Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Release Date: March 5, 2013
391 pages
Summary:
They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.
But we are still here.
And there are more of us every day.
Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.
After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.
Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.
Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.
But we have chosen a different road.
And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.
We are even free to choose the wrong thing.
Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.
They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.
But we are still here.
And there are more of us every day.
Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.
After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.
Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.
Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.
But we have chosen a different road.
And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.
We are even free to choose the wrong thing.
Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.
Goodreads
My Review:
What a lovely ending to a great series. Though not one of my absolute favorite series, I always found the Delirium series to be very entertaining; it is an excellent both love and dystopian story. This final book was no exception.
I loved the fact that this story was from both Lena and Hana's perspectives. Although Hana had already undergone the surgery to become free from love, her life was far from perfect. It was interesting to see how much Hana thought of her best friend Lena, yet how Lena only seemed to mention Hana in her dreams. I also enjoyed seeing the two interact in the end of the book. I thought that Lauren Oliver did a great job of making their interaction seem genuine, and I could not help but mentally compare it to the scenes of the two best friends in the beginning of the first book; both characters have changed drastically.
I am always a huge fan of Oliver's beautifully written prose, and Requiem just made me love her even more. She has a way with words and always makes you feel the story and feel the pain and love of her characters, making the experience so much more than simply reading a book. I am not sure, however, how I feel about the end of the book. I definitely thought that it was a unique way of ending a love triangle: although Lena does make her choice, there is a distinct lack of the overjoyed, kissing reunion that always occurs in YA books. I admire Oliver for making her ending so different and I want to love it just for that reason alone, yet a part of me still wants to see more about the characters and where they end up.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book! I loved how it focused more on the nature of the world and the situations that the characters were thrust into, rather than simply just which boy Lena loves more. I thought this was a great series in general and I can't wait to see what Oliver will write next!
Posts
I feel torn about this series! I'm normally a very objective person, but I'm trying to figure out if I really didn't enjoy the series or since just finishing the GREAT Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare, it just doesn't live up to my romantic expectations at the moment! I'm trying to judge it on it's own merit, but I also judge based on other similar books like Divergent/Insurgent, and the Hunger Games. I never really got attached to the characters the way I loved Katniss & Peeta or Tris & Tobias together. Delirium was pretty slow to me until the end and I almost didn't feel the need to buy Pandemonium because I just didn't care all that much about Alex getting left behind. But I wanted to give the series a chance, and I just finished another series, so I was looking for another good series to get into, but I feel like I kept reading just because I was bored and had nothing else to do! The cliffhangers in the first two books seemed a little too predictable and chopped off. BAM Alex might be dead, BAM Alex is back. (read: "Please buy my next book!", I want to buy a book to really follow the characters & plot, not just find out if he's actually dead)
ReplyDeleteOverall it was a decent story, it kept me fairly interested in what was happening with the "resistance", but in the end I didn't feel satisfied with the wrap-up. What happened to Hana/Fred? What is happening in the rest of the country? Why is Alex and Lena's relationship so two dimensional? I never really felt the chemistry & tension between them the way I felt it with the others I mentioned above. What did they really see in one another and why are they sooooo deep in love that she just drops Julian the minute Alex says he loves her again?
Again, I'm comparing the love triangle to others like Twilight and The Infernal Devices and this one just fizzles out. There is no real resolution to her personal story or the bigger story, just a vague "happily ever after" I guess.
In summary, I felt like a "Cured" while reading this book. Never really feeling that spark to care too much for the characters or their relationships, just going through the motions of reading it just to read it.
I think they can make a decent t.v. series out of it, similar to Revolution which I enjoy, so we'll see how it goes!