The City of Ember (guest review) ~ 4 stars

Guest post by A.B.


The City of Ember is the first in a four book series by Jeanne DuPrau, and a book that I really enjoyed.

The story starts off on Assignment Day in the city of Ember. By order of the mayor, all citizens shall be given jobs at age 12. Lina Mayfleet hopes to be a messenger, but instead of that she draws the job of Pipeworks laborer, which no one wants because it means long hours of underground work.

However, her classmate Doon Harrow draws messenger – and afterwards, asks Lina if she wants to trade! He wants her job because the generator is underground, and Doon wants to figure out how to fix it. The enormous lights of Ember have kept the darkness back for as long as anyone in the city can remember. There is no light at all unless the electricity is on.

But now, not only are supplies in the city running low, but there have been frequent blackouts. Everyone in the city is afraid that some day, the lights will go out and never come back on.

Lina eagerly trades jobs with Doon, and the two of them go their separate ways. Until one day, Lina finds a secret message, which was inside a box buried deep in her grandmother’s closet. When she finds the message, it’s full of holes, but Lina thinks it could be something important. She shows the message to Doon, and together the two of them try to figure it out...

I liked The City of Ember partly because of the setting of the story. Ember is very different from our world in many ways. Something that was unusual there is that Ember has no animals, just insects. This means that the people do not eat meat, but they eat a lot of vegetables and canned foods. Also, there are no trees in Ember, and the only plants are in the Greenhouses, outside of the city. I also found it interesting that citizens of the city received no more education after age 12.

Of course, the fact that all of Ember depends on the electricity provided by the generator, is also strange in a way. When the lights go out, people are helpless. They can't do anything but wait, terrified, in the dark.

Another thing I liked were the main characters, Lina and Doon. They were believable, which I liked, because they’re not perfect. Their plans didn’t always work out, and they had to come up with different ideas, which is something I appreciate in a story.

Overall, I’d say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading The City of Ember. It was a clean book, with no bad language, and it was pretty well-written, making for an exciting read. I would say that it was probably written for readers about ages ten and up, and since I'm a little older than that, I think it was a little below my reading level – but nonetheless engaging and fun. I’m looking forward to reading the second book in the series, The People of Sparks!

Delirium Trilogy - 2.5 stars

     The Delirium Trilogy by Lauren Oliver is set in a futuristic version of the United States. It centers around a teenage girl called Lena, who is living with her aunt and uncle in Portland, Maine, and is on the verge of undergoing a procedure called the Cure. This procedure is mandatory for all citizens once they reach eighteen years of age, and Lena is anxious to get her's. Under the current government, love is considered a disease, and the Cure is the only known way to render one immune to it's effects. Everyone who has not been Cured is at risk.

     Delirium, the first book in the trilogy, sets the scene by introducing Lena, a fairly typical girl in all aspects except that both her parents died when she was young, leaving her to live with her aunt and uncle. Lena follows the rules that the government has set up to protect young people from the disease of love - like everyone else she's terrified of it. But before she gets the Cure, she falls in love with Alex. Alex is secretly spying on the government because he is an Invalid, one of the uncured rebels who are forced to live in the Wilds, the unexplored territory beyond the walls that protect the cities. Alex is also part of a rebellion against the government, because the Invalids believe everyone should be free to love. Lena realizes that once she has the Cure, what she feels for Alex will be gone and she will be paired with a suitable young man for the rest of her life. To escape that fate, she and Alex try and escape together to the Wilds, but they are caught, and Lena sees Alex go down after making sure she will get away safely.

     I found Delirium to be a fairly decent book - not particularly slow moving or boring. I wasn't sure I liked the way the story was going, but the idea of love being a disease was new and fairly interesting, so I decided to read on. Delirium is probably worthy of 3.5 stars from me.

     The second book, Pandemonium, takes off and continues the story with an alternating timeline. Each chapter alternates between Lena's mission within Portland, spying for the Invalids, and her recent struggle to adjust to life in the Wilds. This tactic allows Lena's growth as a character to be gradually revealed from a variety of aspects - a writing strategy that I liked. While Lena recovers from her flight from Portland in the Wilds, she goes from being a heartbroken girl to someone who is stronger, more determined, hiding her love for Alex under a tough exterior. At the same time as this aspect of Lena's life is revealed, her mission within Portland also continues, and she ends up saving the life of a boy called Julian, one who strongly supports the Cure. During her attempt to keep him alive and escape from detection, she and Julian also fall in love.

     Pandemonium seemed to me to be a decent story in some ways, and a terrible one in others. I admired Lena's recovery and her determination to do something about the Cure now that she knew it was evil. But at the same time as I was admiring that, I was hating her romance with Julian. I felt it was too sudden and not founded upon anything. To me it seemed like a reaction to a very stressful and dangerous situation, but not built on a real and lasting affection for each other as something other than friends. The romance seemed like a plot device meant to cause Lena further anguish more than anything else. Largely because of this, Pandemonium was only worth 3 stars.

     Requiem I approached with the hope that Oliver would turn the story around and make it come out satisfactory. Lena, Julian, and Alex (who did not die at the end of Delirium - surprise!) are working with the rest of the Invalids to make the rebellion a reality, but as the days go by, the futility of their actions seems more and more obvious. Lena is also trying to decide which she loves best: Julian or Alex. I found this particularly agonizing, since it took the entire book for her to make up her mind and she was constantly dwelling on it. Thankfully, Lena's chapters were alternated with chapters narrated by her childhood friend, Hana. Since Lena left Portland, Hana has had the Cure and is about to be married to her match, a wealthy and influential young man who is important to the fight against the Invalids. Hana's chapters provided me with some relief from Lena's brooding, and I found Hana's side of the story to be intriguing. 

     The ending of Requiem wasn't particularly thorough - it left all the major questions answered, but although the government had been overthrown, Oliver only hints at what the future holds for Lena, Julian, Alex, Hana, and the rest. I was somewhat dissatisfied with this way of ending the story, but I think that winding up all that had happened would have taken too long to do well, and would have ended up boring. Still, Requiem didn't meet up to my expectations, and I would only rate it 3 stars.

     I happen to have reasons for my less-than-favorable opinion of the Delirium trilogy. First, the love triangle between Lena, Julian, and Alex was a disappointment to me. Stripped of most of the details, the love story went like this: The girl falls in love with a boy who represents something she's been afraid of all her life, but when they run away from everything she's ever known to be together, he 'dies'. She's heartbroken and becomes a very toughened character, but then falls in love with a boy who's the complete opposite - and just when everything seems to be working out between them, the first boy shows up again. Now the girl has to choose between two boys she loves and who still love her. 

     I generally don't like love triangles, and although I liked a few things about both boys, neither of them really impressed me. Put those two things together, and the combination was not appealing. The other thing which I disliked about the Delirium trilogy was that Oliver used swear words frequently - and not little ones either. That really disappointed me, because beyond that she has a very beautiful style that makes for really good reading. The swearing definitely lowered my opinion of her. And the other thing that I wasn't happy with about the Delirium trilogy is that it has many of the characteristics of a dystopian story, and I've never been fond of those. 

     However, there were good things about the story, or I wouldn't have kept reading past the first book. The characters were excellent, and although there were a few I personally did not enjoy, they were still well-written. Lena - though she had moments when she seemed weak - is a pretty scrappy character, and she doesn't give in when things get really bad. Alex and Julian made good partners for her in different ways, and I liked that Oliver at least made them different instead of having both love interests be nearly identical. I actually enjoyed Hana because she had more snap and fun to her in Delirium than Lena did, and in Requiem she wasn't as brooding as Lena was. The other Invalids that Lena meets were also good characters, particularly Raven and Tack, the two leaders of the Invalid band Lena joins up with in the Wilds. 

     My final opinion of the Delirium trilogy is this. The characters were all very good, although not all  fit my personal tastes. The world - particularly the idea that love is a disease - was half of what kept me reading, because I wanted to see that resolved. However, the romance wasn't written the way I like it, and I didn't enjoy the swearing and misery that the characters had to go through. I would not read the Delirium trilogy again, but for older readers who enjoyed other recent dystopian-type stories (Hunger Games & Divergent), this trilogy might be something you would enjoy.

Link to author website: http://laurenoliverbooks.com/

Delirium Trilogy ~ 4.5 stars (guest review)

Guest post by jayden robyn

     Lauren Oliver’s Delirium trilogy, consisting of Delirium, Pandemonium, and Requiem, for young adults is one of the many popular dystopian trilogies of recent times, and is quite possibly my favorite young adult trilogy. This review will cover all three books. 

     In Delirium, we meet Lena Haloway, a girl who is approaching her eighteenth birthday—and the “cure.” In Lena’s futuristic world, love has been declared a disease and must be eradicated. When everyone turns eighteen, they must receive the cure that renders them forever unable to love. They are then paired with someone who will be their spouse and basically live their lives as they are told. This twist on the dystopian world easily could have gone wrong, but Lauren Oliver presents it in a fashion that is very believable, and she gives us background on how her world works without ever bogging the story down. 

     Lena is eagerly awaiting her cure—that is, until she meets a young man named Alex. At first, Lena is wary around him; after all, until they are cured, boys and girls are segregated and do not have contact with each other except for family members. But Lena is intrigued, and soon she begins to doubt the world she has grown up in. Alex tells her about the Wilds, a place outside the borders of the U.S. and how “Invalids”—those who are not cured—live there, free to choose for themselves and free to love. Then Lena discovers that she has fallen in love, and decides once and for all that she will not be cured, and she and Alex plot a daring escape to the Wilds. 

     The entirety of Delirium’s 441 pages covers Lena’s journey to realizing that her world isn’t all that it is made out to be. It is relatively slow-placed, though it does have its exciting moments, and the ending is definitely a major cliffhanger. I found the pacing to be much less bothersome and the story itself more enjoyable the second time around. I would rate Delirium 4 stars. 

     Pandemonium, fortunately, does not fall victim to the “second-book syndrome” that many middle books in trilogies do. I found it even better than the first. Its pacing is much quicker, and the storyline goes back and forth between the brewing rebellion during the present time and Lena’s adjustment to the Wilds during the not-too-distant past. This presentation was smooth and allowed us to follow Lena’s journey without getting bogged down. 

     Pandemonium also introduces several new interesting characters, including Raven and Tack, leaders of the group that Lena joins in the Wilds, and Julian, a likable young man who was raised his whole life believing that love is a disease, just like Lena. Together they take part in the rebellion that is being formed by the people of the wilds to bring down the loveless world that Lena formerly inhabited. A love triangle also begins with Lena, Julian, and Alex. I normally do not like love triangles in the slightest, but Oliver pulled it off well enough that I didn’t mind. I would rate Pandemonium, which ends with another huge cliffhanger, 4.5 stars. 

     Requiem, the conclusion of the trilogy, didn’t disappoint. In this installment, the story alternates between the point-of-views of Lena and her childhood friend Hana Tate, who has been cured. Writing point-of-views, particularly first-person POVs, that sound unique is tough to do, but Oliver pulls it off well. The separate paths of the two girls eventually meet near the end of the novel, which is somewhat darker than the first two but not overwhelming. The rebellion is growing stronger each day, and Lena also has to choose between Alex and Julian, as well as reunite with her mother, whom she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl.

     The ending of Requiem has been hit-or-miss with most people, and I personally liked it. Oliver wraps up the majority of the story’s loose ends, but leaves her characters’ futures uncertain while still ending positively. I wasn’t sure that I would like that, but in the end I found myself satisfied. I would rate Requiem 4 stars. 

     Lauren Oliver is a talented writer; her words flow smoothly and she has a unique way of describing things without ever feeling stilted or forced. I could easily picture in my head what she was writing about. Her characters are well-rounded and believable, with their own distinct personalities and motives. I liked Lena, Alex, Julian, and Raven, and while I didn’t totally like Hana, she was still interesting. Lena was probably my favorite character overall, and probably my favorite heroine of all the young adult trilogies. She is strong and capable, but she is far from perfect. I felt that she reacted believably to her circumstances in all three books. The romance is also clean. 

     My main complaint about this trilogy is the language. Oliver consistently uses curse words throughout the trilogy, and occasionally she’ll use big ones, too. They came often enough that I couldn’t just ignore them, and it detracted from the story somewhat. In fact, if Oliver hadn’t written the curse words, or at least not so often, I would’ve rated Pandemonium 5 stars and the other two books 4.5 stars. Overall, however, the Delirium trilogy is one of my favorites, and Lauren Oliver is still one of my favorite authors. I’d recommend this trilogy to anyone 14 and up. 

Link to author website: http://laurenoliverbooks.com/