Requiem by Lauren Oliver

Title: Requiem (Delirium #3)
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: Harper Teen
Release date: March 5th 2013
Source: Edelweiss
Format: egalley

Rating: 4/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

You can read my review of  Delirium - here and Pandemonium - here

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has transformed. The nascent rebellion that was underway 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 infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels.

As Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain of the Wilds, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancee of the young mayor. Requiem is told from both Lena and Hana's points of view. They live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

With lyrical writing, Lauren Oliver seamlessly interweaves the peril that Lena faces with the inner tumult she experiences after the reappearance of her first love, Alex, the boy she thought was dead. Sophisticated and wide-ranging, Requiem brings the Delirium trilogy to a thrilling conclusion.

I was dying to read Requiem, after the major cliffhanger ending of Pandemonium, I just needed to know what would happen with Lena.

This book is told from two points of view, alternating between Lena and Hana (no! why!), Lena is back in the wilds with resistance, Julian and the rest of the gang. And while much of the plot is Lena torn between her love for two boys, not knowing what to do, how to act and struggling with her feelings for both of them. And  although the tension between the boys and Lena is strong at the beginning of the book, it dissipates later because some circumstances that I will not going to tell because I don´t wait to spoil the book. But another big part of the story is the life in the wilds and Lena being an integral part of the resistance and to some extent showing her strength and leadership.

And the part of Hana, at the beginning I did not like the fact that she was an important part of the book and there were chapters from her point of view, but as the story progressed I understood why the author was doing this, because of what is going on Portland and what we see through the eyes of Hana are an important part of the plot, although it does not seem to at the beginning of the book. And I already assumed that is what he did in Delirium Hana, but here was confirmed and somewhat Lena could redeem himself.

I really liked Requiem, it has a lot of action and there are several times where we see how much Lena has grown, that she´s no longer that insecure and frightened girl that she was at the beginning of the trilogy, now she´s a strong, courageous and a leader. At the end of the book I was biting my nails, because I did not want it to end (this happens to me always with the final book of a series .... I do not want it to end!), many things happen in the final chapters, that as soon as I finish reading the book, I had to stop and re-read some parts of the book and assimilate them. And that ending was not what I wanted to happen, I do not like open endings, I prefer the closed ending...the ending wrapped up in a box with a bow and the happily ever after, but you do not always get what you want, but I do like Requiem, it´s very well written and I love how Lauren Oliver writes. The Delirium trilogy is essential reading for fans of dystopian novels.

I want to thank HarperTeen and Edelweiss for this review copy.

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Pandemonium (Delirium #2)
Author: Lauren Oliver 
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release date: February 28th 2012

Rating: 5/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

You can read my review of Delirium - here.

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. 

Although I got a little confused at the beginning of this book, mainly because the book is divided into two time lines, the "now" and the "then", and because of this I didn´t keep up with the story until the second chapter of "now", but after that I couldn't put it down, this book is really good! I LOVE IT! I liked it more than Delirium. Pandemonium is really addictive.

The chapters are interspersed between now and then. The now takes place in March, Lena is living in New York, and working with resistance, there she must be a sort of undercover agent posing as a supporter in the DFA (Deliria Free America) and watch Julian Fineman. And then is in August, and begins minutes after the events at the end of Delirium until the present.

In this book we are introduced to Julian, he is the new potential love interest of Lena, he´s a super sweet, cute guy and innocent as far as love is concerned (or Deliria as they call it in the book), the way Lena was in the first book, he´s also convinced that love is a mortal disease and it must be eliminated. Julian is a character that is very easily to love and even though I tried to stay strong and don´t like him, and I kept telling myself, "you must remember Alex, remember Alex, remember everything he did for Lena" ... but it was impossible not to like him.... and now I'm torn between the two guys.

Other secondary characters are Raven and Tack, they´re the leaders of the group to which Lena joins. And Raven helps her to become stronger and taught her how to survive.

Pandemonium is an amazing book, I really liked the way the author told us the way Lena becomes a different person, she goes from being a scared and insecure girl to be a strong, confident girl and a fighter. She´s fights for what she wants.

And that ending!! I did have a heart attack with that ending, why! why! did she end the book like that! I end up with my mouth wide open in shock for a while, the good thing is that I already had Requiem waiting on my Kindle. Pandemonium is a MUST READ! I highly recommend this book!

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Delirium (Delirium #1) 
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release date: February 7th, 2012 (First published February 1st, 2011)

Rating: 4/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

They say that the cure for Love will make me happy and safe forever.

And I've always believed them.

Until now.

Now everything has changed.

Now, I'd rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie.

Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life, until ninety-five days before her eighteenth birthday and her treatment, when she falls in love.

I had wanted to read this book for a while, especially for all the buzz around it and also because I have read very good reviews about it; I´ve finally read it and I really liked it.

Delirium tells the story of a dystopian society that conclude that everything bad in the world is because of love: war, crime, hatred and even mental and physical illnesses all is caused by love, so the U.S. government decides that love should be destroyed, so the society is contained in walled cities for the sake of the people and every citizen is subject to an operation at their eighteen birthday to release them from the deadly disease - amor deliria nervosa.

Delirium is told from Lena´s POV, she is too scared of getting amor deliria nervosa  for various things that happened in her past, she like most of the population is sure that the disease is deadly and that if she becomes infected with the disease she will die. Lena is counting the days to her eighteenth birthday, because that day she will be cured but 95 days before her operation she meets Alex, a guy that will change her way of thinking, feeling and she will do the unthinkable .... falling in love.

My favorite character of the story is definitely Alex, he´s very real, always says what he feels and what he thinks and his romance with Lena is sweet, slow and cute. Lena on other hand bothered me more than one occasion because all her fears and insecurities. And another good character was Lena´s best friend Hana, she always supports her.

This book starts very slow because of the world building and is one of those books that I started to like it, bit by bit, especially because I felt that the beginning was Lena´s inner monologue, with almost no dialogue, but as it progressed the plot I started to like it more and the writing is beautiful a little bit poetic. It is a book that after I finish reading it got me thinking about it and assimilating the story and not to mention that ENDING! is of mayor cliffhanger and I cry like a baby.

This is a book for fans of dystopian novels.

Favorites quotes

You can´t be happy unless you´re unhappy sometimes. You know that, right?

I'd rather die my way than live yours.

Love: It will kill you and save you, both.

UK Book Trailer