Series: Delirium, Pandemonium, Requiem
Author: Lauren Oliver
Series: Delirium Trilogy
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Dystopia
Publisher: HarperCollins
Average Series Rating:
Series Summary:
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. (Taken from Goodreads)
Judge A Series By Its Covers:
Before Requiem came out, I actually liked the covers of Delirium and Pandemonium. I felt that the two covers emphasized evolution – the cover model on the cover of Delirium looked young while the cover model on the cover of Pandemonium looked older and wiser. However, the cover of Requiem ruined that aspect for me, and in the end, the only cover I think is okay looking is Delirium. The covers Pandemonium and Requiem are just not for me.
What I Liked:
- Lauren Oliver’s writing makes the entire series worth reading.
- The whole concept of love being a disease. It’s unique, never done before, and there were so many different directions Lauren Oliver went with the idea. That is what first drew me to read the Delirium series.
- I like the way Lauren Oliver ended the series. What she did was brave that no other author had really done before and it left everything else to our imagination.
What I Didn’t Like:
- The pacing of Delirium, the first book in the series, is reallyyy slow. Once you get past the world-building, everything just slows up. Just imagine, it took more than three pages to describe a short bike ride. Thank goodness it picks up from there.
- There is a love triangle. It gets resolved in one book (thank goodness), but it’s still there. I also don’t like how Lauren Oliver executed the scenes relating to the love triangle – it made me cringe every time I read about it.
- There are too many flaws in the series. In my opinion, the most important flaw in the series is The Crypts. Why would the Cured keep all the Invalids in one place, waste thousands of people acting as guards and resources, if they can just kill them like they did in the Wilds? I will like some answers, or at least, an explanation.
- The ending, while I like the reason why Lauren Oliver did it, was also disappointing. There are no solid answers and everything is left to the reader’s imagination. It’s like finishing a book…only to realize that the ending is missing.
Do I Recommend It?
If you’re the type of person who cares more about the writing style than the actual plot and don’t mind slow pacing (in the first book Delirium) and a love triangle (Requiem), then yes. Otherwise, this series might just not be for you.
Favorite Book in the Series:
- Delirium: I liked everything about it except for the pacing; the excerpts from the The Book of Shh, Lena’s first encounter with the boy she falls in love with, Grace’s role, and the cows.
Favorite Character(s):
- There is absolutely no doubt that Grace, tiny Grace, is my favorite character in the entire series. It’s amazing to see what she sacrificed out of her love for someone. She’s brave, absolutely fearless, and smart.
Effortlessly Quotable:
- Time jumps. It leaps. It pours away like water through fingers. (Delirium, 262)
- Anger is useful only to a certain point. After that, it becomes rage, and rage will make you careless.” (Pandemonium, 340)
- Once you let in the word, once you allow it to take root, it will spread like a mold through all of your corners and dark spaces – and with it, the questions, the shivery, splintered fears, enough to keep you permanently awake. (Pandemonium, 371)
- “You know you can’t be happy unless you’re unhappy sometimes, right?” (Requiem, 210)
This is why I a terrified to read the rest of the series. I am afraid that I won’t like the next two and then my view on Delirium and the series will be ruined, but at the same time I might like them. Although if the ending of last book doesn’t give solid answers then I most likely won’t like it.
I thought the same thing you did about the covers. That Delirium and Pandemonium covers where the character development of the main character, but when I saw the cover reveal for Requiem I thought it looked to much like Pandemonium for that theory to work.
Kimberly recently posted…Spring Break/update.
It you’re strictly an Alex fan, then I recommend that you don’t read Pandemonium. In my opinion, Requiem isn’t worth reading either. :l
And yeah the covers! I was so disappointed when the cover of Requiem was released, it just ruined my entire image of the series. ):
Kelly recently posted…Series Overview: The Delirium Trilogy – Lauren Oliver
Okay, I seriously need to read this series now. I have no excuse, all the books are out. Haha! Wonderful series review, Kelly! I think I don’t see much series reviews so this is good! :)
Dianne recently posted…Review + Giveaway: My Ex From Hell by Tellulah Darling
I don’t think there are much series reviews out there because you have to wait a year for the next books to come out, and by then, people just forgot what happened in the previous books. I had to grab my copy of Delirium, my notes on Pandemonium, and my borrowed copy of Requiem to write this review. :P
Kelly recently posted…Series Overview: The Delirium Trilogy – Lauren Oliver
Great review Kelly! I love this post, gives a much more better view of the books, (I agree with the cover BTW the requiem cover kinda looks like the lip had surgery or something). Is this Series Overview something of a regular post here? I kinda like it :D
Jules recently posted…Book Review: Barely Breathing by Rebecca Donovan
I’m going to be writing Series Overview posts when I finish reading a particular series. :D
So that means you’ll be getting them when the last books of a series comes out and I finally read them.
Kelly recently posted…Series Overview: The Delirium Trilogy – Lauren Oliver
That would be nice :D Looking forward to those.
Jules recently posted…Book Review: Barely Breathing by Rebecca Donovan
I started off the trilogy thinking that it would be one of my favorites, what with the concept of love being seen as the “enemy” and not the key to our survival (modern world). However I was really disappointed.
I believe an author should develop a character so that the readers can emotionally connect with them. I know some people cried at the end of Delirium when you-know-who (not Voldy) gets “killed.” But I just found it really awkward. I didn’t feel like Lauren Oliver made me fall in love with the characters enough that I would feel the pain of losing a loved fictional character. For example, John Green (genius that man) made us all fall in love, and reflect on life with Augustus Waters, and then that horrible horrible man broke our hearts by letting Cancer (which was a part of him, quite literally) take him. Oh behold the tears!
I know that something like TFIOS and this trilogy are completely different, but I felt such a significant disattachment between the characters and I. :$
ALSO the love triangle, something all YA books seem to have these days. Quite frankly, I feel like they’re getting way too tangled with the plot, unless they’re written really well. ON THE OTHER HAND, one of the best love triangles in my opinion is the one in The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare; the immense amount of affection between Tess and Jem and Will (oh dear dear Will) was so so so so so GOOD! Whenever I think of CP2 my heart breaks again into a thousand pieces, and that ending (OH that ending!). Guys, I ship Wessa ok. To ship Wessa with all your being is to self-destruct yourself over and over again. THAT in my opinion, is what a true love triangle should be built upon, not some sappy teen “love” which in my opinion wasn’t even properly written in the trilogy.
The concept was really interesting from the start, but it could’ve gone in so many different directions that would have better developed the characters and developed a love between the readers and the fictionalized world that we read about in these books.
Now that you’ve mentioned it, I didn’t really connect with any of the characters. If Alex dies, I wouldn’t have cared. If Lena died, I’ll just shrug. If Hana died, I would have cheered in happiness.
And you said it! Why did the Delirium series just HAVE TO have a love triangle? It was doing perfectly well without one!
I just finished Clockwork Angel and I don’t really see the need for a love triangle yet. It seems kind of…forced, like a way to get Will to show his feelings through small signs. Maybe I will see what you’re saying about this love triangle when I read Clockwork Prince, who knows?
And again, you said it. The concept Lauren Oliver came up with had so much potential, but with the way she went with it, it just had so many flaws and plot holes. If it wasn’t for her writing, a lot less people would be liking this series.
Kelly recently posted…Waiting On Wednesday [27]
I thought about reading this series once upon a time. I didn’t know there was a long triangle which is something I don’t want to put myself through. I am so over those. I don’t think I will ever read this series honestly because it just doesn’t seem like my cup of tea.
It looks like it’ll be a good idea for you to skip this series Alex.
Kelly recently posted…Let’s Speculate: How Setting Causes A Reading Slump
I mean, they were definitely good books but the ending was just so disappointing! I know of a lot of authors who ended their books with an open ending but still pulled it off and it actually worked. With requiem it just fell short and it was so ignorant of other characters too. :l I really loved the second book though!
I know, the ending felt so incomplete and empty. It made me feel like I read the entire series for no reason.
And Pandemonium was definitely the best book in the series, which is weird with the middle book syndrome and all.
Kelly recently posted…ARC Book Review: Wild Cards – Simone Elkeles
I have heard mixed reviews for this series! I have many to catch up on so I’m not sure if this one is worth it! Dilemma! I’ll see :D
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