English Review: Lauren Oliver - Delirium

Posielam ďalšiu z mojich anglických ARC (advance reading copy) recenzií, tentokrát na Delirium, jednu z najromantickejších kníh, aké som doposiaľ čítala. A najlepšie na tom je, že vychádza už o pár dní (1.2.2011)!

Delirium by Lauren Oliver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First I’d like to thank NetGalley and Harper Teen for providing me with an early copy of this book and therfore giving me an opportunity to review it.


My thoughts


You know that feeling, when you keep reading one book after another, hoping that one day you're going to find exactly the right book for you - the book you'll instantly fall in love with, the book which will stay on your mind many days after you're finnished with it?

Well, I can finally say: I just found it.


When I got the opportunity to read Delirium, I tried not to feel overly excited. To be honest, I was kind of expecting to be disappointed with the book. Now I feel ashamed. Because Delirium was AMAZING.


I was nicely surprised with Lena, our main character. She went through so many changes during the book, from self-conscious "ugly ducking" who was living comfortably in her own bubble of ignorance and naivety, afraid to breath and afraid to live, to confident young woman with her own vision of the future, her own dreams and more importantly - her own mind.


Yes, this book is mostly about love. About love between mother and daughter, between two best friends and (of course) between boy and girl. But I can assure those of you who are looking for the thrilling action, that you won't be disappointed either. This book is going to give you some serious heart attacks along with some of our favorite "WHAT?!" and "NO, YOU DIDN'T" moments. Excited yet? I bet you are!


You can also say goodbye to our classical "best friend element" which usualy consist of underdeveloped female character whose one and only mission in the book is to talk to our heroine, so she won't have to talk to herself all the time. I have to say that I cared for Hana, Lena's best friend, almost as much as I cared for Lena herself and I'm curious what's going to happen to her in the next instalment.


Finally, what everybody is waiting for – Lena and Alex’s love story. Yes, the LOVE STORY.  There is just no other way how to describe their passionate, forbidden relationship which people will speak about over the next couple of generations. I liked Alex from the very beginning but what he did at the end of the book left me speechless and definitely sealed the deal: I’m in love with yet another fictional character. (Like there are not enough of them already).

Now the question of the day: Do you think a book can be great even without a love triangle?

I can tell that as far as I’m concerned, it can. Lauren Oliver proved to me that the book doesn’t need any complicated love triangles to be interesting and worth reading.


I would give Delirium more than 5 stars if it was possible. But it isn’t so you have to settle for the 5 most shining stars I’d ever given. I can't wait for the sequel and I'm definitely buying my own copy of Delirium as soon as it's out.


Happy reading!



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