With Valentines Day only weeks away, love is all around. But what if love were a disease? Love is undeniably an element we are encouraged to find within every aspect of our lives. Find a career you love, find a person that you love, find a food you love and so on… Whilst the definition of love may be debated, is it a real thing that exists or just a chemical reaction in the brain? Whatever love is, we all know it’s not an illness. But what if it were? That’s what Lauren Oliver explores within the first novel of the trilogy Delirium.
Lena is only a few months away from her cure – a surgical procedure created to prevent the effects of Amor Deliria Nervosa and mandatory for citizens as soon as they reach the age of eighteen. Lena is careful and cautious; she doesn’t want to catch the Deliria, convinced that if she does she will end up like her mother who committed suicide after a failed procedure, when Lena was a child. Lena has been looking forward to the cure, believing that the moment she has it she will safe. That all changes the day our protagonist and her best friend Hana wander into the unauthorised area of the laboratories after their evaluation day was interrupted by a herd of wild cows. Caught by security guard, Alex, Lena’s determination to remain unaffected by the Deliria is threatened. When she catches Hana listening to illegal music and Alex reveals he’s an Invalid (someone who lives in The Wilds, an area which is regarded as disgusting and full of the infected by the society) Lena becomes to realise nothing is ever as it seems, and finds herself falling in love with Alex, only 95 days before her cure. With Lena’s trust in the cure vanishing, and the realisation that a world without love is far from perfect, and she and Alex plan to escape to The Wilds, to live free and happy. Will they make it without being caught?
Although on the outside this novel looks like a stereotypical teenage love fest, Oliver deals with betrayal, fear, and growing up. But what really gives this story an edge over all those other young adult dystopian tales out there is Lena’s voice. Much like any first person narrative, you can’t help but become Lena and fall into her universe. I will admit, Lena’s initial reluctance to do anything but follow the rules of The Book Of Shh, (a guide released by the government, in which every citizen is instructed to read), can be a little irritating, but this only highlights the wonderful character development throughout the novel.
Delirium is definitely one of my favourite novels, Oliver explores a world without love and produces the question, would we really remove love from our emotional bank? Is never feeling heartbreak and pain really worth a lifetime of watered down emotion where everything you feel literally connotes the colour beige? Delirium is addictive, compelling and beautifully written, it is a truly remarkable story with thrilling conclusion that leaves you craving the second installment, Pandemonium, immediately.
“You can’t be happy unless you’re unhappy sometimes” Lauren Oliver, Delirium.
Words by Megan S