Requiem

I was not ready for the story to be over.  I thought there were more pages until I checked how many I had left.  I discovered I had 10 instead of 50.  The edition of Requiem I purchased apparently includes an Alex story.  I knew it was there, but in the midst of the novel, running through the Wilds with Lena and trying to survive Fred with Hana, I forgot about it.  I only remembered it as I approached the end.  I knew it was coming too late though.  I thought there would be more. 

The ending was unexpected.  I appreciated that Lauren Oliver didn't make it neat and tidy.  I expected something like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games and so many Young Adult novels I've read recently, with an epilogue or something at the end that tells us how it all worked out.  That's why I thought there was more to the story. With so few pages left, Lauren Oliver couldn't end the story and give us an epilogue. I like the unexpected, I like that Oliver did something different. There's a certain artistry about her choice of ending. I am intrigued by the uncertainty, the lack of resolutions.  I think I like the possiblity that characters could easily live or die in the next few moments past the end of the story.

I really enjoyed the alternating passages between Lena and Hana. Pandemonium was different than Delirium and Requiem was different again. I felt sorry for Hana through most of the story. Then I felt less sorry for her. I think she did the best she could. Without adults to guide them through confusing emotional times, is it any wonder that the adolescent characters act out? I think it's good to have an adult to help talk through things, parent or not, but the cure takes that away. All these young people hear is that the cure will eventually make it all better and they just have to behave. Like that's so easy when you're seventeen, especially with no guidance. It still breaks my heart to think that parents aren't caring, aren't loving their children. That's really what starts Lena on this path, that they wanted to take her mother's love away. I like that love is explored in more than just the romantic sense. 

Requiem was an thrilling ride to the end. I enjoyed this conclusion to the Delirium series. 

I just kind of wish it was the conclusion...

Since this edition includes the story, Alex, I thought I would write my thoughts on the short story/novella here as well.  Sometimes I am unmotivated to read the short stories and novellas of "trilogies" if I've already finished the main books.  I know what happens already in the plot and, in general, it doesn't add anything to the story for me or my enjoyment of the series. 

Alex was a good story and a great character.  Alex, the story, kind of changed how I view the character. I was thinking he had gotten harder, and he did, maybe just not as hard as Lena saw him. Alex gives the reader insight into what his time was like in the Crypts, Portland's prison, and how he escaped. What I was hoping for was maybe how he got to be where Lena was in New York and how he felt when he saw her with Julian. I was hoping maybe since the story is listed as #3.5 on Goodreads, it would give us some information as to what happened after the end of Requiem. It doesn't. Alex is a good story, but I wish I read it before Requiem. It didn't really do anything for me. It was well-written and enjoyable on its own, but I wouldn't suggest reading it as a concluding story to the Delirium series. Skip to the end, read it first, then read Requiem.  If there is anyone out there who feels different, I would like to hear their opinion.