Hana by Lauren Oliver

Published February 28, 2012.

Author website.

The summer before they're supposed to be cured of the ability to love, best friends Lena and Hana begin to drift apart. While Lena shies away from underground music and parties with boys, Hana jumps at her last chance to experience the forbidden. For her, the summer is full of wild music, dancing—and even her first kiss. 

But on the surface, Hana must be a model of perfect behavior. She meets her approved match, Fred Hargrove, and glimpses the safe, comfortable life she’ll have with him once they marry. As the date for her cure draws ever closer, Hana desperately misses Lena, wonders how it feels to truly be in love, and is simultaneously terrified of rebelling and of falling into line.  (goodreads.com)

I had to go back over my review of DELIRIUM because for the life of me I can't remember much of anything from that book.  Apparently I really liked it (loved it is more on par there) and I was desperate to read more of the story. It's funny how tastes can change in such a short amount of time.  My DELIRIUM  review was posted about a year and a half ago.

That's not to say I wouldn't still like DELIRIUM if I read it again because my tastes don't change THAT drastically but having read far more like stories since I think I'd look at it with a different eye.  Yes, I'm still a fan of ROMEO & JULIET except I now know it's true point, and it's not all about star-crossed lovers.  I'm still a fan of non-douchey boys and even Oliver's writing.  But within the time since I've read DELIRIUM one major issue has been brought to my attention that would completely throw a wrench in the reality of the story - children growing up unloved by parents.  Really this would create a society of feral children.  Children can subsist in the mechanics of parenthood like feeding, changing, etc.  But love is a pretty huge factor in a kid's developmental years.  Just look at all those orphans in eastern Europe.  Removing love from society is far more detrimental to its well-being than it is beneficial.

So that's what I went in to HANA with, this reformed view of Oliver's word tickling my mind.  It wasn't a bad story but because I couldn't remember what really happened in DELIRIUM I had a hard time placing HANA so that was a nagging factor throughout.  Personal, obviously.  By the end I kind of remembered where it was because Hana encounters Lena after she received the dog bite so I have a vague idea of what and when.

Ultimately it was nice getting into Hana's head a bit and see her basically being scared straight.  She doesn't want to be cured but at the same time the thought of being caught rebelling is far too horrifying for her.  She's a really dynamic character that I do wish I'd seen more of in DELIRIUM (I'm assuming I didn't because she isn't really mentioned in my review but I do remember her).  I think there's more of a struggle there for her, more of a tear, than what Lena had.  Really I think she would have made a better MC than Lena.  Maybe I would have remembered more of DELIRIUM if that were the case.  It wouldn't have been so "standard" a story that way.  Not to mention there are so many other ways to approach someone like Hana because she's all aspects of the world: rebel and conformist.  She doesn't draw a hard line in the sand and it's really a struggle for her.  I would have liked to have seen her through her cure, to see if it really took, what her brain was like afterwards.

I enjoyed HANA, obviously.  I wasn't as thrilled with the writing as I appeared to be with DELIRIUM, especially the lack of contractions.  A lot of 'I am''s going around that annoyed me.  But it was a good glimpse of Hana and provided her with so much more depth.  I haven't read PANDEMONIUM yet but I hope she's in there more and it doesn't just focus on Lena.  And from HANA alone I was able to suspend my disbelief enough in the world to keep reading because I think everything else fit and there was an obvious care and craft to the world itself.  It didn't appear to be thrown together in a blender and spit out.  I can't say if that would hold true if I re-read DELIRIUM or tried to get into PANDEMONIUM though.

Ban Factor: High - Those kids rebelling against the system.  Can't have that, children thumbing their noses at adults.  Breeds malcontents!

Join the Resistance!

Fight for love by liking the Delirium Trilogy on Facebook and help spread the word by using the above poster or a slew of others to recruit people to join the cause.  Then be sure to follow Lauren Oliver on Twitter for up-to-date information on her DELIRIUM trilogy.

I'm a bad DELIRIUM fan and I haven't read PANDEMONIUM yet but I'm working on it.  *looks at TBR pile*  Really, I am.

YAckers Review: Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver

Published October 4, 2011.

Author website.

Liesl lives in a tiny attic bedroom, locked away by her cruel stepmother. Her only friends are the shadows and the mice—until one night a ghost appears from the darkness. It is Po, who comes from the Other Side. Both Liesl and Po are lonely, but together they are less alone.

That same night, an alchemist's apprentice, Will, bungles an important delivery. He accidentally switches a box containing the most powerful magic in the world with one containing something decidedly less remarkable.

Will's mistake has tremendous consequences for Liesl and Po, and it draws the three of them together on an extraordinary journey. (goodreads.com)

Ultimately it ended up being a lovely story but it just felt something was missing. And really I think it was. The characters just weren't built up enough and the story didn't reach it's full potential. But it was still nice. I enjoyed reading it and so did my fellow YAckers. But I think our mindset was so fixed on YA that we kept forgetting this was a middle grade story. Read our thoughts over at our substitute Keeper of the Book's place, Laura at A Jane of All Reads.

Ban Factor: Medium - It's got magic in it but it's almost as light and fluffy as Cinderella so it would depend on how smart the reading banner was. Which is an oxymoron.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver + Contest!

Published February 1, 2011.

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn't understand that once love - the deliria - blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold.

Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Haloway has always looked forward to the day when she'll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment,

Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love. (book back blurb)

Wow. There are few words to describe this book but one of them is that. Wow.

Every word of this story burrowed under my skin and festered there, leaving me starving for more once the story ended. It's funny because as much as I loved the story, I want to say it was too long. And I really think it was. For every lyrical word I read, I felt a good third of them could have been chopped and still maintained the dignity and integrity of the story in its entirety. If it were shorter, I don't think I would have missed anything. I would have still found myself as attached to the story as I am now. But at the end of the day, I didn't mind reading all of those extra words. They just put more fluffy in the bed of story I was lying in.

I loved seeing Lena change as the story progressed and watching her become her own Hana without realizing it until it'd already happened. I'm not a big fan of playing up the "I'm so normal" schtick that YA female protags have a tendency of doing but it's what's in the seemingly "normal" that the story lies. There is a point to it so if you find yourself rolling your eyes as you read about yet another teen MC finding herself plain next to her gorgeous best friend, just hold it out. It redeems itself. Although what I found pretty pointless was the constant mentioning of Lena's height. By the end of the book I couldn't place its relevance to the overall story. I didn't get why it was mentioned constantly. Can anyone else help me out here?

What I really liked was how Oliver had a way with such seemingly little lines that did such an amazing job of portraying Lena's naivety exactly how it was, without pretenses. My favorites:

"I hate it when my aunt looks at me like that, like she's reading all the bad parts from my soul." (pg. 71)

"It's [The Telltale Heart] supposed to be a story about guilt and the dangers of civil disobedience, but when I first read it I thought it seemed kind of lame and melodramatic. Now I get it, though. Poe must have snuck out a lot when he was young." (pg. 117)

I'm a fan of Romeo & Juliet and I really liked the way Oliver bled that theme over into Delirium. In reality, it's a pretty commonly-used trope, especially in YA, but I really liked it here. Alex is the type of YA guy that needs to be permeated throughout YA fiction. He's not a dick, he's not a stalker, he treats Lena how she should be treated. Shock! So I was really pushing for the two to end up together because I found him such a redeeming and valuable character to the story.

I thought the world Oliver developed was absolutely amazing. More than once I found myself getting audibly revolted with how that society functioned. Lobotomizing the population as a means to control them? How terrifying is that? It's the nineteenth century redux. I also liked how the vantage point rose up off of Lena's shoulders every once in a while so the reader got a better view of the world. How it's all fenced in and electrified and the crazy that lies behind its borders (and within it). I also liked how the illusion broke down as the story went on, shattering the safe indoctrination Lena got as she was growing up. Really I liked how Delirium can be viewed as what can happen when the government takes protecting us from ourselves a little too far. It's scary and who's to say it couldn't happen? Really?

I haven't read Before I Fall but if the writing is anything like Delirium, I'm going to swallow the thing whole. This book induces some serious writer envy in me. It's a level that I would strive to reach and can only dream of achieving. I have no doubt Delirium will prevail as one of the defining novels of dystopian literature for years to come. It doesn't always have to be about society totally breaking down. This one's all about society winding itself far too tight. If you're looking for a dystopian book that doesn't involve society functioning at its basest animal instincts for survival, Delirium is it. And the writing and plot and characters are all fantastic enough to suck you in and hold you strong as well. I wouldn't want to forget mentioning that.

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