Delirium - Lauren Oliver

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 governments 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.

I read this book back in November and I started this blog post when I finished it but it has just been sitting there waiting for me to decide what to say. Then a couple days ago I tried going back to finish this and STILL wasn't sure what I wanted to say.

I wanted to LOVE this book like I loved Before I Fall. The writing was beautiful and amazing and the premise was intriguing and I really liked seeing Lena go good girl gone rebel. Then there's the "but." There always is, isn't there? 

Then earlier this morning I logged onto Twitter and as I was catching up on my feed, I saw Carolina Valdez Miller's link to her Bookanista's Review of Delirium. When I started reading it all I wanted to do was shout "YES, THIS IS EXACTLY HOW I FELT!" So instead of sitting here struggling to find the perfect words to describe what I thought, I'll just link you to her blog because she says it much more eloquently and coherently than I probably could.

Have you read Delirium? Is there a book that you've read recently that you liked but it wasn't quite what you expected?

Waiting on Wednesday - Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that you're eagerly anticipating.

 Released February 1, 2011

I loved Lauren Oliver's debut book Before I Fall and I'm excited to see another book from her hitting shelves in the near future. Could you imagine a life without love? I'm expecting great things from this book and if Oliver's debut is any indication, this one will not let me down.

From Goodreads:

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 governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holway 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.

What do you think of the synopsis?

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

When I first heard about this book I knew I was going to add it to my TBR list, but as time went by I kept hearing more and more good things about Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall and I knew I had to read it as soon as I could. It took me about a span of four days to read it since I was only reading before bed, but last night I just had to finish and ended up doing so around 2:30am.

Samantha Kingston is popular, has great friends, good looks, and a boyfriend all the girls in school envy. She wakes up on Friday, February 12th and is expecting just another normal day. On the way home from a party, there's an accident and Samantha is killed..or is she? She wakes up the next morning to find out that it must have all been a dream and then finds out she's reliving Friday again. This goes on for seven days and Samantha finds out that even if there is a small difference from her original Friday, everything changes and she'll still wake up on the 12th. Samantha must find out how to break the cycle and along the way she finds herself.

At first I had a hard time getting into this book. The beginning was just very repetitive, but understandably so because of the storyline, however, it was needed for Samantha to know that something more than a dream or deja vu was going on. It was nice to see her character progress from a mean girl who just followed the leader to a girl who cared about others and learned to stand up for herself.

Before I Fall was well written and the characters had such depth that I really felt like they were real people. Even as much as I hated Lindsay I couldn't help but feel pity for her towards the end and there's always a popular boy in school like Rob who thinks he's all that but in reality is just a huge jerk. I did adore Kent and totally developed a slight book crush on him.

This book definitely reached my expectations and I can't wait to read more from Lauren Oliver.

This was book #3 in the 2010 Debut Author Challenge.

Waiting on Wednesday - Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that you're eagerly anticipating.

This week's Waiting on Wednesday book is Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. I have seen nothing but good things about this book so far and when I stop by the bookstore Tuesday, this will be one of two books I pick up.

From Goodreads:

What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life? Samantha Kingston has it all—looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12th should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it’s her last. The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. In fact, she re-lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she had ever imagined.

The description reminds me a bit of Groundhog Day and although I disliked the movie this kind of storyline can be entertaining and interesting when done right. My favorite TV show, Supernatural, had an episode titled Mystery Spot in which something of the sort happened and it is in my top five episodes of the show.