Love: a word that means an intense feeling of deep affection for another person. Forbidden Love: to be forbidden from someone. Your one true love, you can’t have them or you can’t want them. This feeling can be toward a person, pet or whatever you set your mind to.

This novel called ‘Delirium’, by Lauren Oliver, explains what it’s like to be the person who falls in love whilst everyone else thinks it’s a disease. Once people turn 18 they are able to take a cure that gets rid of their emotions for love. This book is heartbreaking, dreary, fearful, hopeful and it is a wild ride. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Junior students for English class were assigned to do a project on a novel with a few selected books, ‘Gone,’ ‘Red Queen’ or ‘Delirium.’ I saw a few students reading this book ‘Delirium’ that was an option for an English project, and I decided to read the novel out of curiosity.

Lena Halloway, the main character, takes the reader through her journey through her eyes. She lived with her aunt since her mother passed away. In the beginning, she is excited to take the cure, and she can’t wait. She has remembered what love has done to her mother and does not want to go through what her mother did. Just weeks before her birthday, she and her best friend, Hana, go to this place to get tested and interviewed to see if she is eligible for the cure.

Spoilers Ahead

She ends up seeing this guy named Alex Sheathes for a split second and never forgets about him. He is 19 years old, and she is 17 years old at that time. Days after she saw him, she ended up seeing him again. But this time, she sees him everywhere. This becomes a cycle. Then, they finally meet up and they become friends. She ends up falling in love with Alex, and he falls in love with her too. The twist to this story is that he finally admits that he hasn’t taken the cure yet, and that he’s from the Wilds. The Wilds is a place where those who don’t want to take the cure escape to and that’s what he did. 

Just days before her eighteenth birthday, her and Alex had planned to escape to the Wilds. Her aunt had found out of the plan and imprisoned her in her own home. She ended up escaping with Alex, but a lot of other things happened afterwards. When it comes to the end of the book, there’s a huge plot twist that will make the reader shocked, confused and more.

After I’ve read this book I’ve felt all kinds of emotions. Mostly, I felt disappointed only because Lena did not get the ending she deserved. This novel is definitely one of my favorite novels I’ve read. This is because the author used her words precisely, and she knew exactly what to say to make me gravitate toward the book. At the beginning of reading this novel, I wasn’t exactly as interested, but I was patient, and a few chapters in, I did not want to stop reading this book. I finished this book in approximately two days.