Delirium

Delirium

(book review by: Thania Blancaflor)

Mama, Mama, put me to bed

I won’t make it home, I’m already half-dead.

I met an Invalid, and fell for his art

He showed me his smile, and went straight for my heart

-A stanza from “A  Child’s  Walk Home,” Nursery rhymes and folktales,  edited by Cory Levinson

Amor Deliria Nervosa, the disease that can kill you if you are still uncured. The cure that had been said that will give you happiness and a peaceful life. But what if it’s too late? What if you’ve been already infected? There’s no choice but to run.

               

Lauren Oliver’s first book of her trilogy had successfully created a dystopian America, built between realism and fantasy. Reading this book was like reading another version of Romeo and Juliet of Shakespeare but of course with different characters, different settings and plot but with the same conflict; the forbidden love.

This book will stop your heart from beating and pulse racing from the suspense of the story. You can’t breathe through the atmosphere of fear and be electrified by the romance but at the same time you’ll have to cry until the last page of this book.

The story behind this book will introduce you to the new beliefs, new government, new laws and new way of life. This also revolved in the designed America and its people. One of the goals of the Government is to protect their people by preventing the disease Amor Deliria Nervosa or love by giving their people cures. This so called “cure” had been believe by everyone living in America that it  will bring joy, peace and will take away all the pain from everyone. There is also a designed book that will guide the people and the Government. Everything written on the Book of Shhh ( book of Safety ,Health and Happiness ) is right. It was written there that every person is required to have the cure when they reach the age of eighteen and will be getting paired. But there are stories that there was an existing place called the Wild in which said to be place of the Invalids or people who resist the Government and been infected by the Deliria.

Lena had been waiting for the day of her cure, the day she will be turning eighteen. She had believed in her seventeen years of existence about the cure and that the Deliria that it is a dangerous disease that will kill her just like what it did to her mother. She’s living with her Aunt Carol, Uncle William, Jenny and Grace. Her sister, Rachel left her with their Aunt because after her procedure of the cure she needs to go and live with her pair. Lena grew without talking or touching with other boys because Aunt Carol really believes in the Government. Segregation between uncured boys and girls is one of the most observed laws by their people, written in the Book of Shhh.

 Hana, Lena’s best friend had spent their days running together to the streets of Portland but Hana wasn’t like Lena, she doesn’t get the point of the Government, The Book of Shhh , the cure and the disease. One day when Hana invited Lena to go with her to one of those prohibited parties later that night. But of course Lena refused because she knew it’s very dangerous and one of the laws for the uncured is to observe curfews. As she lay down in her bed, her mind still can’t get over to the party where Hana will be attending because it was a raid night in which Regulators kept on roaming around Portland to maintain peace and order. Lena decided to go over to the party to warn her best friend. She ran as fast as she can and when she reached the house, as she took her first step and see everyone, boys and girls, dancing, talking, laughing, touching and drinking. Suddenly everyone was running and screaming.Chaos. The regulators were raiding the house together with their dogs. Unfortunately one of the dogs already bit Lena’s calf. Pain was killing her at that moment. The next minute, there she was sitting below the dark night with someone touching her wounded foot, someone who saved her life.

That night, everything changed in Lena. Someone changed her. Now everything she feared for were gone. All she wanted is freedom.  As their lips are pressed together, there was a great sensation running through the nerves of Lena. It has reached every cell, tissue, muscle, organ in her body, flowing through her blood. The Amor Deleria Nervosa , Love.

Amor Deliria Nervosa, the disease that can kill you if you are still uncured. The cure that had been said that will give you happiness and a peaceful life. But what if it’s too late? What if you’ve been already infected? There’s no choice but to run.

What would Lena do? Would she run? Or choose to stay and be cured before the disease will kill her and where will the disease bring her? Know about the person who infected her and his story. Figure out the secret and the story behind her mother.

My Book

 

My Author's Book

                  I am living in a book with a magnificent story which my Author wrote.

I can say that this is my book but I’m not the author of it, just the main character. Maybe you’re wondering if this is possible, of course it is, and this book of mine is extraordinary from the Twilight Saga of Stephanie Meyer or from the books of Nicholas Sparks. This book is different, from the characters, setting, different kinds of themes, many types of conflicts, first person point of view and of course an amazing plot and this is because of my Author’s creation.

My book published last April 20, 1998 and it’s almost 15 years but still it doesn’t have its last page. It is a felicitous date where my Author started my story. On that day, everything moved, everything was new.

The setting of the story in my book is not fixed. It has different settings, different time and different atmosphere and this is one of the reasons that make my book interesting. It also has many kinds of themes as you read page by page, themes about childhood, family, friends, love, teenage life and so much more. A plain green paperback was just the book cover of my book which my Author chose, very simple but I trust my Author about this idea because He knows what’s perfect for my book.

I am the main character and there are so many other characters in my story that my Author involved and made my book more beautiful and colorful because of these people. I owe them a lot because they were there with me in ups and downs of my story. If there’s a protagonist, there must be an antagonist but for my case, for my story’s case, there are so many antagonist and honestly saying, I hate them but at the same time I thank them because if they’re not present in my story, I wouldn’t realize and learn things and they’re also one of the reasons that made my story interesting, so far. There are two kinds of characters on my story, the static and the dynamic ones, some characters change and some doesn’t. The point of view of this book is in the first person. I am not just the main character but also the narrator here.

My plot in the story is not the normal plot that we encounter in other books, which are arrange in order form, from the introduction to the conclusion. In my book, it has no specific order unless the conclusion is the ending. Sometimes in my story it has no rising action but rather jumping to the climax already and occasionally, without having a solution on my climax or the falling action, there’s another climax coming. It’s crazy to think about my book but all of these things have their own purpose on me and on my story. My book also has many types of conflicts that at first I thought I can’t figure out but my Author always had a plan. Those conflicts I encountered in my story made me cry, crumble, fall and even I almost gave up but my Author is so smart to use those conflicts to build up a stronger character of mine. I’m also expecting for more conflicts to come and for more plans from my Author.

So now, I had introduced you to my very own book. Maybe you thought this book is unusual one because of its elements but I’m telling you this book is one of a kind and it is a master piece of my Author.

If you had noticed as you read through this post you can read some words in their past tense form and made you wonder why my grammar is incorrect, in fact I intentionally used past tense words, as you can notice in my first sentence the word “wrote” is in past tense because my Author already finished writing my book. He’s already done with the last page, I was the one who hasn’t known the ending yet and I also don’t know when the denouement of my story is, but my Author already knew everything about last word He wrote, about the new characters coming, about the shifting of settings and how many more conflicts will come.

As of now, I want to thank my Author for writing a wonderful book. I thank You for the good things You’ve wrote in my book, for the characters involved, for the perfect selection of my settings, for the conflicts had come, for the crazy plot You invented, for choosing me as Your main character and lastly I thank you in advance for the new things that will come to my story and I’m pretty sure you planned me the greatest ending for my book. I also wanted to thank all the characters present in my book. For all those who had been a part of every chapter of my book. Lastly I wanted to thank my parents and family for publishing my book and making this book the best one. Without these people, my book will never be possible and complete.

               

            Everyone has their own book, and we must take good care of it and let God be the author.

Before I Fall by: Lauren Oliver (book review)

“How far would you go to save your own life?”   

                                That question had gone seven times at Samantha’s mind.

 

Samantha Kingston had everything a teenager girl would wish for, the popularity, the looks, a loving family, great friends and even a cool boyfriend. But what if one of her normal days would turns to be her last?

Lauren Oliver’s first book had taken my breath away for seven times. As I read this book, my nature had transformed to Sam’s, visualizing how she lived her world with her mystery.

This book is poignant about bullying but there are more aspects of this book that can hardly affect teenagers nowadays. The idea of popularity, high school, love, friends, family, life and death will make you understand more about it.

Sam had her best  friends, Lindsay, Elody, and Ally, popularity had been their shadows. Popularity is a weird thing, you can’t really define it but you know it when you see it. Draw a circle and there’s an inside and outer part of it. Popularity had a circular boundary among the students. Some are inside-how lucky they are- and some unfortunately outside.

Sam and her friends can basically do whatever they wanted to do and there are no consequences for them to pay. They’ve kissed the cutest boys, went to the best parties, got just enough trouble and got drunk. If high school was a game of poker to them, they would be holding eighty percent of the cards.

Sam had been in the outer part of the circle too, for the half of her life, she experienced the lowest of the low, the worst of the bad and have to squabble, pick and fight over the left overs. “No one said life was fair” Samantha quoted.

That’s true, life isn’t fair at all. Someone will be wearing high heels and someone will be in sneakers but at the end of the day, they’re wearing foot wears to protect their feet.at the end of the day, they’ll be both normal people, teenagers.

February 12^th, Samantha lived it like one of her normal days. That day was Cupid’s Day and at that same date Samantha and her friends went to a party at Kent McFuller’s house. At the party where they saw Juliet Sykes, the weird girl that Lindsay hated forever. Everyone bully Juliet and thought she’s no use. At that point where Juliet standing in the corner of the room while all the eyes looked straight at her like she’s a ghost, Juliet seized that second and stepped forward to take revenge to everyone. The next few moments that night, the mystery started after the fatal car accident of Samantha and her friends, and leaving her “greatest hits” in life with just a flash of light.

Déjà vu was the word. Everything repeats seven times, chances for Samantha to change what she wanted to change, correct the wrong things and end her life without any regrets left. That whole week of Samantha’s life or rather saying her life after death had given death a new description.

Samantha said that, "you watch your whole life happen again before you die", but she saw only her greatest hits. She also quoted, "That's when I realized that time doesn't matter, because some moments go on forever. Even after they're over, even after you're dead and buried, those moments are lasting still, on and on, into infinity." She described dying as a "lifting feeling, like laughing," she treats death as a beautiful thing, as if you just spend the rest of forever reliving the best moments of your life.

Figure out the mystery behind Samantha’s death and how it changed other people. Know more about Lindsay, Elody, Ally and how she found her true love. Know how Samantha lived those seven days living life to the fullest. Discover things between Juliet Sykes and Samantha that would make you tear through this book.

HERE IT IS: "GREEN BOOK"

NICHOLAS SPARKS 

"AT FIRST SIGHT"
:The emotion that can break your heart is sometimes the very one that heals it.

-a gift I received that tugged my heartstrings.

BOOKSfriend

Have you ever felt being neglected by the whole world? -not literally, what I mean is, being out of place? If that so, okay we're not too far different from each other. 

I'm not good in singing neither in drawing or even in dancing. Nothing is interested with me, honestly saying. Thoughts moving around my mind, thinking every field in this world where I can fit my self. 

Books had been my best friends. When I started reading books I realize things, many things. Important things.

One day I just found my self sitting, quietly in a corner of my room, spending the whole day reading a book of Nicholas Sparks- "At First Sight". That book surely made me cry and I took ten mins. for me to calm my self down. I tried to hold my tears at the back of my throat, it was so hard. Back to my room, there I was holding a book. That wasn't my first book, but that was the first book made me realize something. 

After reading that book, I realized that I don't need to have talents, as long as I have my eyes and a book,  I already can satisfy my self, by sitting, quietly reading with my BOOKSfriend.

bookEater's first post

Hi!This is my first post ever. Maybe this time I will be posting very often. I would like to write about books. Books that I've read or books I wanted to read. This post will be short but I'm looking forward to post long enough posts.