Review: Rooms by Lauren Oliver

Title: Rooms

Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: Ecco
Release date: September 23rd 2014
Pages: 320
Genre: adult paranormal
Source: BEA 2014
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Wealthy Richard Walker has just died, leaving behind his country house full of rooms packed with the detritus of a lifetime. His estranged family—bitter ex-wife Caroline, troubled teenage son Trenton, and unforgiving daughter Minna—have arrived for their inheritance.
But the Walkers are not alone. Prim Alice and the cynical Sandra, long dead former residents bound to the house, linger within its claustrophobic walls. Jostling for space, memory, and supremacy, they observe the family, trading barbs and reminiscences about their past lives. Though their voices cannot be heard, Alice and Sandra speak through the house itself—in the hiss of the radiator, a creak in the stairs, the dimming of a light bulb.
The living and dead are each haunted by painful truths that will soon surface with explosive force. When a new ghost appears, and Trenton begins to communicate with her, the spirit and human worlds collide—with cataclysmic results.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I really don't know what to make of Rooms. I feel bad criticizing the novel in any way because it might just not be for me; adult paranormal is pretty much as far away from my comfort zone (aka contemporary YA) that you can get, and I only read it because it has Lauren Oliver's name on it, to be honest. I really liked the premise and concept behind Rooms, and the story is definitely intriguing. But for some reason, I never really connected with it; I could appreciate that it's well-written and expertly plotted, but there wasn't anything I could absolutely love about it.

I enjoyed Minna's, Caroline's, and Trenton's parts of the narratives. They're not exactly sympathetic characters, but they're definitely intriguing. They each have a very distinct voice that painted clear pictures of each character. All three of them have issues and are some seriously messed-up characters, but they work. They're very well-written, and yet, I couldn't love them quite as much as I wanted to. I'm not one to complain about unlikable characters or pretend I only want to read about the kinds of people I would want to be friends with, because that would be boring. But even though it's not necessary for me to like the characters, it is necessary to make me somehow emotionally invested in them, and that wasn't really the case: I found it hard to get myself to really care about their stories or what happens to them. Like I said, rationally I could appreciate how well-crafted they are, but on a more personal level, I couldn't love them or root for them the way I wanted to.

I'm not sure what to make of Alice and Sandra's stories. Honestly, the problem is that I couldn't tell them apart - and I don't know if that's the book's fault for not being clear enough or my fault for not being attentive enough in my reading. Alice and Sandra have very different personalities now, so whenever they are talking to each other (i.e. bickering), they are very easy to tell apart. But when they were telling us about their lives and how they ended up here, I found it really hard to keep their stories straight, for some reason. This might just be because I wasn't paying enough attention, but either way it made it really hard to get to know or fully understand either character.

I think Rooms could also be categorized as mystery, because you don't find out what is really going on until the very end. There is a ton of plot twists that explain how the various stories tie in together. These revelations are (at least in part) surprising and intriguing, but it bothered me that so many of them take place at the very end of the novel. While of course it makes sense to not want to reveal anything earlier than that, this meant that the implications of these plot twists are not explored in an emotionally satisfying way, which significantly decreased their impact, for me.

Lauren Oliver's writing is exquisite, as always, so on a purely aesthetic level, I did enjoy Rooms. But I wasn't personally invested in the story in any way, and the plot twists aren't explored enough to get me to love the story. I do recommend Rooms for the intriguing premise and the beautiful writing style, but I won't be calling it a personal favorite. 

Review: Requiem by Lauren Oliver

Title: Requiem
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publihser: HarperCollins Children's Books
Release date: March 5th 2013
Pages: 391
Genre: Young Adult dystopian
Source: Bought
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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.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Delirium is one of my favorite dystopian series, so of course I was both excited and scared to see how it would end. And like many other readers, I was satisfied with the novel as a whole, but really disappointed by the ending.

The pacing is fast like in Pandemonium, keeping me riveted throughout the novel. I really liked seeing what life is like for Lena in the Wilds, and the hardships of the life she has chosen are even more obvious in this book than in Pandemonium. I enjoyed the plot, but I wasn't always satisfied with Lena's character: I think Requiem undid some of the character growth Lena had experienced in Pandemonium, and she frustrated me especially in regards to the romance.

Even more so than Lena's, I loved Hana's chapters. It was fascinating to see what life is like on the other side, seeing Hana struggle with combing her own identity with what the cure has turned her into. Even though her life is filled with a lot less danger and violence than Lena's, of course, it still has plenty of drama and threats. I really enjoyed seeing how this dystopian world works through Hana's eyes, and I like how it shifted the focus towards Hana's and Lena's friendship, or what it has turned into.

One thing I didn't love is the love triangle. I thought Lauren Oliver might escape the stereotypical love triangle with her superb writing and character development, but that wasn't really the case. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'm just going to say I found the romance predictable and underwhelming.

And of course, the ending. The ending is what brought down the rating to three stars, really. I know a lot of people are disappointed by the open-ness of the ending and by how you don't know what happens to any of the characters. To me, that part wasn't even so bad: I don't usually mind open endings where you are left to decide what you think will happen to the characters. What frustrated me is that we don't get to see anything about the effect of the fighting and the revolution: we don't find out it anything changes, or if the revolution in Portland has any effect on the rest of the country. That made all of the fighting and all of the violence seem really meaningless, since we don't get to know enough about the greater cause.

Even if I'm disappointed by the outcome of Requiem, I'm still a huge fan of the Delirium trilogy. With an intriguing premise and beautiful writing, Delirium is one of my favorite series, even if I would have liked to see further development of the story towards the end.

Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Pandemonium (Delirium #2)
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release date: February 28th 2012
Pages: 375
Genre: Young Adult dystopian
Source: Bought
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The old life is dead. But the old Lena is dead too. I buried her. I left her beyond a fence, behind a wall of smoke and flame.
In this electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium, Lauren Oliver sets Lena on a dangerous course that hurtles her through the unregulated Wilds and into the heart of a growing resistance movement. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I love Lauren Oliver and I loved Delirium, so of course I was beyond excited to read Pandemonium. (Don't ask why it took me so long to get to this, then. Blame... life.) And while Pandemonium is different from Delirium in a lot of ways, I really enjoyed this one, too!

I just reread my review of Delirium, and I talked about how much I loved the slower pacing of the first novel in this series. In some ways, Delirium feels more like a contemporary than a dystopian - which I, as someone who reads contemporary almost exclusively, really appreciated. Taking that into consideration, I should have enjoyed Pandemonium a lot less than Delirium - the pace is a lot faster with a lot more action, and it reads more like a "typical" dystopian novel. I liked it like that, too, though - it felt like a natural transition of the series. So while I enjoyed both novels, I liked them in really different ways.

What hasn't changed in Lauren Oliver's books, though, is her beautiful writing. I don't even know how to describe it. Her writing works well with the slower pace and emotionally-heavy scenes in Before I Fall and Delirium, but it doesn't fall short in the action-packed in Pandemonium, either. The pacing is great, and Lauren Oliver's writing kept me on my toes throughout the novel. 

One thing I'm still not sure about is the format. Pandemonium uses alternating chapters, switching back and forth between two times in Lena's life, the Then and the Now. I get that this is used to heighten suspense, and it works - I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to find out what happens in both storylines, especially because the chapters tend to end on cliffhangers. But I still don't think that was necessary. It's confusing at first, and later on, I thought it was kind of strange that there is still a part missing between the end of the Then and the beginning of the Now. I also found it strange to write one book in the series in this format without the others ones using a similar one.

I don't want to give anything away, but I was a little disappointed by the ending. I saw it coming from the very start, and I kept hoping Lauren Oliver would have thought of something less predictable, a more original way to hook readers at the end, but alas.

Despite those smaller issues, I really enjoyed Pandemonium. It's a lot faster-paced than Delirium, which I'm sure worked better for a lot of readers than the slower pace of Delirium. I didn't love Pandemonium quite as much as Delirium, but it was still a great read! Now I just need to get around to reading Requiem...

Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release date: February 1st 2011
Pages: 441
Genre: YA; dystopian
Source: Bought
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Ninety-five days, and then I'll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It's hard to be patient. It's hard not to be afraid while I'm still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn't touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I just love the whole idea for this book. The idea of considering love a disease that must be cured is genius - such a unique way of looking at it. That, combined with all the glowing reviews, and the fact that Lauren Oliver's debut, Before I Fall, is absolutely amazing, meant that my expectations for Delirium were through the roof. And for once, my expectations were met!


The unique premise fascinated me throughout the book. Even though the book is mainly Lena's story, the plot is perfectly balanced with interesting world-building that really made me think. I loved the insight we got into this world with the help of the little snippets of The Book of Shhh. All these references and the way they seemed to rewrite history provided a unique worldview that fascinated me as a reader.


I loved our main character, Lena. One of the reasons I don't read dystopian books too often - well, I've been reading quite a few lately, but I don't usually read a lot of them - is that I cannot seem to connect with the MCs. MCs in the dystopian genre always seem to be so heroic and special; they're the one who saves the world. But I want MCs who are normal - easy to relate to, and not someone who's braver and stronger than I could ever imagine anyone real being. And Lena, for once, is easy to relate to. Some might complain that she's boring, but I loved her. The way she sees the world is realistic, considering her background, growing up in this world and learning about love the way she did. Often, I find that in dystopians, the MC tends to question the government too quickly to be realistic, but in Delirium, the development is gradual, which I really appreciated.


Delirium is a lot closer to contemporary than most dystopians I've read. There's not too much action - it's just about Lena's story and the world she lives in. That might be a problem for some people, maybe people who read more paranormal and dystopian and whatnot, but for a lover of contemps like me, that's perfect. And in the end, we get our fair share of action - leaving me dying to read Pandemonium.


I didn't love the romance at first - I found the set-up a little strange, and didn't really get Alex's immediate attraction to Lena. But once the two of them get to know each other, I loved them together! They have such great chemistry, and seeing them struggle to be together in a world like this was fascinating to read about.


I loved Lauren Oliver's writing in Before I Fall, and I liked it in Delirium, too, but I think the descriptive style fits a little better to contemporary than to dystopian. When I read contemps, I look for descriptive, vivid, emotional writing like Lauren Oliver's, but for a dystopian, I think a little less details wouldn't have hurt, since the beginning is a little slow.


Still, I really liked Delirium. It's one of those books you can just get lost in - I almost missed my stop when I was reading this book on the bus because I was so inmersed in the story. I will definitely be reading the rest of the trilogy!

What do you think would happen in a world without love? How terrible would the consequences be? Are there also postive sides to an order like that?