You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

12 reviews

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I went into Delirium with high hopes, given all the hype around it and its premise of a dystopian society where love is treated as a disease. The story starts strong—Lauren Oliver paints a vividly controlled world, and the tension builds nicely as Lena begins to question the rules she’s been taught her whole life.

However, the novel struggled to live up to expectations for me. The pacing feels uneven, with the middle sections dragging as Lena’s internal conflict is repeated multiple times. While the romance with Alex is central, it develops in a fairly predictable way, and I found myself wishing for more depth in both the love story and the broader dystopian world-building.

That said, the writing is readable and occasionally lyrical, and there are moments of genuine emotional resonance. It’s not a bad book—it’s just not the game-changing YA dystopia I had hoped for.

Final thought: A solid but uneven read—worth exploring if you enjoy YA dystopian romance, but it didn’t quite meet the high expectations I had going in.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous hopeful medium-paced
Loveable characters: Yes

I love this book so much. I’m so glad it still holds up for me a decade + later. I love Lena and Alex. And Grace and Hana. This version of the world seems so much more realistic than it did when I first read it, which I think makes it all the more powerful.

I love you. Remember. They cannot take it

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
apat's profile picture

apat's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 58%

There’s something missing, it falls flat. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Trigger warning: murder of a dog. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

i should’ve known from the blurb on the back of the book how this was going to go. let me explain.

it was kind of a little cringe. and cliché.
in the beginning the main character — lena — is visibly influenced and driven by the lies the government feeds them. she seems like a very naive and oblivious character, who later starts to doubt her views of the world and society. of course, this is character development that is totally necessary. but, and hear me out, the lena we get to know in the beginning of the book is really frustrating and annoying to read about. this is mainly because it’s very obvious to the reader that the whole love as a disease thing is no more than propaganda.
then we meet alex, who is basically the exact opposite of lena. they fall in love (obviously) and then she proceeds to plan her entire life off of him.
the relationship felt flat and had nothing thrilling about it, except the fact that they had to keep it a secret, but at some point everything lena was doing could’ve gotten her jailed, institutionalized or killed.
there were no other characters that stirred any particular interest in me, i enjoyed reading about grace, but even hana felt like she had no depth except for good looks to me.
the plot was — to say it outright — flat as well. it was pretty predictable, but that‘s not to say there weren’t surprising turns.
the ending was admittedly frustrating, but kind of predictable as well so it wasn’t that frustrating.

one thing that you have to give to lauren oliver though, is that she wrote something entertaining. the problem is just that „entertaining“ doesn’t mean it’s a good book. at least for me it doesn’t. 
i don’t necessarily regret reading this book, i just wouldn’t do it again.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Would’ve been in the threes if they didn’t do the dog like that. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Didn’t love it. DNFed about 2/3 of the way through because it was just so slow paced and I could feel it putting me in a reading slump. Maybe I’ll get back to it one day but for now it was just okay.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings