Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Delirium is a quiet masterpiece. The descriptions are beautiful and the storyline is good. It's different, even from other futuristic society novels.

Delirium is all about love. Only love is a disease. Amor Deliria Nervosa to be precise. And the way it's described is perfect. It wreacks havoc upon you. At least, that's what the government is saying. Lena believes whole heartedly in the cure for this disease. A cure you have at 18. She has 95 days.
But then something happens on the day of her Evaluation. And that's when the adventure really begins.

Picture from Google

Delirium is a haunting and detailed story. I'm sure I'll have it in my head for a good few days, even if I start reading another book. But this book. Wow.
It shows a change of perspectives, this time it's from the viewpoint of someone who agrees with society. And it takes a hell of a lot for her to think that it may not be right. It's quite refreshing to see this. Usually people who are against society in fiction are already inclined to be against it.
Whereas her best friend Hana is breaking rules left right and centre.

Lena is the perfect herione. She's flawed and interesting. But she's just like you and me, which makes you like her even more. In fact, the only thing that annoyed me about her was the fact that during the first half of the book she was very derogatory about herself. She was hard on herself. but as always she matures and grows throughout the book., so I guess it was kind of needed.

If anyone thought that we didn't need love, reading this book would make them think otherwise. It's heart wrenching and beautiful, and makes you see all kinds of love. Romantic, Friendship, Familial and so on.

It also made me think about the divide and difference between adults and children. This was defined even more by the cureds and uncureds, the adults and children in Lena's world. It made me think that adults still need fun in their lives, otherwise it's not really living.
And the ending is a complete heart breaker.

This book is stunning. And I'm giving it 5 out of 5.
And I'm getting her previous book.
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Links.

Lauren Oliver's Website.
Delirium by Lauren Oliver in Cari's Book Blogs.
Wikipedia: Love

Matched by Ally Condie

Cassia has waited all her life to be matched. And on her seventeenth birthday she is matched with a young man. Except all is not what it seems. Cassia has two matches. The Society has made a mistake. The society never makes a mistake. Cassia is determined to find out why.

Cassia's world is our future. Set in an indeterminable place where The Society dictates exactly how people live; what they wear, what they eat, who they love, when they die.
It's a world I would hate to live in.

This story is a beautiful one about people, love and rules, exploring in detail various facets of love and society, and how lucky we are to be able to have choices of our own.

Picture from google



The themes here are ones only ever lightly touched upon in today's novels: People's choices, Slow burning love, different types of love, the importance of words and culture and the importance of knowledge.

In fact, to me the scariest part of this Society was that there was such a limited amount of culture and history. Only alarming perhaps because so much of how we live today is influenced by it. This book really highlighted that fact. There were only 100 songs, 100 paintings, 100 stories and 100 poems. It made me realise how hungry people really are for knowledge.

I also liked how the love scenes were so pure and thoughtful. How it wasn't just a rushed love story, and the characters fitted well together, and actually talked. Even though it was set fatalistically, this was realistic.
Cassia, in my opinion was a good heroine. She is thoughtful and clever, yet not quite as daring as I thought she would be, but that is also realistic. How often do we stop to think about our society? I very much enjoyed journeying through the questioning of society with her.

For me, there are many questions that need answering, so I hope that when I get 'Crossed', the next installment, that it will be just as thoughtful and well written as 'Matched'.

Of course, this book isn't one to be read lightly, and probably isn't for a lot of readers, but for me it was 5 out of 5 stars.

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Official Website for Matched by Ally Condie
Matched in Cari's Book Blogs

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

I have literally just put the book down.
I only started it yesterday.

I think that tells you that this books was an easy read with plenty of twists and plot lines to keep me hooked. It was just one of those books.

Book Cover - From Google/Waterstones

This is the story of 16 year old Sophie, who, upon casting a pretty disastrous love spell, is relocated to Hecate/Hex Hall, a magical reform school. Even the first day of this school goes wrong, and Sophie finds she's left at a weird school where she doesn't fit in.
But what's under the surface of this school is the interesting part.
And this book tells the story of Sophie's discoveries of the best kept secrets the school has.

Although the story may not be overly original, and I could see what was going to happen in the book, it happened in a different way to what I had expected. There were twists and turns and the characters have some substance. There are always layers beneath what Hawkins has already shown us.

It was like an older version of a mash up between Harry Potter and the Worst Witch, only set in America, and with other creatures at the school. You could definitely see the inspiration from R.K Rowling's masterpiece sluicing through the book. And although Rachel Hawkins adored the use of the word 'heinous' I can forgive her because some of the circumstances were just that.

Also, I loved the ending. A bit of a cliffhanger and there are now endless possibilities running through my head.

At times the book was funny, sad, scary. But not a complete emotional roller coaster. And possibly a little on the younger side for the young adult readers out there. But still, I am very much looking forward to the next installment.

4 out of 5 stars

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Links.

The Hex Hall Website