Delirium Is Contagious!

Delirium
Author:  Lauren Oliver
Published: 2011 (on sale date 2/1/11)
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Pages: 448
ISBN 9780061726828
Genre/Classification:  Teen Fiction ages 14 and up
Source:  Borrowed ARC

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.  (from the author's website http://www.laurenoliverbooks.com/delirium.php)

My Review:  

"The most dangerous sicknesses are those that make us believe we are well." - Proverb42, The Book of Shhh

Delirium is set in future day USA (Portland) where scientists have discovered a cure for the terrible disease...amor deliria nervosa...love.  Sixty-four years previous, love was identified as a disease.  Twenty-one years later, scientists have a cure!  Sure it requires a surgery involving a laser and the patient's brain, but everyone has the procedure at or slightly before their eighteenth birthday.  Everyone looks forward to it!  The government has effectively brain-washed the population into believing that love is an awful contagious disease that must be eradicated.  Cities are patrolled and electric fences run their perimeters, in the effort to keep out The Wild, the Invalids, those who don't believe and are not treated.  It is in this society that Magdalena (Lena) has grown up. It is graduation year.  She will be evaluated and receive the procedure.  She will be paired up with her future husband.  Her life is mapped out for her.  That is, until the disease strikes.

New trade paperback cover

I loved this book!  I know, my readers know I don't read much Young Adult Fiction but this one is definitely worth every second of your time!!  I was mesmerized as I read of this society, captivated by the story, drawn into Lena's life.  I laughed. I cried. I cheered.  Not necessarily in that order.  

Do I recommend it?  Wholeheartedly!!  Am I following author Lauren Oliver's blog?  You bet!!!  Am I anxious and excited for the second book in the series?  That is an automatic and enthusiastic yes!!

Delirium is contagious!

Pandemonium, book 2, will be available February 2012!

Requiem, book 3, will be available Spring 2013!