Mariella Hunt

In Lena’s world, love is a disease—one she won’t have to worry about for long. Soon she’ll receive the treatment that’ll prevent her from being infected.

Delirium starts with a tone of urgency. It’s Lena’s desperation to be given the cure against love; we are given reasons to make it seem rational. Who wants to be so enchanted by someone else that they lose self-control and reason?

Then she meets Alex, and her viewpoint changes because she’s been infected and no longer wants the cure to love.

I think everyone has had moments where they wondered what could be so pleasant about needing someone else that much. This book is like a slap; it portrays a world where we don’t have a choice, and then we see.

A world where love is forbidden would be bleak, fearful, shallow, empty, stiff. This is the world of Delirium. We realize the beauty of love–not just romantic love, but love.

In moments of bitterness we decide we’d rather stay this way than lose ourselves for someone else, but we have the choice. At the end of the book, it sinks in: Sacrifices made for love make life worth living; love is a pain worth dying for, every form of it, whether it be love for family or for a significant other.

If we were all cured from ever feeling love, there would be no beauty. For beauty to come forth, a heart needs to be full and break often.

In Delirium, poetry is forbidden. When Lena first finds a book of poetry, she asks Alex what the word means. This scene, one of the most powerful, made me catch a breath. A world without love, poetry, beauty.

Delirium is a book that will make you question society, perhaps even make you braver. Also, it has a heart-wrenching cliffhanger! It will make you angry, anxious, it’ll make you scream at the book (or eReader) in your hands—and itch to keep reading.

Don’t take love for granted, and don’t take poetry for granted. Stop your busy day to read some! I’ll admit I’m the first to hesitate about grabbing a poetry book, but when you’ve contemplated a world devoid of it, you realize that poetry is the human spirit; poetry represents humanity, free, wild, without restraints.