Delirium

I seem to be reading books because I "have to" this month. Alias Grace, The Strain and now Delirium. I'm happy to say none of these books have disappointed me.  I heard that the Delirium pilot was going to be made available online for all the fans to watch. I have watched tweet after tweet, comment after comment, loving this pilot that wasn't picked up.  Well, I better read this book and watch this pilot, because for whatever reason* I have to know what's going on.

Delirium was fantastic.  Lauren Oliver creates a world where love is a disease.  Romantic love is the focus of the disease, but by taking that love away, they also take the love a parent feels for a child.  Reading the descriptions of parents ignoring the pained screams of their children when they hurt themselves (even just minor booboos) really resonated with me.  What disturbed me more were the cases of parents who couldn't bond with their child at all.  I know that Delirium has the teen-romance-dystopian thing going on, and it was great, well-written and believable, but that people could choose not to love their children bothered me.

I thought Delirium had a fascinating premise, which is what drew me to it.  The characters, Lena, Alex, Hana, Carol, Grace, they kept me reading.  What I want to know more of is, how did this happen?  How did Romeo and Juliet become a cautionary tale of the love disease?  I'm hoping to find out more in the second book, Pandemonium.  I've noticed this with some YA dystopian series.  The first book hooks you with a crazy story, the second and/or third books gives you the why, the explanation.  I wouldn't have minded a little hint in the first book though.  I would have also liked for Delirium to be a little more enclosed.  It doesn't exist on it's own as a novel as much as other first books have.  The ending was exciting, but there was too much left unwritten.  I'm still prepared to soak up every bit of the series.  

*Honestly, I don't usually read because of hype, but something about Delirium's buzz (and The Strain's), I couldn't resist.