![]() Julian, a naïf who rapidly becomes more sophisticated under adversity, is fully believable as a young man who goes from delusion to enlightenment, and from someone who never has had much social contact at all, to a boy in awestruck but shy appreciation of the wonders of the opposite sex. At her best, she is superlatively admirable, and at her worst (such as the times when even she knows she is “acting like a baby”), she is only human. Lena evolves in book two, but her personality remains recognizable. The time period between the “now” and “then” sections collapse as the book progresses and the tension ratchets up, until all is “now” at the end, and the story concludes with a giant cliffhanger.ĭiscussion: While the book’s broad themes are not markedly different from many others (and sequences in The Wilds correspond more closely to post-apocalyptic than dystopic stories), Oliver excels in above-average prose and in her in characterizations. Although on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum and at least nominally enemies, they must combine forces to escape, or else die. When Julian, the son of Thomas Fineman, the movement’s founder, is kidnapped, Lena is inexplicably captured along with him. ![]() In the “now” sections, we learn that Lena has gone undercover and joined the resistance, pretending to be a true believer in DFA – or Deliria Free America. They expect Lena to pull her weight, and to learn how to live in conditions of severe hardship. Lena begins her life in The Wilds with a group that is led by the teens Raven (a female) and Tack (a male). ![]() It is told in alternating chapters: “now” and “then” – “then” referring to when she first got to The Wilds, and “now” reporting on Lena’s current life. “Alex smearing chocolate ice cream on my nose after I’ve complained I’m too hot the heavy drone of bees circling above us in the garden, a neat line of ants marching quietly over the remains of our picnic Alex’s fingers in my hair the curve of his elbow under my head Alex whispering, ‘I wish you could stay with me,’ while another day bleeds out on the horizon, red and pink and gold staring up at the sky, inventing shapes for the clouds: a turtle wearing a hat, a mole carrying a zucchini, a goldfish chasing a rabbit that is running for its life.”īook two, Pandemonium, is about Lena’s acclamation to survival in The Wilds. Though the book ends there, we know that Lena will carry with her snapshots in her head “as fragile and beautiful and hopeless as a single butterfly, flapping on against a gathering wind”: In the first book, just weeks from her cure, Lena decides to run off with Alex, with whom she has fallen in love, into “The Wilds” to become an uncured “Invalid.” She manages to escape, but Alex is apprehended in his effort to draw attention away from Lena. As Alex presciently says to Lena, “That’s when you really lose people, you know. Thus, there are no more revolts, revolutions, violence, wars, or even dissent, but there is also no more love, and no more pain. Their affects are essentially neutralized. In Delirium, all citizens upon turning age 18 submit to a “cure” by the government lest they fall victim to the “disease” of passion. I was hung up on the idea that it was absurd to outlaw “love” without seeing the larger picture of love as just one aspect of passion, which would impact society’s ability to control its citizens.ĭelirium is the story told by Lena Haloway, age 17, of what happened when she met a boy, Alex. I would even go so far as to say I didn’t understand Delirium correctly the first time I read it. Or perhaps I should say, after reading a gazillion other dystopias in the interim, I appreciated it much better. ![]() Since Pandemonium (book two) is a sequel to Delirium (book one), I reread the latter before starting on Pandemonium, and I have to say, I liked it much better the second time. Note: There are necessarily spoilers for Delirium in this review, but no significant disclosures for Pandemonium
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |