Delirium was my favorite of the dystopians that came out around the time that it did. (I think Matched came out around that time. Also, Bumped by Megan McCafferty). I brought it on a trip to Washington DC with me, in case I had some reading time and I wound up FLYING through it. The same thing with Pandemonium. I sat on my couch one day, started reading it, and didn't get off my couch until I had finished it. I decided to do a re-read of the series before I read Requiem, so the story would be fresh in my mind. I really enjoyed Requiem and thought it was a fitting end to the series. Do I wish she would've ended it a little further along? A little. But I thought that where Oliver chose to end it left it on an uplifting and hopeful note. The thing I find about dystopians is that even if you get the "happy ending" there's so much more work to be done in the society to bring it back from the horrible state it was in, so I am fine with where Requiem left off. I never know how to review whole series, so I'm just going to post some things I liked, one I didn't, and perhaps a quote or two (or more).
- I love the source material at the beginning of the chapters in Delirium. It really helps you acclimate to the way society works and how they keep people in line with this way of thinking. I really love that some of it is adapted bible stories. It makes it feel like this could very easily be our future.
- The alternating chapters in Pandemonium were not my favorite at first, but as I kept reading I decided it was the perfect way to break up all the horrors that Lena is seeing, in both the now and the then. You get so deeply involved in each chapter that when it switches time frames it's like a breath of fresh air.
- I was really happy that we got chapters from Hana's point of view in Requiem. It was a much needed look inside a cured's head (although, not a perfectly working cure).
The only real issue I have with this series stems from the DFA (Deliria Free America). If the cure takes away love, I would imagine it also takes passion. I feel like an organization like the DFA can't exist without people who are passionate about the cure. It should be like - this is the way it is, everyone line up to be cured, and they either do it or resist. Once you're cured it's like, I want to say mindless drone, but I know they're not mindless. I don't know, does anyone else take issue with the DFA? Come talk to me please!
I wound up writing down so many quotes while I was rereading because I feel like Lauren Oliver has such smart things to say. I love her writing so much. Here are some of my favorites...
"She is staring at me wide-eyed, willing me to understand: that people should be sacrificed to causes, that beauty can be built on the backs of the dead." - Pandemonium, 328
"He stands there with me and murmurs into my hair and kisses the top of my head and lets me cry over losing another boy, a boy I loved better." - Requiem, 33
"This is what amazes me: that people are new every day. That they are never the same. You must always invent them, and they must always invent themselves, too." - Requiem, 98
"So much between us went unsaid; that is the danger, and beauty, of life without the cure. There is always wilderness and tangle, and the path is never clear." - Requiem, 327
Disease by Matchbox 20
