My Thoughts:
Upon completing Delirium, there were three stages I experienced:

1) I wanted to scream! I was seriously tempted to just grab a pillow and scream into it for all it was worth.
2) Once the urge to scream passed, next were the tears threatening to fall. My heart completely reached out to Lena as plans slowly went awry by the end.
3) This awful ache settled in my chest, threatening to never go away as I kept replaying the ending over and over again in my head. How could Lauren Oliver possibly end the novel on such a horrible cliff-hanger note? Pure evilness. 

Delirium has left me infected... with a case of amor deliria nervosa that is. Lauren Oliver's beautiful prose has such a wonderful lilt that the words just seem to seamlessly flow off the page! She brings such beauty to the smallest inconsequential of things with her writing, making you second-guess your own view of the world.

With Lena's 18th birthday approaching ever closer in only a few months, so is her future. Her evaluations will determine who she is to marry and eventually have children with... and she'll receive the cure to amor deliria nervosa, or love, that the government says is deadly to everyone. Sympathizers who even think that love could possibly be good are taken out and swiftly silenced. Such thoughts are dangerous and it's for everyone's protection... Lena has always known and understood this fact. But then the unimaginable happens when Lena meets a beautiful boy... and falls in love.

Lena is the main factor in driving this novel forward; her growth as a character was essential and without it, Delirium would not nearly be as good as it is. The reasoning behind her eagerness to receive the cure is carefully explained, becoming even more apparent after we learn more about Lena's past and her relationship with her mother. With the introduction of Alex into the story and watching as their relationship unfolds and blossoms before our eyes, we see Lena come to make decisions for herself as she questions the rules of a society she had always believed to be right.

And as much as this novel was dystopian and focused on exploring this fascinating, yet horrifying, society Lena lives in... it was also very much a love story as well. Lauren Oliver captures first love in its innocence, complete with all the sweetness, butterflies, and other scrambling emotions it involves as well.

Love is pain... and with Delirium that certainly extends to the ending. Lauren Oliver's novel Delirium delivers with its absolutely beautiful writing and a heartfelt story set to the backdrop of a world without love. I'm eagerly looking forward to next year's release of the second novel, Pandemonium, for sure!