Title: Requiem (Delirium #3)
Author: Lauren Oliver
Genre: YA Dystopian
Goodreads Book 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.
Rating: 4 Stars
MY REVIEW:
I like to judge a book based on a wide range of factors. Initially, it’s the cover. I’m very judgy, very visual, and I won’t read something with a terrible cover. Just can’t. And then there’s the hype. I try not to find out anything about upcoming books….I HATE spoilers (which is why my reviews are rockin’…who wants to read an extra synopsis that tells you every plot point?), but the hype that is generated gives me a level going into the book. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes it isn’t. If the book can’t live up to it, then it definitely hurts my opinion. Part of that is what people say, and part of it is the marketing stuff released before the book, especially the blurb. Blurbs, my friends, are wonderful.
Well, I wasn’t super thrilled with book #2…….but it did leave on in a place where I was very excited to read the conclusion.
Okay, first I will going into this objectively. The plot was well thought out and paced. I am a big fan of Lauren Oliver’s writing, so I enjoyed every page in that respect. The words themselves. She has a knack for descriptive writing, but at the same time, it’s like she has a magic knife that takes out all the unnecessary so the story isn’t bogged down with details. For me, it’s perfecto.
The dialogue was great, it felt real. I felt more connected to the supporting characters than I had before. The voices of the characters, because this book switches back and forth between Lena and Hana, were authentic. Even though the other books were written this way, I loved it. They are in such separate worlds, it gives the reader widely contrasted views of what is going on. Yet, you can feel their worlds coming together, slowly, slowly, and then altogether quickly. I could barely catch my breath.
Now, on to my issues. They are small. Let’s go from smallest to biggest. The timeline jumped around a tiny bit. Sometimes Hana would be ahead of Lena, then the other way around. It became very noticeable to me at the end. However, it worked very well, so it’s hard to criticize it. If I was writing it, I don’t know if I could have done it…something about the perfectionist in me. Oliver goes back and forth between Lena and Hana, every chapter alternates, so it just seemed a little weird.
Another small issue was that Julian was like a non-character. He just seemed so passive, but then he was actually doing a lot outside of Lena’s radar….she just wasn’t noticing anything. It drove me crazy…especially by the end, because everything just kind of gets dropped…but I can’t go more into it than that.
BIG ISSUE: the ending. A couple of things, actually. The story itself ended perfectly for me. I loved the feeling of the end. But then the author goes into a different perspective, so you feel awkward, like she is actually talking to you, and it’s a Large Truth that she is dropping on you, urging you into action. I wasn’t sure of the point (however I like the idea).
The worst thing about it all, was that I kept thinking there was going to be more. The ending was perfectly set up for an epilogue, but it just ended. I was left not knowing anything. The story was just getting started, and it ended. There could have been another book, seriously. It wasn’t good. So that left me unsettled, which is a darn shame because I had just been feeling pretty good. Good >> Awkward >> That’s it? Not a good way to end a book that has a good ending…WHAT DID I MISS?
So a big loss of a star there. Part of me wants to drop it more, but I liked the book, I liked the writing, and so I am torn. Four stars seems like a good compromise. It brought the series back up for me…not as high as the first book, but I enjoyed it more than book two. It’s worth reading, and the series is definitely worth reading.
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READdicted Reviewers 