cute together. Although I think the attention off this book was a little too much focused on the start of their relationship for my liking. Maybe I shouldn’t read a book about a girl who lives in a loveless world and then falls in love. But for me it was just way to much focus on their relationship in the second part of this book and I got really bored with it.
But the way Alex and Lena fall in love it’s just so cliché for YA. Alex just appears half way in the story; “o he I’m in love with you for a while now.” And Lena just: “O well than I’m also in love with you.” “But everything is so hard and the society would never allow us.” “But I love you so much.” MAKE OUT!! Classic insta love! I’m just so tired of this crap.
Plot (3,0 stars)
I did really enjoy the plot in the beginning, it was fast passed and very enjoyable. A lot of things happened and I wasn’t bored. But I did think that the story was really cliché and super predictable. I mean it has a lot of similarities with the Hunger Games, Matched and every other dystopian ever written. I really hope the other books in this series take another direction and have a bit of surprise and originality.
I really liked some scenes. Lena finding out about this party and going there, Lena meeting Alex, the swimming scene, some running scenes, sneaking over the border. But there could have been more like this. I felt like I was just reading Lena’s daily routines over and over again. I think Oliver tried to make it interesting with flashbacks and the storyline with sneaking around with Alex. But that made it actually worse.
I don’t know what happened half way into the book but I just lost interest in the plot. It kept being the same and I got extremely bored. I had to force myself to keep reading. I missed action, surprise, twists, emotion! I felt more emotion when the dog died then during the whole damn book. About 100 pages got dedicated to how Alex and Lena spent the summer together, and I got soooo tired of that. I was just waiting until they got caught or something terrible happened. It was all way too easy! I think this book would have been so much better if it would have been around the 300 pages, because the plot dragged a lot of times.The three whole books would probably fit into this book.
One thing I just have to say is; this book just didn’t make me happy. But actually almost depressed. It kept referring to the daily grind and some lines it just, I can’t.. There is one page in the beginning of Chapter 19, that almost got me in a readinglife slump. So depressing..
The ending (2,0 stars)
The ending was terrible. If I had known this would have happened I wouldn’t have bothered reading this book. It went down EXACTLY as I predicted. I even got the twists right. I wanted the ending to make me cry, to make me devastated, to compel me to read the sequel. But none of that happened. That was because it was predictable, it missed twists, betrayal, heartbreak. Every character did what they were supposed to do and everything went down as expected. Yess it did have some action and I can’t disagree with that I was excited while reading, but I just can’t get over the previous.
This book went downhill for me while reading. In the beginning I was interested, where does this go? But I figured out soon enough that this would be just one of the many predictable YA dystopian. I had problems with the world building, the plot, the characters, actually everything a book has. Nothing really builds, it just kept on dragging. Most book build toward the end and then have a climax full of twists and action. But this was just too predictable, too flat, too boring, too slow! I’m going to stop reading YA dystopian book series!! They are just all the same. I’m still debating if I will continue reading the sequel of this.
Update: I won’t be reading the sequels because this book just wasn’t that great in my opinion. It was way too predictable and boring. I’m not interested in how things will go down. And because they were library books I can just bring the series back and won’t have to deal with them anymore. AND I can continue with my huge owned TBR pile that’s been gathering dust on my shelves.
Delirium has been on my TBR list since…. like forever! Came across the whole series in the library and decided it was time to read this right now. So I picked up all three books in this series and started reading right when I came home.
This was an enjoyable, fun read. I liked the characters and the world building, especially in the beginning. But everything about this book was cliché and predictable. The story didn’t really build and the plot, world building and characters really started to drag half way in the book. The ending was an anticlimax for me, it lacked twists and everything a good ending needs.
SPOILER FREE!
Note: Those wonderful arts were not made by me, but since I couldn't mostly find the sources, I just want to thank the artists for their awesome artwork.
Overall Concept (4,0 stars)
I thought this concept was super cool! A world where love is seen as a deadly disease, with as a main character a girl that falls in love. I think the execution off this was extraordinary good, maybe a little too good. The main focus was a little too much on their relationship for my liking. But I did really enjoy the concept off this brainwashed, emotionless society.
Design (2,0 stars)
Yeah I’m not that fan of this cover. But that’s mainly because I don’t particularly like faces this big and clear on covers. And the color green and brown are not my favorite, I wished they did a little bit more with the things mentioned in this book, like the color grey. I hated all these cursive texts in the beginning of the chapters, and once I figured out they weren’t important to the plot I skipped every single one. I didn’t like the too big chapters, they could have been way shorter, that way it would read easier.
Start of the book (4,5 stars)
I really liked the beginning, it was fast, clear and enjoyable. I flew through the book and it was super fun. I enjoyed Lena and the plot was quick. I was interested by the world building and really wanted to know what would happen next!
The writing style (2,5 stars)
Note: read in Dutch.
The writing style was fast pace in the beginning but after a while I got so annoyed with the huge unnecessary chunks of text. There where PAGES about how someone would look at Lena, PAGES how she felt when Alex touched her, PAGES with how scared Lena was, PAGES about some flashback about her mom… I had already forgotten how the plot had developed or how a conversation went after these intermezzo’s. That made it super hard to read. So.. after a while I started to skip them, and I realized I could skip PAGES without missing anything!! Another thing that was really annoying was the huge amount of repetition used in this book. I get it the first time that Lena is short, or that Hanna is pretty or that Lena’s mom was different. It doesn’t need to be mentioned every chapter! I also had a problem with the summarizing in this book. Some things that I wanted to be present with and not just read over in two lines. Like the second test Lena had to go through.
I did however like the playful writing style Oliver has, she can create a wonderful world building and lovely characters. Her books read really fast and are enjoyable
The world building (3,0 stars)
When I started reading I thought the world building was very well done in this book. I enjoyed the Portland Oliver sketched and think everything was worked out well into the details. I loved the society and was super curious what else there would be in this society. But about halfway in I started to get super bored with it. I think the reason of this was because everything about the world got spilled in the first 50 pages. The other 400 pages don’t have anything new in the world building. Also the scenery’s kept being the same, Lena’s house, the store, the beach or the abandoned house. Come on give me something else?! I also feel like the book is lacking some history about the society. How did they come up with love being a disease? How did they find out that they could terminate that with a operation? Who came up with this? And why did the population think this is ok? What happened with the things we are afraid of in our normal society? Diseases
Main Character (3,0 stars)
Lena was a great main character. I could identify with her on many levels.
After about 200/250 pages Lena started to really annoy me. I got annoyed with her not daring things. I got irritated with her thoughts and she felt really weak in my eyes. I didn’t like her all of a sudden confidents or whining. Her emotion
Other characters (2,5 stars)
The other characters in this book where OK. I felt like they weren’t as much present in this story. Mostly Lena’s family was present in some flashback or quick summaries of the day. Some characters we never even meet like Hanna’s parents or other kids from school. I think this story just lacked some more interesting characters, with cool background story’s. It felt like they all had some goal or function for Lena and they were just there to serve the plot, not to enjoy the reader. And in a book with over 400 pages this is really necessary to keep me interesting. There are ONLY TWO frequent side characters besides Lena’s family and that’s not much.
I really REALLY loved Hanna. She was this badass girl and at several point in the book I wished she was the main character, this book would have been a lot livelier and exciting. I really loved all the challenges she took on and liked her opinions on situations. I loved her friendship with Lena, and loved how she supported her.
Another character I thought was interesting was Grace. I liked that she was some sort of quite support for Lena and I found her fascinating. But we never get an explanation or a back ground story, I missed a bit off a personal story with Grace. Now it just felt like she had one function;
Spoiler
to cut down Lena’s handcuffs and make her run.I don’t really know what to think of Alex. He suits Lena, but I didn’t know that much off him. I think I don’t fully trust him, I’ll see in the sequel I guess. But I found him quite flat. The thing that did really disturb me was that he spilled all his secrets too Lena after seeing her twice!
Romance (2,5 stars)
I liked Lena and Alex together, their relationship seemed sincere and I think they’re cute together. Although I think the attention off this book was a little too much focused on the start of their relationship for my liking. Maybe I shouldn’t read a book about a girl who lives in a loveless world and then falls in love. But for me it was just way to much focus on their relationship in the second part of this book and I got really bored with it.
But the way Alex and Lena fall in love it’s just so cliché for YA. Alex just appears half way in the story; “o he I’m in love with you for a while now.” And Lena just: “O well than I’m also in love with you.” “But everything is so hard and the society would never allow us.” “But I love you so much.” MAKE OUT!! Classic insta love! I’m just so tired of this crap.
Plot (3,0 stars)
I did really enjoy the plot in the beginning, it was fast passed and very enjoyable. A lot of things happened and I wasn’t bored. But I did think that the story was really cliché and super predictable. I mean it has a lot of similarities with the Hunger Games, Matched and every other dystopian ever written. I really hope the other books in this series take another direction and have a bit of surprise and originality.
I really liked some scenes. Lena finding out about this party and going there, Lena meeting Alex, the swimming scene, some running scenes, sneaking over the border. But there could have been more like this. I felt like I was just reading Lena’s daily routines over and over again. I think Oliver tried to make it interesting with flashbacks and the storyline with sneaking around with Alex. But that made it actually worse.
I don’t know what happened half way into the book but I just lost interest in the plot. It kept being the same and I got extremely bored. I had to force myself to keep reading. I missed action, surprise, twists, emotion! I felt more emotion when the dog died then during the whole damn book. About 100 pages got dedicated to how Alex and Lena spent the summer together, and I got soooo tired of that. I was just waiting until they got caught or something terrible happened. It was all way too easy! I think this book would have been so much better if it would have been around the 300 pages, because the plot dragged a lot of times.
One thing I just have to say is; this book just didn’t make me happy. But actually almost depressed. It kept referring to the daily grind and some lines it just, I can’t.. There is one page in the beginning of Chapter 19, that almost got me in a reading
The ending (2,0 stars)
The ending was terrible. If I had known this would have happened I wouldn’t have bothered reading this book. It went down EXACTLY as I predicted. I even got the twists right. I wanted the ending to make me cry, to make me devastated, to compel me to read the sequel. But none of that happened. That was because it was predictable, it missed twists, betrayal, heartbreak. Every character did what they were supposed to do and everything went down as expected. Yess it did have some action and I can’t disagree with that I was excited while reading, but I just can’t get over the previous.
This book went downhill for me while reading. In the beginning I was interested, where does this go? But I figured out soon enough that this would be just one of the many predictable YA dystopian. I had problems with the world building, the plot, the characters, actually everything a book has. Nothing really builds, it just kept on dragging. Most book build toward the end and then have a climax full of twists and action. But this was just too predictable, too flat, too boring, too slow! I’m going to stop reading YA dystopian book series!! They are just all the same. I’m still debating if I will continue reading the sequel of this.
Update: I won’t be reading the sequels because this book just wasn’t that great in my opinion. It was way too predictable and boring. I’m not interested in how things will go down. And because they were library books I can just bring the series back and won’t have to deal with them anymore. AND I can continue with my huge owned TBR pile that’s been gathering dust on my shelves.
judithd's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Really annoyed/happy with the ending. I sort of wish it had been one book.
Reminds me a lot of The Declaration.
Spoiler
It was a great cliffhanger but I’m not sure I want to read the next two books anyway which makes it kind of blandReminds me a lot of The Declaration.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
diaryofthebookdragon's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not a big fan of a young adult books but from time to time I read some that are very popular.
Delirium is dystopia science-fiction that are so popular after success of [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1337857402s/2767052.jpg|2792775]. There are not a lot advanced scientific achievement in the future world, only political structure of the society is changed. People have concluded that the cause of the problems in society is love so they operate each 18th year old human to 'cure' them. We see the world trough the eyes of almost 18-year-old Lena who can not wait to be cured and live the safe life. But, as always, not everything goes as planned.
If you don't ask some obvious questions like:
- Why the hell did not people advance more technologically in 100 years?
- Is it even possible to operate human brain and remove just one emotion?
And of course if you ignore the usual teenage drama and angst, then this is a quick paced book that has everything: romance, parties, chase scenes, a couple of interesting twists in the story and dramatic ending.
Delirium is dystopia science-fiction that are so popular after success of [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1337857402s/2767052.jpg|2792775]. There are not a lot advanced scientific achievement in the future world, only political structure of the society is changed. People have concluded that the cause of the problems in society is love so they operate each 18th year old human to 'cure' them. We see the world trough the eyes of almost 18-year-old Lena who can not wait to be cured and live the safe life. But, as always, not everything goes as planned.
If you don't ask some obvious questions like:
- Why the hell did not people advance more technologically in 100 years?
- Is it even possible to operate human brain and remove just one emotion?
And of course if you ignore the usual teenage drama and angst, then this is a quick paced book that has everything: romance, parties, chase scenes, a couple of interesting twists in the story and dramatic ending.