ByMarlida

REQUIEM
BY LAUREN OLIVER
PUBLISHED: 2013
AVERAGE RATING: 3.75
391 PAGES
★★☆☆☆

After reading Pandemonium, the book before Requiem, I was kind of obsessed with finding out how it ended. (Which was pretty much the only reason I continued reading this book.)

Here’s my sort of recap for the trilogy, and what I really thought about Requiem, the last book in the series.
I started reading Delirium because I’d wanted to read it for such a long time. Since I’d already bought the books, I thought; why not just read them? So I read the books + the short stories.
Annabel was exciting, and it was kind of the reason why I thought; okay, I’m going to read the rest of the books.

Delirium was okay, I didn’t get super excited about it, because, well, it was not enough action for me, not enough revealings and stuff like that. So it was pretty much boring until well, Alex “died”. What I did like was the changing of Lena, the way she went from being like the perfect citizen till a Invalid and a sympathizer.

Hana was boring, all though I had been wanting to know more about her as a character, I didn’t get to know much. In the book, the author pretty much repeated everything that happened in Delirium, just from Hana’s perspective. And Hana was my favorite character, until; well, she revealed that Hana was the reason Alex “died”.

Pandemonium was the best book, because we were introduced to a new favorite character; Julian. Who eventually became Lena’s boyfriend or something, even though she couldn’t let go of Alex. It’s also exciting because we suddenly realize that Lena’s mother is still out there, after all this time.

Raven was mandatory, because after hating on Hana, I started loving Raven instead. She was this tough Invalid who knew exactly what she wanted, and sometimes; exactly what she needed to do.
Requiem was boring. It had its peaks, but I’m thinking that this was a crappy book. I was shocked, and angry that this was the ending. That this was where Lauren Oliver ended the trilogy. Because it wasn’t really a good book, and it wasn’t really a good ending. She ended it in the middle of action, suddenly, it was just poof, finished, like it was laughing in my face. So I started looking for an epilogue, but there was none.

Requiem became some kind of Twilight thingy, where Lena is so in love with Julian, but she still loves Alex, and they’re both in love with her, so she kind of wants to be with them both and it’s just sad and weird. I also thought that there would be some kind of clearing; like we got to know what happened to Portland and the rest of America. Did the resistance die? Or did they manage to make a new America? There were so many unanswered questions I was actually angry…

In Pandemonium we’re introduced to this mysterious character called Raven, we don’t know much about her, only that her name is Raven and that she’s a somewhat leader of the Invalids in the Wilds.

Raven becomes really important in Pandemonium, and we kind of understand Lena and Raven’s connection, that they’re sort of like sisters. And in this book, called Raven, we actually get to know more about her backstory. About why she eventually called Blue, Blue. Why she’s the way she is, why she came to the Wilds. Everything kind of seems clear when we read this book.

This book is also put in this position when Lena goes into the place where Julian is about to be killed, and she’s there to ultimately save Lena AND Julian. She and Tack, Raven’s girlfriend is working together to get Raven on the inside so that she can make sure that Lena gets out safe.

After I read Hana, I started on Pandemonium the same night. Now this has been my favorite book of the trilogy so far because it’s so much more action filled and it’s got me sitting on the tip of my toes reading. Which is what I really love about reading books. That anxiety and that feeling of being scared to what’s going to happen next.

Pandemonium goes kind of deeper into the wild, who’s there, how does Lena start building her life there? What is she doing? And the thing I love about this book is the way Lauren Oliver actually writes this book in “now” and “then” instead of putting it into chapters.

The “Now” and “Then” building makes me keep reading even though I should have been in bed two hours ago. It’s really exciting, and the way Lena transforms in this book is mandatory for the rest of the series (or at least that’s what I think). The exciting part is also that there are some new characters introduced, characters that are also kind of important for Lena’s life and how it’s going to be, in the “end”.

Now, this book also introduces us to more of the society, the DFA, which is the disease control people who believe in a disease free America. Now, when Lena’s life dramatically transforms in Delirium at the end, this book kind of swoops us over for her new love-interest, who’s kind of a big deal. It also takes us into the world of Delirium, outside Portland and where Lena was brought up, and into this whole new place of people.

★★★★☆ because this book is more what I would like the whole trilogy to be, more exciting and action filled. It shows us that Lauren Oliver can do better, and I think that this books shows exactly who she could be as a writer.

While reading the Delirium trilogy I was kind of looking forward to these short stories about the different characters that we didn’t get a “point of view” from throughout the book. First there was Annabel, Lena’s mother - and then we got Hana, Lena’s best friend.

Hana wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be, I mean, the things happening in this short story was pretty much the same that happened in Delirium - so it was kind of like reading the same things over again, just from another person’s perspective. The other thing was that Hana was my favorite character, she went beyond Lena, and still, when I read the last line in this short story she ended being that to me.

Delirium is one of those rare trilogies that you find kind of randomly through friends or social medias. I had no idea that this trilogy even existed before Goodreads recommended it to me - so I had to check it out. Bought the whole trilogy with its short stories and I started with Annabel, went on with Delirium - and I was hooked.

Delirium is about Lena, who’s going to be cured for the deliria in ninety-five days. She can’t wait for the cure, because she’s constantly scared to catch the deliria.

Just to make everything clear, the deliria is love. When you fall in love with someone, you have the deliria.

First of all, I’m a dystopia fan, and the Delirium trilogy is amazing. The way Lauren Oliver writes, describing everything that happens, the way things smell and look like. I also love the characters, and I seriously fell in love with Lena and Hana. The thing that makes this different from everything I’ve read before is the way the characters develop in directions that I didn’t suspect at all. And when I finished this book I couldn’t help thinking; what about the others? What happens to them? So I’m hoping we get to see them again later.

I think that the Delirium trilogy fits everyone who loves dystopia, but also people who love a good love-story. I’m placing it on my shelf right next to The Hunger Games, Divergent and The Maze Runner - and I’m definitely going to buy these books so that I can read them whenever I want in the future.

★★★☆☆

I know that I was probably not supposed to read Annabel before Delirium, but I just wanted to start with the short story before starting the trilogy. So, because it's just a short story, there's not much to tell - but I wanted to share what I felt while reading it.

First of all, the language Lauren Oliver uses in this short story is really good, I like the way she uses different comparisons to connect one meaning to another. I also like the way she goes from "now" and "then." It gets more exciting, and obviously it makes me want to read whatever's happening next. I felt like I got to know Annabel before I got to know Lena, the main character in the Delirium trilogy.

I also like the fact that I got to know more about Lena's mother and father for that sake before it all started in Delirium. I also think that because of the fact that I read "Annabel" before starting Delirium, the whole mystery around Lena's mother was kind of "gone" and therefore, maybe a little more boring?

Anyways, I liked it, and I read it in about 50 minutes, so it's a short story.

★★★☆☆