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.
