Delirium is a difficult book to review, mostly because of the fact that I'm not sure what I'm supposed to feel about it. As a novel in the dystopian genre, a genre I am a big fan of, I feel like I should love (no pun intended) it, but unfortunately, I don't. 
 Don't get me wrong, the premise is very interesting. In Lauren Oliver's world, love aka deliria is a bad thing. It's an evil that has to be eradicated at all costs. Scientists have come up with a cure and governments demands that all citizens all receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway is one of them. She's turning 18 soon and she can't wait for her cure. But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love. 
 See, this is my problem. Love. It's hard for me to fathom that all of these (what the government is doing, the raids, the closing of the country's borders, the rewriting of history books, even the bible) is because of love. In books such as The Hunger Games , a war actually happened. Their world was a post- apocalyptic one. The Declaration by Gemma Malley was a dystopia because scientists came up with a pill to guarantee immortal life. Even Across the Universe by Beth Revis had a more serious implications. Earth was dying and humankind needed to colonize a new planet. Delirium just seems superficial in light of all these novels. 
 Also, I wish Lauren Oliver had expended on her world a little more. Do other countries suffer from Amor Deliria Nervosa as well? Was there a purge to rid the world of "believers" of love from this new world? How did the transition happen? 
 Delirium's pacing is uneven as well, and I felt that the book could have cut another 100 pages, making it at the very least, less clunky. I wish there had been better characterizations for certain minor characters such as Hana and Grace. Truth be told, they seem more interested to be me that Lena ever did. 
 Unfortunately, I felt that Delirium, including its romance, was cliche and the ending did nothing to help its situation. I cannot comprehend why Lena and Alex fell in love. Lena, to have resisted love from the beginning, to suddenly be obsessed with a boy was unbelievable. The ending was exciting, yes, but it was so close to (view spoiler)[Matched by Ally Condie (hide spoiler)]. I could have predicted the ending halfway into the story and that's not a good thing. 
 I will give credit to Lauren Oliver for her prose though. It was really beautiful and the parts in the novel where we are shown "new" nursery rhymes, bible scriptures or "new" folksongs, the writing is always equal parts horror (at the dystopia world) and beauty.