Requiem Review

TITLE Requiem (Delirium #2)
AUTHOR Lauren Oliver
PUBLICATION March 5th 2013 by HarperTeen
READ February 12 to 13, 2013
SOURCE HarperCollins via Edelweiss for review

They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.

But we are still here.

And there are more of us every day.

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.

Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.

Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.

But we have chosen a different road.

And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.

We are even free to choose the wrong thing.

Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

While this review is spoiler free for Requiem it does have spoilers for both Delirium & Pandemonium. If you haven't read the first two books in this series you've been warned!

The beginning of this year is turning out to be a sad, yet very exciting time in my life. Exciting because books in some of my favourite series are coming out left & right and sad because in a few cases it's the final book in the series. After being blown away by the final book in Cynthia Hand's Unearthly trilogy I picked up Requiem ready to say goodbye to some more characters I have come to love. I don't know if I was left as satisfied by the end of the Delirium series as I would have liked to be, but I definitely loved every moment on the way to the end.

The book kicks off right after the shocking cliffhanger of Pandemonium as Lena, Raven, Tack and the rest of the crew head back into the wilds. I have thought about trying to make this review spoiler free for the series but have come to the conclusion that it would be impossible to get my feelings across as I want to so spoilers for both Delirium and Pandemonium will be in this review people, turn back now if you must. So, as they head back into the wilds Lena is shocked, and incredibly torn. Alex's sudden appearance and joining of the resistance has left her not knowing who her emotions lie with. On one hand she successfully extracted Julian and began to fall for him when they were held captive but on the other hand Alex is back and he was her first true love. I am a huge Alex fan so the reluctance in both of them to embrace what is between them was super frustrating but definitely understandable, so I could go with it.

Not only do we have Lena's story in this one, we also have Hana's. The chapters switch POV's and we follow Hana in the days leading up to her pairing with the new mayor of Portland. Hers is a rocky road for sure, following the cure she is feeling emotions that she doesn't think she should be feeling and seeing a side of her pair that she never expected. I felt really bad for her, she was having emotions that she was supposed to be cured from and had to go on with life as it she wasn't having them for fear of people around her finding out. The contrast between the Hana's life and Lena's is so stark. While Hana lives in the lap of luxury, Lena is roughing it every day so the difference in POV's felt really solid and I never had to question who I was reading about.

The characters that really stuck with me in this one are definitely one Lena's side of things so back to them. I really liked the change that Julian went through in this one. He went from being a child of privilege and an avid believer in Deliria Free America (the DFA) to being thrust into a life where he didn't have running water or a pot to piss in. But he transitioned so well. He embraced the change and his eyes were definitely opened to the other side of the wall. He was also really good with Lena. As soon as Alex showed up he knew that Lena's emotions were all over the place and he took a step back to let her figure everything out but was there for her in any way he could. I wasn't a huge fan of him in Pandemonium but I definitely came to respect the man he came to be in Requiem. Also thrown into the romantic mix is Alex. Part of me had wanted Lena & him to jump right back to where they were in Delirium but they had both changed so much and been through so much that I could see why they didn't. I hadn't expected to shift in "teams" so much in this one but I really came to like Julian and found myself incredibly frustrated with Alex.

While all this angsty mumbo jumbo is going on they are in the thick of the resistance rising up again the regulators. The action was amped up in this one quite a bit as the resistance rose up and started to penetrate the cured cities. The way the people live in the wilds and work together to remain free is one of my favourite parts of this series and I loved seeing them rise up. Raven is such a strong leader and we meet many others in this instalment. We also say goodbye to one beloved character that had me pretty torn up. What made the uprising feel even more intense is that we got to experience both sides of the battle. We experience Lena being in the middle of everything and plotting to barge the wall and we also get to see how it is affecting the city through Hana and the mayor. The two POV's really worked so well in this and enriched the story a lot.

I was not fully prepared for the series to end the way that it did and while I loved the road to get to the end, I am not sure that I was left completely satisfied. I feel like I need more, I feel like there wasn't enough resolution for my liking and I am left to wonder about so many things. That was obviously Oliver's intention, to keep you thinking about it and speculating long after finishing and I think I will be doing that for a long time to come. These are characters that I am going to miss and it is a novel that I want to talk about. So please if you have read it, tweet me!

Hana Review

TITLE Hana (Delirium #1.5)
AUTHOR Lauren Oliver
PAGES 64 (ePub format)
PUBLISHED February 28th 2012 by HarperCollins
READ March 26, 2012
BUY THIS BOOK AT Kobo

SYNOPSIS In the world of Delirium, love is a disease. And like all eighteen-year-olds, Lena and Hana must take the cure.

At the start of their last summer of freedom, they were the closest of friends. Until Hana made a decision that tore them apart... In Delirium, we heard from Lena. Now, Hana gets to tell her side of the story. And nothing is what we first thought.

Hana is a powerful, moving and beautifully told original eBook short story, with a shocking twist that will leave you with your heart in your mouth.

This is a nice little novella that definitely spices up the Delirium series a bit.  It's short and sweet and we get to see some of the events of Delirium from Hana's POV.  While we knew all along exactly what was going on in Lena's mind, I was always very curious about the character of Hana.  With this Lauren Oliver answers some of those questions and we get to see the turmoil rising up out of Hana as she tries to figure herself out.  There is quite the twist in this that I had never even contemplated prior to reading this, for me, it was pretty shocking. For fans of the Delirium series (and if you haven't read them yet, what are you waiting for!?!?) this is a nice little companion that opens our eyes to more aspects of the story.

What Are You Reading Monday (1)

What I read last week

Immortal Beloved (Immortal Beloved #1) by Cate Tiernan Review Here
Darkness Falls (Immortal Beloved #2) by Cate Tiernan Review Here 
The Right & The Real by Joëlle Anthony Review Here
Don't Breathe a Word by Holly Cupala Review here 
I also did a little post on my thoughts of The Hunger Games here


What I'm going to read this week

Untouched (Denazen #1.5) by Jus Accardo
Hana (Delirium #1.5) by Lauren Oliver
And then I plan on getting started on the Hex Hall series by Rachel Hawkins I'm hearing great things about them!

















So I'm going to wrap up two series that I've been reading and start a new one! What about you? Leave a link, I always stop by :)

Feature & Follow (4)

 Feature & Follow is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkees View and Alison Can Read

Q: What is the best book you've read in the last month? What is the worst book you've read in the last month?

 

The best book I have read in the last month is definitely Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, I loved everything about it and could not put it down!

The worst book I have read in the last month is one that I just finished today actually.  The First Days by Rhiannon Frater, there was very little I liked about this book and a whole lot that I didn't.  I had really high expectations for it because most of the reviews I had read were absolutely glowing but it didn't live up to my    expectations at all.

What answers did you have for this weeks feature & follow? Leave a link, I always stop by :)

Also don't forget to stop by my 100th follower giveaway!

Pandemonium (Delirium #2) Review

TITLE: Pandemonium (Delirium #2)
AUTHOR: Lauren Oliver
PAGES: 256 (ePub format)
PUBLISHED: February 28, 2012 by HarperCollins
READ: March 11 - 13, 2012
BUY THIS BOOK AT: Amazon / Kobo / Chapters.Indigo

SYNOPSIS I’m pushing aside the memory of my nightmare,
pushing aside thoughts of Alex,
pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school,
push,
push,
push,
like Raven taught me to do.
The old life is dead.
But the old Lena is dead too.
I buried her.
I left her beyond a fence,
behind a wall of smoke and flame.
Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

Pandemonium does not suffer from the dreaded second book lag that is evident in many series.  This book is a worthy follow-up to its awesome predecessor Delirium.  Pandemonium takes place in the 'then' and 'now', the 'then' is immediately following Delirium chronicling Lena's life in the Wilds and her adjustment to the new life. The 'now' is about a year later and explores her involvement in the resistance in New York. The world has changed since Delirium, radical acts carried out by the Invalids have made it impossible for the government to deny their existence any longer and the DFA (Deleria Free America) is determined that the cure needs to be administered earlier (but is that safe?)

Pandemonium is much more action packed than Delirium, I was on the edge of my seat for most of the book.  Lena starts off in a foreign life stuck in a depression, a haze of her former self and we get to watch her slowly come back to life, be reborn a brand new Lena.  The characters that she meets are great full characters that I sympathised with. I loved seeing the other side in this one, learning about the Invalids way of life, how they survive, their motives and just how far they will go to achieve their goals.

It also explores more heavily the sense of detachment that people are plagued with following the cure.  Julian Fineman's memories broke my heart, and made me feel as if I needed to revolt against the DFA and the government. Once again we are left with a gut wrenching cliff hanger that is going to make the wait for Requiem almost unbearable!  Lauren Oliver has once again wowed me with her way with words and her mastery of a great story.  I will be recommending this series to anyone looking for an Alluring Read.

Delirium Review

TITLE: Delirium (Delerium #1)
AUTHOR: Lauren Oliver
PAGES: 314 (ePub format)
PUBLISHED: February 1, 2011 by Harperteen
READ: March 9 - 11, 2012
BUY THIS BOOK AT: Amazon / Kobo / Chapters.Indigo

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.

I am officially a huge fan of Lauren Oliver.  This is the second novel of hers that I have read in the last week and I am once again blown away!  Her way with words is absolutely stunning.  The world she built in Delirium is so rich that I could feel the smoldering heat and smell the ash coming in with the wind.  This is definitely what some would consider 'slow' but it is so rich in detail that I lapped up every word and didn't feel once like I was waiting for something to happen.  Delirium takes place in a secluded United States of America where they have found a cure for 'amor deliria nervosa' or love.  Love is seen as a disease that wraps its tentacles around your throat, makes you crazy and eventually leads you to death.  Love is terminal.

Our main character Lena has a history that's not exactly great.  She's raised to follow the rules and get in line.  She can't wait to reach 18 so she can be 'cured' of the disease.  As her world changes we see Lena grow, we see her eyes open as she pulls away at the smoke and mirrors she has been surrounded with for so long.  I really liked Lena, she was a smart character who had her head on her shoulders. I actually liked all the characters in this book.  The great thing about it is every character has such a different dynamic, they don't blend together at all, they stand out on their own and I love that.  Alot of times I find in books that the characters tend to act the same and I have a hard time believing it, but not in Lauren Olivers books.

The love story in this book is fantastic, it's illegal and forbidden, yet it feels so right, I loved every second of it.  But this isn't only a love story, it's about friendship, family and passion.  Imagine if once you turned 18 everything you cared about was forgotten as if your whole life never happened.  I will definitely be recommending Delirium to anyone looking for an Alluring Read<

Before I Fall Review

TITLE: Before I Fall
AUTHOR: Lauren Oliver
PAGES: 282 (ePub format)
PUBLISHED: March 2, 2010 by HarperCollins
READ: February 28 - March 3, 2012
BUY THIS BOOK AT: Amazon / Kobo / Chapters.Indigo

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: the world’s most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High—from the best table in the cafeteria to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life.

Instead, it turns out to be her last.

Then she gets a second chance. Seven chances, in fact. Reliving her last day during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

"You know how rumours start? Because someone feels like it."

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver is officially #1 on my favourite book list (ya I said it).  It is the most relevant book I have ever read. Reading it brought me back to the time in my life that I hated the most, high school.  That little blip in your life that, at the time, feels like the final stage of your life.  That's it, your an adult, who you are is who you are going to be for the rest of your life, who your with is who you will marry and who your friends are will be your friends till the end. But in the end, that's all it is, a little blip in your life that in the expanse of things doesn't mean much.  I hated high school with a passion, and it was all because of girls like Samantha Kingston and Lindsay Edgecomb.

The characters in this book are masterfully crafted.  I absolutely loathed the girls in the beginning of the book, they made me so mad that I actually felt angry.  But as Before I Fall goes on, the layers of them become exposed through memories Sam has of the past.  The transformation our MC goes through is beautiful.  We watch her come out of her little bubble and have some shocking realisations about her life and how her actions affect the people around her.  My feelings for Lindsay also changed throughout the book, at first I hated her guts, but by the end I just felt bad for her.

The issues presented are faced with an unflinching realism that brings you back to that place and makes you feel exactly how you did at that time in your life.  Everything from body image, to bullying and teen suicide is handled so well that I am in awe of Lauren Oliver.  This is a beautifully written book that every high school girl should be required to read just for the faint hope that something sticks.  I highly recommend Before I Fall to anyone looking for an Alluring Read.