The novel 'Delirium' was a great story about living your own way and making your own decisions. Since the main character, Lena, is only a teenager she is very relatable to young adults reading the book. She's generally a good person and follows the rules, but when she meets Alex everything changes for the best and the worst. Lena finds out what its like to love and be loved and she makes significant connections with her mother who is believed to be dead. But living in a society where love is not only a disease but illegal to have, things don't go so well for Lena and Alex. “I guess that’s just part of loving people: You have to give things up. Sometimes you even have to give them up" (Oliver). The ending of this book was completely unpredictable. It really pulls you in and makes you want to read the whole series. I think this book was chosen for a Gateway Book Award because its a great book with a good story line that sends a message to young adults that they can do whatever they set their minds to and they can make their own decisions. -Regan T
Obviously this is a love story, since love is forbidden, but I enjoyed it. It stretched my definition of love, and just how far love goes. I believe it draws on today's society, our love of things more than others, and is an attempt to open our eyes to such. This story is so much more than a love story, it is a true love story, deeper than those of shallow fairy tales. I recommend this book, it wasn't exceptional, but in it's own way, it is a great book.
Delirium takes place in Portland, Maine. The book begins by saying, “It has been sixty-four years since the president and the Consortium identified love as a disease, and forty-three years since the scientists perfected a cure” (pg. 1). This tells the reader that the book takes place in the distant future. The opening scenes so far have taken place at Lena’s aunts’ house where Lena lives and also the factory lab place where Lena has her evaluation. The setting may be important to this novel because the idea of love being a disease could only apply to people around where the book takes place and they could figure out that not all places believe this and that could affect the entire plot of the book. Lena could find someone she loves before she is cured and want to stay in love forever, so her and her lover run away to some place where love is not believed to be a disease.
The main characters in this novel so far are Lena and Hana. Lena is described as not ugly but not beautiful. She is 17 years old and lives with her aunt. She lost her mom when she was young and has an older sister named Rachel. She wants the cure to happen to her but is very nervous for her evaluation. She questions herself about her beliefs when Hana says “You can’t be really happy unless you’re unhappy sometimes. You know that, right?” (pg. 23). Hana believes the government should not get to control and chose everything for the people. She believes people should get to make their own decision on whether or not they get the cure. Hana is described as blond, tan, and beautiful. She turns heads as she passes people by.
I agree with you when you said that Hana doesnt think the government should choose if you get the cure or not. Hana hates not being able to make her own decisions. There is always someone somewhere listening and monitoring. "God, Lena. I'm sick of that, too. Aren't you? Sick of always checking your back, looking behind you, watching what you say, think, do. I can't-- I can't breathe, I can't sleep, I can't move. I feel like there are walls everywhere." (Pg. 107)
The novel Delirium; by Lauren Oliver, takes place in a city called; Portland. This society has a system that believes true love is dangerous and being cured after eighteen years old will ease the heart ache, forever. “It has been sixty-four years since the president and the Consortium identified love as a disease, and forty-three since the scientists perfected a cure” (Oliver 1). Once cured, you’re safe from love and forget all about what it felt like to love all together. This setting will be important in identifying where it is and how people are/act; this type of behavior is not usually a terrible thing. In prediction; this rule will turn around, and there will be a cure for the cure by figuring out that love isn’t a bad thing, you hurt, you learn, you move on. The main character is Lena, she has a best friend she’s known since grade school, her name is Hana, and they’re both eighteen. Lena lives with her Aunt Carol after her mother died of suicide. Carol is one that’s hard to read, but all around is just like a mother to Lena. “This is important Lena. Possibly the most important day of your whole life” (Oliver 16). Her Aunt Carol cares enough about her to make sure she makes no mistakes determining her future.
I agree with you that the cure will turn around and people will find out that love isn't actually a bad thing after all. I think Alex and Lena will be the start of this turn-around. Lena is "endlessly grateful to him in that second" (pg. 158) which shows the reader that something between them is growing and I believe people will eventually see what they have and what love can do and everything about this society will begin to change.
I agree with you as well. I think that the cure will go away but its going to take a lot of people to realize that love isn't bad. "Things weren't always as good as they are now. In school we learned that in the old days, the dark days, people didn't realize how deadly a disease love was. For a long time they even viewed it as a good thing, something to be celebrated and pursued" (pg. 3) History sometimes repeats itself.
The novel Delirium by Lauren Oliver is set in Portland, Maine. Lena lives with her Aunt Carol which is where the story starts. Lena is ninety-four days away from being able to take the cure. The cure is for love because the characters believe love is a disease due to all the pain that it causes. "It has been sixty-four years since the president and the Consortium identified love as a disease, and forty-three since the scientists perfected a cure" (Oliver 1). The start of the book allows the reader to know that this book is set for the future. The setting of the future will be important to the book because the thoughts and actions of the characters will be better understood for that time period. To us we believe love is the key thing in life and this will allow the readers to see a complete different view of life.
The main characters of Delirium are Lena and Hana. Lena is stated to be 17 years old, 94 days away from her 18th birthday, which is when she will take the cure. Lena thinks of her self as not ugly but not beautiful either, so just average. Hana is described to be beautiful. Her laugh can make anyone stop and listen. Her hair is blonde and flows perfectly. Hana believes that you must be hurt to live a full life. Lena wants to take the cure to stop her self from being in pain. Lena is scared of being like her mother who committed suicide because of love.
It’s true that love is key in life; mostly everyone wants someone to love in life. Of course they would want to have that emotional connection with them; it’s worth the pain to us. “Perhaps you find suffering beautiful? Perhaps you enjoy violence?” (Oliver 34). To the people of Portland, this type of behavior is not tolerated. There was basically something wrong with you for not wanting to have the procedure done.
Brenna C. Jones The setting of Delirium is in Portland, Maine. "I suck in deeply, inhaling the clean smell of seaweed and damp wood, listening to the distant cries of the seagulls as they circle endlessly, somewhere beyond the low, gray, sloping buildings, over the bay" (pg. 8). The author made Maine the setting because Maine is cold and dreary. Once a person is "cured" of the "disease" they are perceived cold, they have no feeling of love or the kind of happiness and light love brings to a person. The main characters in this book are Lena and her best friend Hana. Hana has blonde hair and gray eyes. she is almost five-nine and has tan skin. Hana seems to be very free spirited and speaks her mind. Lena seems unsure and timid. "Everything is in the in-between. I have eyes that aren't green or brown, but muddle. I'm not thin, but I'm not fat either. The only thing you could definitely say about me is this: I'm short" (pg. 15).
Yes Maine could be a cold and dreary place, especially considering that what is done; the cure. You would expect there to be no feeling of beauty whatsoever, if you don’t love, what do you have? “In that single, blazing moment as I come around the bend, the sun---curved over the dip of the horizon like a solid gold archway---lets out its final winking rays of light, shattering the darkness of the water, turning everything white for a fraction of a second, and then falls away sinking, dragging the pink and the red and the purple out of the shy with it, all the color bleeding away instantly and leaving only dark” (Oliver 84). For both cured and uncured, there is still a beauty, a desire, a dream. Maybe love is just too strong to ever be cured, but marked as cured by what the government finds as effective.
You said that once a person is cured, they are believed to be cold and dreary like the setting. I like this comparison. I am curious to see what the deal is with Alex because he is supposedly cured but shows absolutely no signs of being cured other then "the unmistakable sign of someone who is cured: the mark of the procedure, a three-pointed scar just beyond the left ear" (pg. 60). I wonder if he is cured and the procedure didn't work on him like Lena's mother or what the deal with him is.
Jones Carli B. You could obviously say that all the characters in this book have to deal with the external conflict of love being a disease and the cure and all the government stuff, but a more specific example of conflict in this novel would be the feelings Lena has towards Alex and vice versa. Lena finally thinks she has a guy fiend that she can spend time with and be close with and then when Alex admits that he is not actually cured, and that he made the scars himself “ ‘Scars,’ he corrects me, a little more gently. ‘Just scars. Not the scars’ “(pg. 166). With Alex admitting this, Lena is conflicted because she no longer feels safe and she feels she cannot see Alex anymore. She is disappointed and angry that he has done this to her. Once again, the disease is getting in the way of what Lena wants and what she believes is right. The author has created a tone that is tense in the novel. Lena has a tense relationship between her and Hana and also a tense relationship through her and Alex. Lena doesn't believe in doing bad things that are against the rules as Alex and Hana both have showed her. The author creates this tense tone through the interactions between the characters.
Lena struggles with her past. Her mother had the procedure 3 times and it didn't work. She committed suicide after her last procedure. Lena hopes that she won't get sick because her mother had deliria. Every one around her knows about her mother and Lena constantly has dreams and thoughts about her mother and how wrong the things were that she did when Lena didnt even realize it. Lena feels guilty for not knowing about her mother sooner so she could help stop it from killing her. "If I had known, maybe I could have... At the last second my voice falters and I can't say anymore, can't finish the sentence. Maybe I could have stopped it" (pg. 156) I think that Lena will eventually fall in love with Alex and not care about having the disease and okay with being just like her mom. The tone for this book would be conflicting because Lena is always trying to make sense of every situation she is in. She wants to do the right thing but then lies to go meet up with a boy.
Jones Kathy P. Everyone in Delirium believes that love is a disease. The external conflict is that the government makes everyone take the cure. Those who have fallen in love must take the cure until they don't have the disease anymore. "My mom I mean. She wasn't cured. It didn't work. I don't know why. She had the procedure three separate times, but it didn't... it didn't fix her" (Oliver 155). This conflict might be resolved because Lena and Alex will fall in love with each and might go against the government making them realize love is not a disease and removing the law against it.
The mood of Delirium is frustrating because Lena wants to love Alex but is too afraid of the government to follow through with it. As the reader it gets to be aggravating because the government is controlling people's feelings. The government wants to ban those who have the disease but from the readers point love is not a disease and no one should be banned for the feelings that they have.
I totally agree with the mood you chose. The whole book makes me frustrated and aggravated at the same time. Dealing with the government and being restricted like that all the time makes the characters frustrated which in turn makes the reader frustrated because the characters aren't getting what they want. They finally have figured out they "are out of time" (pg. 327). Government intervention and the cure is the conflict in the story and that is frustrating as it is.
An internal conflict Lena is struggling with is whether to hold on or let go. She is confronted by a guy named Alex' who apparently has been wanting to talk to her for a while. "The second time my world exploded, it was also because of a word. A word that worked its way out of my throat and danced onto and out of my lips before I could think about it, or stop it" (Oliver 146). The word was "yes" to seeing Alex again.
The mood of the story would be eager and curious about whether or not Alex is for real or undercover. "For a wild second I think he must be here as part of a patrol, as a raiding group or something but then I see he's dressed normally in jeans and his scuffed-up sneakers with the ink-blue laces and a faded T-shirt" (Oliver 132). The question still lingers in the readers mind, how does he know more about Lena than she knows about him? Could he be a spy? Maybe he really is for real, and maybe love has been restored. These strange feelings Lena has, Alex probably wants her cured with him so she won't have to feel that anxiety anymore.
I am glad Lena has chosen to change the paths in which she believes and gone against conformity. It has changed the mood of the story, in my opinion, from eager and curious to frustrating and troublesome. Lena says, "The disease is progressing. It will all be better after the procedure. That's the point. But its no use" (pg. 309). Lena is no longer on the governments side and this way we see both sides of the story. We see the way people who agree with the government talk and also the way people who are against the government talk.
Jones Carli B. Delirium by Lauren Oliver was an intriguing read. It started off a little slow but once I got into it I never wanted to put it down. There is a quote in the book that, I think, explains the theme perfectly and that is when Lena says to herself “I’d rather die loving Alex than live without him” (pg. 425). When she says this, it made me realize how much of an impact someone in your life can have on you and what you will go against with that person. Lena and Alex had something special that carried them through everything they went through. They saved each other multiple times. Alex saved Lena the night of the raid. Lena saved Alex from losing something so important to him. They lived for each other. The attachment you felt with the characters was something every book should have. The imagery in the novel was fantastic and everything was worded perfectly. The ending was exactly right. It left me needing to read the sequel. Delirium was a great choice for being a Gateway Book because it allows the book to be more known so more people read it and get to enjoy it. It is definitely Gateway worthy in my mind.
Jones Kathy P. Delirium by Lauren Oliver was an interesting book. The love between Alex and Lena was strong enough to make me continue reading to see what happened between them. "His hands find my face, his fingertips barely skim my forehead, the top of my ears, the hollows of my cheeks. Everywhere he touches is fire. My whole body is burning up, the two of us becoming twin points of the same bright white flame" (Oliver 231). This quote shows that no matter what the circumstance is, if you love someone it seems as if no one else in the world exists. The ending of this book is a little irritating because it isn't how I thought it would end but it does make me want to read the rest of the books in the series. This book was a good pick for a Gateway Book because it is relate-able. Love isn't a disease here in the present but love in general is a major part of our lives and it's something everyone can relate to.
Jones Tiffany W. The book was actually really exhilarating; I loved how the author made a twist in the story about who to love. How Alex was already into Lena, he had the mark of a cured; the three pronged scar like an inverted triangle just beneath the left ear, yet he still has feelings for Lena. “I’m telling you I was never cured. Never paired or matched or anything. I was never even evaluated “(Oliver 166). He loved her based on his own opinion, not anyone else's. Why would someone even want to be cured of love, even if it does mean taking chances? The ending was very disappointing, in a way I want to read the next book to see what exactly happens, but in another way I don't know if I will like the outcome. Unlike Matched by Ally Condie, Delirium doesn't speak much about how the paired process goes, is it random? Probably since love is no longer an emotion after the cure, personal connection doesn't really matter. This book has lots of the thoughts and feeling of the main character and keeps the reader wanting more. Like I'm personally not feeling very encouraged to read on, but am still a little curious about how exactly everything pans out.
Jones Brenna C. Delirium by Lauren Oliver was a great book. It really makes you think and I like that. Love being a disease would effect so many other things like laughing too much or being around someone too much. One of my favorite quotes in this book is "And I love you too.' His fingers skate the edge of my jaw, dance briefly over my lips. 'You should know that. You have to know that.' That's when it happens......I open my mouth and say, 'I love you too" (oliver 378). Because the book is all about love being this terrible thing and even at the beginning Lena can't stand the thought of being "infected". Now Alex is the only thing she cares about. Delirium deserves to be a gateway book for sure. The ending of this book definitely makes me want to read the second book. I can't wait.
The novel 'Delirium' was a great story about living your own way and making your own decisions. Since the main character, Lena, is only a teenager she is very relatable to young adults reading the book. She's generally a good person and follows the rules, but when she meets Alex everything changes for the best and the worst. Lena finds out what its like to love and be loved and she makes significant connections with her mother who is believed to be dead. But living in a society where love is not only a disease but illegal to have, things don't go so well for Lena and Alex. “I guess that’s just part of loving people: You have to give things up. Sometimes you even have to give them up" (Oliver). The ending of this book was completely unpredictable. It really pulls you in and makes you want to read the whole series. I think this book was chosen for a Gateway Book Award because its a great book with a good story line that sends a message to young adults that they can do whatever they set their minds to and they can make their own decisions.
ReplyDelete-Regan T
Obviously this is a love story, since love is forbidden, but I enjoyed it. It stretched my definition of love, and just how far love goes. I believe it draws on today's society, our love of things more than others, and is an attempt to open our eyes to such. This story is so much more than a love story, it is a true love story, deeper than those of shallow fairy tales. I recommend this book, it wasn't exceptional, but in it's own way, it is a great book.
ReplyDeleteJones
ReplyDeleteCarli B.
Delirium takes place in Portland, Maine. The book begins by saying, “It has been sixty-four years since the president and the Consortium identified love as a disease, and forty-three years since the scientists perfected a cure” (pg. 1). This tells the reader that the book takes place in the distant future. The opening scenes so far have taken place at Lena’s aunts’ house where Lena lives and also the factory lab place where Lena has her evaluation. The setting may be important to this novel because the idea of love being a disease could only apply to people around where the book takes place and they could figure out that not all places believe this and that could affect the entire plot of the book. Lena could find someone she loves before she is cured and want to stay in love forever, so her and her lover run away to some place where love is not believed to be a disease.
The main characters in this novel so far are Lena and Hana. Lena is described as not ugly but not beautiful. She is 17 years old and lives with her aunt. She lost her mom when she was young and has an older sister named Rachel. She wants the cure to happen to her but is very nervous for her evaluation. She questions herself about her beliefs when Hana says “You can’t be really happy unless you’re unhappy sometimes. You know that, right?” (pg. 23). Hana believes the government should not get to control and chose everything for the people. She believes people should get to make their own decision on whether or not they get the cure. Hana is described as blond, tan, and beautiful. She turns heads as she passes people by.
Brenna C.
DeleteJones
I agree with you when you said that Hana doesnt think the government should choose if you get the cure or not. Hana hates not being able to make her own decisions. There is always someone somewhere listening and monitoring. "God, Lena. I'm sick of that, too. Aren't you? Sick of always checking your back, looking behind you, watching what you say, think, do. I can't-- I can't breathe, I can't sleep, I can't move. I feel like there are walls everywhere." (Pg. 107)
Jones
ReplyDeleteTiffany W.
The novel Delirium; by Lauren Oliver, takes place in a city called; Portland. This society has a system that believes true love is dangerous and being cured after eighteen years old will ease the heart ache, forever. “It has been sixty-four years since the president and the Consortium identified love as a disease, and forty-three since the scientists perfected a cure” (Oliver 1). Once cured, you’re safe from love and forget all about what it felt like to love all together. This setting will be important in identifying where it is and how people are/act; this type of behavior is not usually a terrible thing. In prediction; this rule will turn around, and there will be a cure for the cure by figuring out that love isn’t a bad thing, you hurt, you learn, you move on. The main character is Lena, she has a best friend she’s known since grade school, her name is Hana, and they’re both eighteen. Lena lives with her Aunt Carol after her mother died of suicide. Carol is one that’s hard to read, but all around is just like a mother to Lena. “This is important Lena. Possibly the most important day of your whole life” (Oliver 16). Her Aunt Carol cares enough about her to make sure she makes no mistakes determining her future.
Jones
DeleteCarli B.
I agree with you that the cure will turn around and people will find out that love isn't actually a bad thing after all. I think Alex and Lena will be the start of this turn-around. Lena is "endlessly grateful to him in that second" (pg. 158) which shows the reader that something between them is growing and I believe people will eventually see what they have and what love can do and everything about this society will begin to change.
Brenna C.
DeleteJones
I agree with you as well. I think that the cure will go away but its going to take a lot of people to realize that love isn't bad. "Things weren't always as good as they are now. In school we learned that in the old days, the dark days, people didn't realize how deadly a disease love was. For a long time they even viewed it as a good thing, something to be celebrated and pursued" (pg. 3) History sometimes repeats itself.
Jones
ReplyDeleteKathy P.
The novel Delirium by Lauren Oliver is set in Portland, Maine. Lena lives with her Aunt Carol which is where the story starts. Lena is ninety-four days away from being able to take the cure. The cure is for love because the characters believe love is a disease due to all the pain that it causes. "It has been sixty-four years since the president and the Consortium identified love as a disease, and forty-three since the scientists perfected a cure" (Oliver 1). The start of the book allows the reader to know that this book is set for the future. The setting of the future will be important to the book because the thoughts and actions of the characters will be better understood for that time period. To us we believe love is the key thing in life and this will allow the readers to see a complete different view of life.
The main characters of Delirium are Lena and Hana. Lena is stated to be 17 years old, 94 days away from her 18th birthday, which is when she will take the cure. Lena thinks of her self as not ugly but not beautiful either, so just average. Hana is described to be beautiful. Her laugh can make anyone stop and listen. Her hair is blonde and flows perfectly. Hana believes that you must be hurt to live a full life. Lena wants to take the cure to stop her self from being in pain. Lena is scared of being like her mother who committed suicide because of love.
Jones
DeleteTiffany W.
It’s true that love is key in life; mostly everyone wants someone to love in life. Of course they would want to have that emotional connection with them; it’s worth the pain to us. “Perhaps you find suffering beautiful? Perhaps you enjoy violence?” (Oliver 34). To the people of Portland, this type of behavior is not tolerated. There was basically something wrong with you for not wanting to have the procedure done.
Brenna C.
ReplyDeleteJones
The setting of Delirium is in Portland, Maine. "I suck in deeply, inhaling the clean smell of seaweed and damp wood, listening to the distant cries of the seagulls as they circle endlessly, somewhere beyond the low, gray, sloping buildings, over the bay" (pg. 8). The author made Maine the setting because Maine is cold and dreary. Once a person is "cured" of the "disease" they are perceived cold, they have no feeling of love or the kind of happiness and light love brings to a person.
The main characters in this book are Lena and her best friend Hana. Hana has blonde hair and gray eyes. she is almost five-nine and has tan skin. Hana seems to be very free spirited and speaks her mind. Lena seems unsure and timid. "Everything is in the in-between. I have eyes that aren't green or brown, but muddle. I'm not thin, but I'm not fat either. The only thing you could definitely say about me is this: I'm short" (pg. 15).
Jones
DeleteTiffany W.
Yes Maine could be a cold and dreary place, especially considering that what is done; the cure. You would expect there to be no feeling of beauty whatsoever, if you don’t love, what do you have? “In that single, blazing moment as I come around the bend, the sun---curved over the dip of the horizon like a solid gold archway---lets out its final winking rays of light, shattering the darkness of the water, turning everything white for a fraction of a second, and then falls away sinking, dragging the pink and the red and the purple out of the shy with it, all the color bleeding away instantly and leaving only dark” (Oliver 84). For both cured and uncured, there is still a beauty, a desire, a dream. Maybe love is just too strong to ever be cured, but marked as cured by what the government finds as effective.
Jones
DeleteCarli B.
You said that once a person is cured, they are believed to be cold and dreary like the setting. I like this comparison. I am curious to see what the deal is with Alex because he is supposedly cured but shows absolutely no signs of being cured other then "the unmistakable sign of someone who is cured: the mark of the procedure, a three-pointed scar just beyond the left ear" (pg. 60). I wonder if he is cured and the procedure didn't work on him like Lena's mother or what the deal with him is.
Jones
ReplyDeleteCarli B.
You could obviously say that all the characters in this book have to deal with the external conflict of love being a disease and the cure and all the government stuff, but a more specific example of conflict in this novel would be the feelings Lena has towards Alex and vice versa. Lena finally thinks she has a guy fiend that she can spend time with and be close with and then when Alex admits that he is not actually cured, and that he made the scars himself “ ‘Scars,’ he corrects me, a little more gently. ‘Just scars. Not the scars’ “(pg. 166). With Alex admitting this, Lena is conflicted because she no longer feels safe and she feels she cannot see Alex anymore. She is disappointed and angry that he has done this to her. Once again, the disease is getting in the way of what Lena wants and what she believes is right.
The author has created a tone that is tense in the novel. Lena has a tense relationship between her and Hana and also a tense relationship through her and Alex. Lena doesn't believe in doing bad things that are against the rules as Alex and Hana both have showed her. The author creates this tense tone through the interactions between the characters.
Brenna C.
ReplyDeleteJones
Lena struggles with her past. Her mother had the procedure 3 times and it didn't work. She committed suicide after her last procedure. Lena hopes that she won't get sick because her mother had deliria. Every one around her knows about her mother and Lena constantly has dreams and thoughts about her mother and how wrong the things were that she did when Lena didnt even realize it. Lena feels guilty for not knowing about her mother sooner so she could help stop it from killing her. "If I had known, maybe I could have... At the last second my voice falters and I can't say anymore, can't finish the sentence. Maybe I could have stopped it" (pg. 156)
I think that Lena will eventually fall in love with Alex and not care about having the disease and okay with being just like her mom.
The tone for this book would be conflicting because Lena is always trying to make sense of every situation she is in. She wants to do the right thing but then lies to go meet up with a boy.
Jones
ReplyDeleteKathy P.
Everyone in Delirium believes that love is a disease. The external conflict is that the government makes everyone take the cure. Those who have fallen in love must take the cure until they don't have the disease anymore. "My mom I mean. She wasn't cured. It didn't work. I don't know why. She had the procedure three separate times, but it didn't... it didn't fix her" (Oliver 155). This conflict might be resolved because Lena and Alex will fall in love with each and might go against the government making them realize love is not a disease and removing the law against it.
The mood of Delirium is frustrating because Lena wants to love Alex but is too afraid of the government to follow through with it. As the reader it gets to be aggravating because the government is controlling people's feelings. The government wants to ban those who have the disease but from the readers point love is not a disease and no one should be banned for the feelings that they have.
Jones
DeleteCarli B.
I totally agree with the mood you chose. The whole book makes me frustrated and aggravated at the same time. Dealing with the government and being restricted like that all the time makes the characters frustrated which in turn makes the reader frustrated because the characters aren't getting what they want. They finally have figured out they "are out of time" (pg. 327). Government intervention and the cure is the conflict in the story and that is frustrating as it is.
Jones
ReplyDeleteTiffany W.
An internal conflict Lena is struggling with is whether to hold on or let go. She is confronted by a guy named Alex' who apparently has been wanting to talk to her for a while. "The second time my world exploded, it was also because of a word. A word that worked its way out of my throat and danced onto and out of my lips before I could think about it, or stop it" (Oliver 146). The word was "yes" to seeing Alex again.
The mood of the story would be eager and curious about whether or not Alex is for real or undercover. "For a wild second I think he must be here as part of a patrol, as a raiding group or something but then I see he's dressed normally in jeans and his scuffed-up sneakers with the ink-blue laces and a faded T-shirt" (Oliver 132). The question still lingers in the readers mind, how does he know more about Lena than she knows about him? Could he be a spy? Maybe he really is for real, and maybe love has been restored. These strange feelings Lena has, Alex probably wants her cured with him so she won't have to feel that anxiety anymore.
Jones
DeleteCarli B.
I am glad Lena has chosen to change the paths in which she believes and gone against conformity. It has changed the mood of the story, in my opinion, from eager and curious to frustrating and troublesome. Lena says, "The disease is progressing. It will all be better after the procedure. That's the point. But its no use" (pg. 309). Lena is no longer on the governments side and this way we see both sides of the story. We see the way people who agree with the government talk and also the way people who are against the government talk.
Jones
ReplyDeleteCarli B.
Delirium by Lauren Oliver was an intriguing read. It started off a little slow but once I got into it I never wanted to put it down. There is a quote in the book that, I think, explains the theme perfectly and that is when Lena says to herself “I’d rather die loving Alex than live without him” (pg. 425). When she says this, it made me realize how much of an impact someone in your life can have on you and what you will go against with that person. Lena and Alex had something special that carried them through everything they went through. They saved each other multiple times. Alex saved Lena the night of the raid. Lena saved Alex from losing something so important to him. They lived for each other. The attachment you felt with the characters was something every book should have. The imagery in the novel was fantastic and everything was worded perfectly. The ending was exactly right. It left me needing to read the sequel. Delirium was a great choice for being a Gateway Book because it allows the book to be more known so more people read it and get to enjoy it. It is definitely Gateway worthy in my mind.
Jones
ReplyDeleteKathy P.
Delirium by Lauren Oliver was an interesting book. The love between Alex and Lena was strong enough to make me continue reading to see what happened between them. "His hands find my face, his fingertips barely skim my forehead, the top of my ears, the hollows of my cheeks. Everywhere he touches is fire. My whole body is burning up, the two of us becoming twin points of the same bright white flame" (Oliver 231). This quote shows that no matter what the circumstance is, if you love someone it seems as if no one else in the world exists. The ending of this book is a little irritating because it isn't how I thought it would end but it does make me want to read the rest of the books in the series. This book was a good pick for a Gateway Book because it is relate-able. Love isn't a disease here in the present but love in general is a major part of our lives and it's something everyone can relate to.
Jones
ReplyDeleteTiffany W.
The book was actually really exhilarating; I loved how the author made a twist in the story about who to love. How Alex was already into Lena, he had the mark of a cured; the three pronged scar like an inverted triangle just beneath the left ear, yet he still has feelings for Lena. “I’m telling you I was never cured. Never paired or matched or anything. I was never even evaluated “(Oliver 166). He loved her based on his own opinion, not anyone else's. Why would someone even want to be cured of love, even if it does mean taking chances? The ending was very disappointing, in a way I want to read the next book to see what exactly happens, but in another way I don't know if I will like the outcome. Unlike Matched by Ally Condie, Delirium doesn't speak much about how the paired process goes, is it random? Probably since love is no longer an emotion after the cure, personal connection doesn't really matter. This book has lots of the thoughts and feeling of the main character and keeps the reader wanting more. Like I'm personally not feeling very encouraged to read on, but am still a little curious about how exactly everything pans out.
Jones
ReplyDeleteBrenna C.
Delirium by Lauren Oliver was a great book. It really makes you think and I like that. Love being a disease would effect so many other things like laughing too much or being around someone too much. One of my favorite quotes in this book is "And I love you too.' His fingers skate the edge of my jaw, dance briefly over my lips. 'You should know that. You have to know that.' That's when it happens......I open my mouth and say, 'I love you too" (oliver 378). Because the book is all about love being this terrible thing and even at the beginning Lena can't stand the thought of being "infected". Now Alex is the only thing she cares about. Delirium deserves to be a gateway book for sure. The ending of this book definitely makes me want to read the second book. I can't wait.