Delirium

I’ve been putting off reading this book for about six months now, because I’ve heard such good things about it.  I know that sounds strange, but stick with me here.  I have read quite a few young adult dystopian novels, all of which seem to be written in trilogies.  Trilogies which, as of right now, are only partially released.  So I wasn’t sure that I should start yet another trilogy.  But I did.

Lena is only a few months away from getting cured.  She hasn’t been infected yet, but everyone gets the cure from delirium, or what used to be known as love.  Love is a sickness that makes you act crazy and do irrational things.  Her mom had it, and she’s had to grow up with the stigma of being her mom’s daughter, raised by her aunt, living her life just waiting for the day that she can be happy – the day she gets the cure.

She goes to her evaluation that she’s been studying for, prepared to give all the correct answers.  But something happens after she sees a stranger in the lofted walkway and she gives all the wrong answers.  Thankfully, the resisters choose that day to strike, and her test results aren’t saved; she has to take it again.  This is crucial.  She needs to do well on her exams or she’ll get paired with someone unworthy and get a bad job assignment; her whole future depends on this.

But that guy she saw keeps showing up in unexpected places and soon she finds herself drawn to him.  He’s been cured, but he seems different.  And he is.  In ways that are completely unexpected and in ways that are scary.  And real.  And exciting.