I’ve seen reviews on both ends of the spectrum for Lauren Oliver’s Delirium, positive and negative. Y’all I’m about to wave around my Lauren Oliver fan club car, because I firmly believe no matter what she writes, I will love it. I haven’t reviewed Before I Fall yet, just know, pre-review that I loved it. This matters because when I heard Lauren Oliver was writing a dystopia, I wondered how she would handle it and if she was just hoping on the bandwagon. Kids, Delirium blew my expectations out of the water and even merited a facebook status, which is kind of a big deal, as I keep my blogging/reading separate from real life.
Delirium
So the premise behind Delirium is that IT’S THE FUTURE and scientists have found a cure for love, that disease that makes people do crazy things. Lena Haloway, about to turn 18, will be allowed to get the cure in 95 days. She’s beyond excited about this seeing as how the deliria messed up her family and she’s genetically prone to delira. Yet, fate has a different plan for Lena, you see, she meets a boy. Alex. And falls in LOVE.
After reading a few bad reviews, I was worried the worldbuilding and concept behind Delirium wouldn’t be real to me, but it totes was. And I wonder if because I listened to the audiobook there was an inherent sense of authenticity, as it felt like I was hearing it through Lena’s voice, the voice of a real person telling me their story. I mean, I have to wonder if I would have felt the same had I traditionally read Delirium. And certainly this is a question to ponder, do audiobooks add legitimacy to worldbuilding? I mean, when you get a fantastic narrator like Sarah Drew sometimes it feels like you will believe anything that comes out of the speaker because it feels authentic.
Sarah Drew does a fantastic job handling the character of Lena. Her voice is vulnerable and young. She has a fabulous tonal quality, I mean her voice never got nasally or annoying, but really carried the story and sounded exactly how I would imagine a teenage girl. She’s rather convincing.
I think what worked best for me in Delirium were Lauren Oliver’s characters, I think characterization is where she shines as a writer. Lena is coming of age in a world where love isn’t allowed, yet she manages to allow her self to feel love and we know her through her reactions to her fear. To her small acts of bravery and defiance of the society in which she is raised. We see her being kind to her little sister. And the depths of her friendship with Hannah, her best friend. Hannah who encourages Lena who is shy in the beginning of the book to break out of her confines. Hannah who starts out wanting to fight the cure. I love how Oliver illustrates the friendship between the two girls not as a competitive friendship, or frenemies, but mutually beneficial. I don’t see any hard and fast backstabbing between the two and I love that. I loved her characterization of Alex, who is absolutely on the edges of this society. I won’t say more about him, because he is best left discovered for yourself. I loved her characterization of Lena’s aunt, who does take Lena in and raises her with caring despite the tarnish on the family because of Lena’s mother.
I liked that class was addressed in Delirium. We absolutely get to see stratification between the haves and the have-nots. You see, Lena is totally middle class, but her friend Hannah is upper class and has class advantages like a car, everyone else walks places or takes the bus. And we have people who live on the Outside who haven’t received the cure who are cut off from society and it’s resources. We see how this society treats people perceived to be mentally ill, those who have succumbed to the deliria and perhaps refuse treatment, those people are locked up. It’s fascinating and I wonder if I would have picked up on it, had I not listened to the audiobook.
The audiobook of Delirium by Lauren Oliver  is narrated by Sarah Drew and produced by Harper Audio. It is 11 hours and 41 minutes long, unabridged.
Disclosure: Purchased with my audible credit.
Other Reviews of Delirium by Lauren Oliver:
Consumed By Books
Hobbitsies
Fyrefly’s Book Blog
bibliophile brouhaha
The Crooked Shelf
Purchase Delirium here.*If you click the link then purchase something at Amazon, a small portion of the proceeds supports Good Books & Good Wine at NO additional cost to you.
*Also if you are reading this from a feed reader, if you click through to read it on my website, in the upper right hand corner, you can watch the UK trailer for Delirium which is actually pretty well done.
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Oh, hell yes. I loved Delirium THAT much too. It was actually the first thing I’d read by Lauren Oliver and I’m SO glad I did. Totally blew my mind. I didn’t even write a review of it so much as I fangirled over how amazing it was. I REALLY want to pick up the audibook now- I think you’ve convinced me it’s worth the purchase 😉
The audiobook is very awesome!
It’s kind of expensive though, unless you have audible which I totally recommend.
I really liked Before I Fall, so much so that I bought Delirium as soon as it came out. And then I put it on my shelves and forgot about it. I definitely need to read it ASAP.
Ha ha story of my life with SO MANY AUTHORS!
I loved Before I Fall, but Delirium was a bit so-so for me. It read very well as a romance novel but as far as dystopia aspect is concerned, it fell a little flat. Still, I’m interested in reading other Lauren Oliver books even if I’m not a big fan of this.
I wonder though, if you would have enjoyed it more if you had audio-ed it, or even if that lent to my enjoying Delirium more.
Yay! So glad you enjoyed this one. I loved it and cannot wait for the next book!
I’m so psyched for Pandemonium.
I haven’t read any of Lauren Oliver’s other books, but I LOVED Delirium. I don’t know how to explain how obsessed I am. It’s so brilliant, and I barely held myself back from hurling my book against a wall (I dropped it on the floor and glared at it instead). It’s a good thing I wasn’t listening to it on an iPod..or computer. 😛
I don’t think that audiobooks can help with the worldbuilding or anything. When I’m reading on paper, I can peruse the book, rereading favorite lines and what-not, going slowly. It’s like enjoying ice cream. Plus, the audiobook is just words. You hear them, and they’ll lost forever. Words are on the page, there whenever you need them.
Excellent review. 🙂
I disagree. I can still remember other audiobooks I’ve listened to, when you get a good one the narrator embodies the story. And it’s sort of like a movie, I may have watched it once, but that doesn’t mean it’s lost forever to me. Plus with the audible audiobooks you can ‘bookmark’ passages you enjoyed.
I loved Delirium too, though haven’t listened to the audio. Sarah Drew also narrated Before I Fall and she is AMAZING! I think I fell 10 xs more in love with the story bc of Sarah’s reading–so powerful.
I’ll have to re-read Before I Fall via audio, as I do agree that Sarah’s reading is powerful.
OMG I love Lauren! I just wrote my Liesl & Po review and I said ‘Lauren Oliver can do no wrong’ within the first paragraph, so I definitely agree with you! This was my absolute favorite read from last year. It kind of destroyed me, but in a good way. I cannot wait for Pandemonium.
Truer words were never written, Lauren Oliver is da bomb.
Just wanted to let you know that I linked to your review in my audiobook review today. I agree that Sarah Drew’s narration helped bring the book to life. I also would have liked some more detail about how everything actually worked in the new society, but as a teen, I was pretty uninterested in politics, history, and science, so I can understand why Lena doesn’t give us much background. For her, it’s just normal life!
Thanks for the review!
I read before i fall and i loved it. Then i read delirium. Both were on my nook. Both were amazing, but i think delirium was much better. Before i fall was much of a repeat, and just plain sad at the end. Delirium was interesting and unique and gets you on the edge of your seat and makes you cry. The BEST book i have EVER read. Kudos to lauren. Loved it:)
I came to this review to add the book to my cart. I need to order it for a giveaway, so why not give April a mini amount of money! yay!
but of course I read the review since I’m here.. I was a little scared that you wouldn’t like it.. ( still was gonna use your link anyway btw ) but I loved this book so much, so very glad you liked it too. I had read before I fall first from her, and wasn’t expecting to love it like I did..
Also read the same semi bad reviews on this… but I had no problem with the world building.. this book sucked me up.. and nearly killed me with the ending.. I adore her writing. 🙂