Amor Deliria Nervosa

Delirium 
By: Lauren Oliver
Reported by: Juli Helms

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love. 

                                                         -Summary from Goodreads 


These days, it's hard to find a story not about love. Therefore, for something completely original and striking, noticeable among the other thousands of love stories out there, that is a grand feat almost impossible to accomplish--something Delirium managed to achieve.
     Lauren Oliver's Delirium captured me with it's premise, and once I started this book I could not stop reading. Few books can capture your heart, invade your mind and won't dissipate. Few books can tug at your heartstrings and make the emotions the characters feel spring to life. Delirium is all of these things.
     At first, I was curious as to just how Oliver will deliver this story, since its synopsis set my expectations high up the charts. 
     Not only does the narrative voice flow through fluidly, but the plot's twists will wrench your heart and make you beg for more, or in my case, desperate to fly through the next pages until I can finally relax, but not wanting to miss anything important at the same time.
     That's not to say, of course, that this book didn't have its flaws--be as few as it may be. Sometimes, Lena (the narrator) tends to describe scenes more detailed than needed, and this can occasionally slow the story down just a tad. That's not to be worried about, though, because the promise of an action-filled heart-constricting twist lurks just around the corner, and the slowed-down narrative won't even be conspicuous. Also, the ending made me cry--yes, it made me cry! If you know me, that statement means a whole lot more than it sounds. I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing for a minute until I found out the book is part of a trilogy.
     Which means, my amor deliria nervosa for this book may enter even deadlier of a phase.