Reviews

Requiem, by Lauren Oliver

tara_dear's review

2.0

too much cursing. completely unneccessary.

jessgordon155's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

tracemus's review

5.0

Not sure how I feel about the ending, but the book was great! There was a lot of build up, a lot of action, and I enjoyed how the story was told. Good series.

eclever's review

3.0

This book had many shocking revelation of weeds throughout it. Between being stuck in the middle of a huge revolution and call between two loves, our main character finds herself once more along the rough path of this book. I didn't like this book as much as the other two. Although very interesting and enjoyable, it wasn't centered as much on the recurring theme of love and it's power to destroy. What I did like about it though was that it was a split point of view from our main character in the revolution and her old best friend that she left behind in the first book. As the story goes on, the two points of views start to overlap and it was apparent that they would soon be reunited at some point in the book. In this book, we learn from Hana the sneaky and underhanded ways of how the government works and what people are doing inside the city walls to rebel. I found the ending a bit annoying because it left some loose ends that I wish would've been tied up. I never got to find out what happened to some of my favorite characters in the book so it left me making my own conclusions which I didn't always like. Overall, I thought the book series was very well written and very well executed so I recommend it to mostly girls that enjoy dystopian novel with a fair amount of romance.

apriljp57's review against another edition

emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

letsreadwithcats's review

3.0

Though overall I enjoyed the conclusion to the Delirium series by Lauren Oliver, I had more mixed emotions about Requiem than about the previous installments. On the plus side, I loved Hana’s storyline. I really liked getting in her head and following a storyline so completely different than Lena’s. Oliver did a very elegant job of creating connected arcs between the two totally different storylines. However, I think that Hana’s storyline in Requiem is a better parallel to Lena’s story in Pandemonium than her storyline in Requiem (which I will touch on in a moment). It was really interesting to get inside the head of a “cured” person. All her emotions really did seem muted.

Spoiler

However, I think Oliver also gives plenty of evidence to indicate that Hana is not entirely “cured”. It made me wonder how many others are out there who are only half-cured.

She became such a strong character (as opposed to just pretending to be strong as in Delirium). Her ending felt so earned and rewarding to me. Yes, it was open-ended—but in a “Girl, you go meet that horizon!” kind-of-way.

I liked Hana’s ending much more than Lena’s ending. Lena’s ending was also very open-ended, however, it didn’t feel as earned to me. It was just too abrupt-- REALLY, that’s the end of the trilogy? THAT’S how the whole thing ends? I don’t mind open-ended endings; when they are done right, I actually quite enjoy them. I didn’t hate the end of Lena’s story, I understand that love is unpredictable and people never really know what’s going to happen next. But as a faithful reader of the series, I just wanted a little more to the ending. Honestly, to me it felt more like a third book in a four book series than the end of a series.

I really didn’t like Lena’s “character arc” or the way the love triangle was handled. I put character arc in quotes, because I really felt like Lena regressed in this book. Pandemonium was such an explosion of character growth for Lena. She rocked that whole book—even in her crushing grief she was interesting. And her romance with Julian was extremely compelling. In Requiem, as soon as Alex is back, she lost all that growth from the previous novel. I was puzzled at the clumsy way the “love triangle” was handled.

Spoiler

Within the first few chapters, Lena admits to herself that she loves Alex more than Julian. Well, that’s kind of it, isn’t it? She’s already decided. Love triangle over. Whawha. Yet, even by the end of Requiem the resolution is dragged out and the result is that Lena comes off very badly. It felt like Lena spent the whole book arguing with Alex and then running back to poor Julian for comfort. Alex has never been as compelling to me as Julian, either as a character or as a love interest. The thing is, Alex is a different person now than when he and Lena fell in love. Lena is a different person too. I didn’t think Oliver gave them the chance to get to know each other again. It was yet another case of “main character falls in love once and that’s it forever” and of course, the always reliable, “First guy wins, just because.”

I was very disappointed.

I was also very disappointed with the way Julian’s character was handled.

Spoiler

He was demoted from compelling character and love interest to an object that interferes with Alex and Lena getting back together. Even if he wasn’t her pick, I was left cold by Lena’s treatment of Julian. I was especially disgusted that Lena was more upset about Alex leaving camp than about Julian getting his face beat in. It was so unfeeling and selfish—this is what Lena’s arc had developed into? There is really no reference to the intense connection Lena and Julian developed in Pandemonium, or indeed, to any of Julian’s established character traits from that novel. One of the things I loved about Julian in Pandemonium was that he had a lot of health problems but was still a really attractive and charismatic romantic lead. As a person of less than perfect health, I was excited to see a character who had a health problem without the story being ABOUT that health problem. Yet, no reference is made to the fact that Julian has a seizure disorder (not to mention a brain cancer survivor), even in a scene that practically demanded that it be brought up in some way. This made the fight scene between Julian and Alex very disturbing. You just don’t hit a person with a seizure disorder in the face. For the scene to be even slightly realistic, Julian would have had a seizure, or possibly even been killed as a result of the fight. I don’t understand how Oliver could so carefully include these details about his character and then so completely fail at any follow through. What was the point of even developing Julian so much in Pandemonium if there was no intention to actually do anything with that development in Requiem?

Overall, I enjoyed the novel, but I had too many issues with Lena’s character development and the handling of the love triangle to give it more than 3 stars. If you liked my review, you should go to my friends list and read Shelece’s review. There are more than an few very close similarities between them, and I what to reference her review, which was written first.

mayasgroove's review

3.0

I think it was written in a hasty manner as you would like to put an end to a story.

I liked the first two series.

This isn't too bad at all. We can't always have happy endings, sometimes it is all about the story.

This ending signifies of hope and new beginnings.

crisarnold's review

4.0

I can't believe the amount of swear words in this last book. the first book Delirium, didn't have hardly any swear words. good story line...kept reading...then I read the next book Pandemonium, it had a few swear words but it didn't bother me that much then I got to the last book, Requiem and it had a ton of swear words I wouldn't have finished the book because I don't like books with that much swearing in it but it was the last in the series and I really want to find out how it ended.the ending was okay but I didn't like the very last page of the book, I.felt like the author was almost trying to give a political speech to the audience and it kinda spoiled the ending. that all said, it was a good storyline, I just wish someone reviewing the book before it was published had told the author to make some last minute changes.

beth_reading33's review against another edition

3.0

Loved the book, until the end. I just wish there was more rounding off to the story, i kind o feel like the last few chapters were lost before it was published. However I did really enjoy the rest of the story.

kirana786's review

3.0

Okay I'll be honest here... this book hurt me. Absolutely NOTHING important happened. I couldn't stand Lena in this book, and I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat the entire time. I feel like Lauren Oliver just wrote a filler book while we waited for the finale. I hope this wasn't the last book because the ending was HORRIBLE. I absolutely LOVED the first two books and I was all


YAY ALEX IS BAACKKKKK

and then.....
I finished Requiem


I really wanted to like it... I did. I just was super disappointed :(