Requiem (Delirium #3)

Unlike the first 2 books, Delirium and Pandemonium, Requiem is told from a dual personality from two different characters, Lena and Hana. As I have mentioned before, I love when stories are told from different point-of-views. However, at first, I was a bit disappointed that Hana was chosen. It didn't take long to realize that having Hana's side of the story and what was going on in her world was imperative and just as intriguing and intense as Lena's world.

There isn't much that I can tell you about the actual plot without any spoilers. But I am going to do my best in telling you why I think that this is one of the best endings I have ever read...

In book one, we saw Lena on the inside being kept safe from the disease. She was doing what she had to do to just get to her surgery date so she wouldn't have to worry about what happened to her mother happening to her too. That is, until she met Alex. And learned that there is another way to live, as long as you have something worth fighting for. In book two, we watched Lena survive, learn and grow out in the wilds. She creates a new life, new friends become her family. And she meets Julian, who is sweet, safe and exactly what Lena needs at this moment in her life. She makes new discoveries about people she cares deeply about and we watch her reactions and the consequences to that.
Now, Lena has come to the ultimate battle. Where does her alliance stand? With whom? What does she want out of her life - to make a stand and live with new consequences? Even death? Or will she try to take the easy way out, travel far, away from all the fighting and hide for as long as she can?
And, what most of us have been waiting for... who will Lena choose?

But there is so much more to just Lena's story. And Lauren Oliver makes it loud and clear, no matter what life brings, you always have a choice. Don't hide from anything, no matter how scary it may be, or how hard, you have the right to do what you believe in. Follow your heart. Yes, at times you may choose wrong, you may fall down many, many times. But in the end, what truly counts, is that you are honest with yourself, with others. And don't let anyone ever stop you from doing what you want to do.

The last page of Requiem, page 391, will forever stay with me. I've told many people already - I want to get another copy of this book so I can tear the last page out and frame it. It's something that I want to remind myself of. It's something that I want my kids to know...
"Tear down the walls."
Don't build barricades around yourself, or you'll always live in fear.

I highly recommend this series to everyone. Love is not a disease. Fear is.

Huh...well that was...anti-climatic. Review to come...really have to think on this one. Went from 4 to 3 stars now. I just can't stand to give it more. I need to dwell a bit more. Will write this review tonight or tomorrow.

Ok, so I am finally going to review this. I will be honest and say that it was really hard for me to rate this book. There are things that I liked about, a lot. But I think the things I didn't like about it outweighed those and it brought my rating down. It actually pains me to give this only 3 stars when I rated the first and second book so much higher. I guess I had very high hopes for this book and they were just thrown to the wind. So, let's get on with it. I will try my hardest to keep this spoiler free, but I have to say that if you have not read the first or second book you might be totally lost and you will definitely read stuff you should not know.

Blurb from Goodreads:
They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.
But we are still here.
And there are more of us every day.
Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.
After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.
Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.
Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.
But we have chosen a different road.
And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.
We are even free to choose the wrong thing.
Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge

So I'll start with the cover. To be honest, these covers with the girls face on them are just ok for me. They aren't spectacular. They give me a picture of what Lena might look like and that's about it. They tell me nothing of the story, or what is contained in the book. I would like to see something that reveals those things a bit more.

As for the characters in this book, I don't find they are really well fleshed out. I don't find you get the depth from them that you had in the other books.
Now, as for Lena, I disliked her a lot in this book. She did so much growing in the second book. She became this strong, tough woman who learned to fight for what she wanted and how to protect herself. But in this book, she fell back from that, becoming a wishy washy, dependent, annoying teen who was torn between her two "loves". In all honesty, I wanted to slap her across the face for most of this book. I felt like she was trudging along hoping that things would just work out. She could not make a decision to save her life. And she didn't fight for what she wanted. In book 2 she was strong and determined, in this one she was weak and almost uncaring.
As for Julian and Alex, well, let's just say that you don't get much of them in the story. You get what Lena wants to show you, and it's not much. You get Lena's struggle to figure out who she should be with, when all along she knows in her heart what she wants but does not go after it. Totally frustrating and annoying. She pines away and crawls back into the shell she lived in when we read Delirium.
While Hana's POV was interesting, I truly found that it was not necessary to the story. I understand how the two stories collided in the end, but honestly, I didn't need to hear from Hana's POV. She brought nothing to this story for me except to fill in what seemed like what would have been empty chapters otherwise.

I can say that I truly love Oliver's writing. It's very solid. She really knows how to put words to paper and, for the most part in this book, keep you interested in what was going on. But in all honestly, the plot was thin and fairly unmoving. Nothing grabbed me and had me saying "oh my goodness, I cannot put this book down!" I needed to know what happened in the end and that was the only thing that kept me going. I was almost disinterested in what happened to bring us to that point.

As for the conclusion, did it answer questions, not really. It kind of just hung there having me wondering why I even read the book. There was no closure and since I know this to only be a trilogy, I can't think of why Oliver would not let it go out with a bang. It was reminiscent of Mockingjay's ending, which I thought was rushed and also left things kind of undone and unsaid. And the fact that we really got nothing about Alex in this story, well, that was really disappointing. I want to know what happened to him while he and Lena were apart. Where was the swoon worthy Alex, the one everyone fell in love with in Delirium? If you're looking for him, you won't find him in this installment. If anything, he is annoying and really made me mad for most of the book, when he even made an appearance.

So, overall, I was totally unsatisfied with this conclusion. I am disappointed in Oliver and how she chose to end this series. It's as if she ran out of steam and focus and didn't know where to go with what she created. I missed the heart pumping thrill and overworked brain I got with the first two books. It saddens me to have to give this such a low rating. In all honesty, after talking with a few other reviewers, I almost dropped my rating to a 2, but I believe that Oliver's writing really deserves better.

So, should you read this book? If you read the first two, it really is a must, in my opinion. I don't think you can sit back and not finish it out. However, I would go in with lower expectations than you might currently have because, much to my chagrin, this book is highly over rated by most.

Why I Loved It: *Warning* There may be spoilers from the first two books in this review. If you have not read Delirium or Pandemonium, back away slowly and get busy reading.

I have decided that this is a very hard review to write. When I finished the book, I was snooping through Goodreads because I had a feeling that there would be a lot of mixed reviews on the book. I mean Ms. Oliver took some risks, and I figured people would either love it or be like "bleh." I had decided when I got about halfway through the book that I would be including a definition of the word requiem in my review. When I found out what the title of the book was going to be, I was kinda surprised. It's an interesting choice. So I looked it up. And keeping the definition in mind when I read was actually kind of helpful. Surprise, surprise when I was looking through reviews, I came across Jenna @ Making the Grade's review. A) I love her blog. It's pretty fabulous. and B) I was pleasantly surprised to see just how much her review reflected my thoughts. I almost thought I could just post a link to her review and say "ditto", but that would be selling this great book short. It needs great reviews *not that I normally think mine are particularry great* so here we go.

According to Webster, Requiem means...
1: a mass for the dead
2 a: a solemn chant (as a dirge) for the repose of the dead
b: something that resembles such a solemn chant
3 a: a musical setting of the mass for the dead
b: a musical composition in honor of the dead

For me, that definition makes perfect sense with the direction Ms. Oliver takes this novel as the final book in the triology. The book was masterfully written, unconvential in the current trend of dystopian novels, and a joy to read. I should say that Delirium was not my favorite of books. I liked it enough, but the idea behind the book was what ensured that I read Pandemonium. And I loved Pandemonium. LOVED IT. What Delirium did have though was an awesome romance. That being said, the week before Requiem came out, I reread Delirium, read "Hana", then reread Pandemonium, and then read "Raven". I wanted to be prepared for this book because I had wished I had reread Delirium before Pandemonium when I got to the huge cliff at the end of Pandemonium with Alex's abrupt return. Drama, drama, drama *Runaway Bride voice*.

Here's the dealio. For me, Requiem was not about Lena's choice between Alex and Julian. It wasn't. That was a part of the book, but Ms. Oliver opened up this world even more to show that the problem was much bigger than any one person. I think if she wanted the focus to be on Lena's love life, Hana wouldn't have had any part of this book. Lena would have alternated with Alex or Julian or both or something like that. But no. Ms. Oliver chose the cured Hana to alternate POV's with the uncured Lena. Both girls have somewhat narrow views of their world seen through the lens cap of their circumstances. Through both of those views though, the reader gets an in-depth look into this futureistic United States, the restistance, and the ultimate problem. Love was never the issue. Control and power and the ability to use those key points to increase the individual is what the issue was. Love was just the key to get there. Requiem is real and powerful and incredibly action-packed and intense. Ms. Oliver is such a gifted writer, and I will read anything she writes.

The reader does not leave the triology with all their questions answered. You will have lots of questions most likely. However, I find that such is ok. We don't always get resolution in the real world. We might not like it as readers, but I came away from the ending with a mix of emotions. Heartbroken? Perhaps. Satified? Sure. Floored with my respect for the incredible writing I had just experienced over the day? You betcha.

More reasons to read this book NOW
Lena's mother has more attention
Alex's return with his awesome self
Julian gains more cool points
Hana's POV actually is pretty awesome
The Restistance kicks some serious butt
Alex's story is at the end of Requiem in the first print books *SO GOOD*
If you would like to see Jenna's review over at Making the Grade, just go on here.