Early Review: The Taking by Kimberly Derting

Title: The Taking
Author: Kimberly Derting
Series: The Taking #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: April 29, 2014
Source: eARC
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

A flash of white light . . . and then . . . nothing.

When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas ’n’ Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have passed . . . yet she hasn’t aged a day.

Everything else about Kyra’s old life is different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little green men.

Confused and lost, Kyra isn’t sure how to move forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler, Austin’s annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from the fateful night of her disappearance, they discover strange phenomena that no one can explain, and they begin to wonder if Kyra’s father is not as crazy as he seems. There are others like her who have been taken . . . and returned. Kyra races to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had, but what if the life she wants back is not her own?

My Thoughts:

Kimberly Derting has been one of my favorite authors for a very long time. I’m a huge fan of The Body Finder series and even though The Pledge wasn't that great for me, I was super excited when I found out she was releasing a new series! The Taking was literally the first book that I read this year! I was so excited about my ARC that I couldn't wait to dive right in.

The Taking is about a sixteen year old girl named Kyra who, after a softball game, suddenly disappears without a trace. She wakes up behind the dumpster of her local gas station 5 years later but it feels like the next morning to her. She’s still wearing her softball uniform and hasn't aged a day. Soon, a mysterious stranger starts showing up everywhere she goes and Kyra soon discovers that there is a lot more behind her disappearance than she originally thought.

Even though Kyra is a good main character I didn't feel all that emotionally attached to her. Everything that happens, her disappearance and reappearance, all happens so fast in the very beginning that you don’t really get a chance to become attached to the life that she had before. Most of the story is her struggle with accepting that everyone has moved on without her. We, the readers, don’t get the chance to know the Kyra before, we only know the person that Kyra becomes after she resurfaces.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Kyra and Tyler who incidentally is her “before” boyfriend’s younger brother. Since five years has now passed, Tyler is one year older than Kyra. They become really close throughout the book, both trying to figure out what happened to her. Tyler is really super cute! He always admired his older brother's girlfriend and now here she is, she hasn't aged a day and he has the chance to actually get to know her! I really like that he kind of always held a candle for her!

The plotting and the pacing of the book were a little bit slow at times, especially in the middle but it really kicks up towards the end, making me hopeful that book two will be an action-packed adventure. There was also a bit of a cliffhanger at the end which made me really excited! I don’t generally like cliffhangers but this one made me really anticipate the rest of the series! Oh, and since I wasn't super obvious about it, it’s about aliens which we definitely don’t have enough of in YA right now.

The Taking was a really great book to start the year off with and now in just a couple of weeks everyone can enjoy it as well! Not only was it a great start to a really exciting new series, it can really appeal to those readers who are new to sci-fi!

Review- Bumped

Title: Bumped
Author: Megan McCafferty
Series: Bumped #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads
Source: Purchased eBook

When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents are forced to pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society.

Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and had never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody’s doorstep. Until now, the twins have followed completely opposite paths. Melody has scored an enviable conception contract with a couple called the Jaydens. While they are searching for the perfect partner for Melody to bump with, she is fighting her attraction to her best friend Zen, who is way too short for the job.

Harmony has spent her whole life in religious Goodside, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to bring Melody back to Goodside and convince her that “pregging” for profit is a sin. But Harmony has secrets of her own that she is running from.

When Melody is finally matched with the world-famous, genetically flawless Jondoe, both girls’ lives are changed forever. A case of mistaken identity takes them on a journey neither could have ever imagined, one that makes Melody and Harmony realize they have so much more than just DNA in common.

My thoughts:

I am a huge, huge fan of Megan McCafferty! She is literally one of my favorite authors. I absolutely adore the Jessica Darling series, so when I discovered that she had written a young adult book I knew I had to read it!

Bumped is definitely one of the most unusual books I have ever read. But I immediately grasped on to the concept of the oversexed, baby crazy community and right then I knew that it is a satire. And I love satire! Ever since college when I had to read Jonathan Swift and other writers who wrote satires and completely embarrassed their family members, I knew I loved satire. I most relate it to dry or sarcastic humor that sometimes doesn’t translate well to the page. But once I was able to put myself in that mindset, I found it absolutely hilarious!

I love how absolutely over the top Bumped is. In this futuristic world where men and women are both affected by a virus that causes them to be infertile by their twenties, society is completely obsessed with teenagers having sex and making babies. Everything they do, say, wear and aspire to revolves around it.

Melody, one of the main characters, is a reproductive professional and her parents have worked long and hard to secure her a very high paying contract with a rich couple she is supposed to have a baby for. But of course everything goes wrong when her identical twin sister shows up and tries to get her “see the light” and the error of her ways.

The only thing I didn’t really like about this book was that Melody and Harmony were both sort of annoying and bratty. They were both very selfish and had a hard time seeing outside the scope of their world view. Melody definitely grew more as a character than Harmony. By the end, Melody was beginning to question whether or not she was making the right decisions by being a reproductive professional.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book! I give Bumped 4 hearts because I know it must have taken some serious wit to write it!

Review: Social Suicide

Title: Social Suicide
Author: Gemma Halliday
Series: Deadly Cool #2
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: April 24, 2012
Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads
Source: ARC compliments of HarperTeen

Twittercide [twit-er-sahyd]: the killing of one human being by another while the victim is in the act of tweeting.

Call me crazy, but I figured writing for the Herbert Hoover High Homepage would be a pretty sweet gig. Pad the resume for college applications, get a first look at the gossip column, spend some time ogling the paper’s brooding bad-boy editor, Chase Erikson. But on my first big story, things went... a little south. What should have been a normal interview with Sydney Sanders turned into me discovering the Homecoming Queen-hopeful dead in her pool. Electrocuted while Tweeting. Now, in addition to developing a reputation as HHH’s resident body finder, I’m stuck trying to prove that Sydney’s death wasn’t suicide.

I’m starting to long for the days when my biggest worry was whether the cafeteria was serving pizza sticks or Tuesday Tacos...

My thoughts: 

Hartley Featherstone is by far one of my favorite silly murder mystery crime solvers ever! Deadly Cool was one of my favorite reads last year and I was so excited to hear that the release of Social Suicide was right around the corner!

Hartley is so hilarious! This year she’s on the staff of the school paper and she has been itching to land a huge story so that she can impress Chase, the editor. So when a fellow classmate gets caught cheating and then mysteriously commits “twittercide”, Hartley wants this story all to herself and she will do whatever it takes to find out the truth.

Hartley is such a great character because of her determination. She doesn’t let anything like the police, a possible killer on the loose or curfews stop her from investigating. She’s also not whiny like a lot of other characters out there in YA. She’s clumsy, she’s gets herself into the craziest situations and she always laughs at herself in the end.

Chase is so freakin HOT in Social Suicide! He continually send her these mixed signals where he won’t really explain what they’re doing so beforehand Hartley thinks it might be a date so her best friend dresses her up all fancy but then it turns out to be a steak-out in the bushes. Situations like that were just so hilarious! I loved that romance isn’t the main focus of Social Suicide. Chase and Hartley’s relationship is going really slow, which can be annoying sometimes but you’re just laughing your ass off so much that you don’t even notice.

If you haven’t read Deadly Cool yet I strongly recommend that you do! They are such fun, quick reads where you can lose yourself and the next thing you know you’ve finished the book! They can be predictable at times but the ride is so fun that you don’t even notice! I give Social Suicide 4 hearts because Hartley had me laughing the whole time!

Review- The Last Echo

Title: The Last Echo
Author: Kimberly Derting
Series: The Body Finder #3
Publisher: HarperTeen
Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads
Source: ARC compliments of HarperTeen

In the end, all that's left is an echo...

Violet kept her morbid ability to sense dead bodies a secret from everyone except her family and her childhood-best-friend-turned-boyfriend, Jay Heaton. That is until forensic psychologist Sara Priest discovered Violet's talent and invited her to use her gift to track down murderers. Now, as she works with an eclectic group of individuals—including mysterious and dangerously attractive Rafe—it's Violet's job to help those who have been murdered by bringing their killers to justice. When Violet discovers the body of a college girl killed by "the girlfriend collector" she is determined to solve the case. But now the serial killer is on the lookout for a new "relationship" and Violet may have caught his eye....

My thoughts:

I love this series! I love this book. I love Violet and Jay. I love her ability. I love her job. I love that she always wants to help. I love Rafe. I love the perspective of the killer. I love the creepiness. I just have such an overwhelming love for everything about the Body Finder Series!

I was convinced that when I got this book it was going to be the last Body Finder book. I was a little bit sad but I also know that all good series have to come to an end. But when you get to the end, you find out that it is, in fact, not the end at all! Which also makes me very happy because I will take more Violet, Jay and echoes to find any day.

As previously stated above, I absolutely love the characters. I fell in love with Jay and Violet in the first book and have been rooting for them ever since. They continue to grow with each other and become better people. What I really loved about the Last Echo is that we get to know so much more about Rafe. Dark, serious, mysterious and sexy Rafe. And there definitely is a reason for that dark and tortured attitude. There is also a big reveal about Rafe and another character that I did not see coming! When I first met Rafe in Desires of the Dead I did not like him because I felt like he was causing problems with Jay and Violet’s relationship. And now I’m so torn! I absolutely love Jay but Rafe has this certain appeal like a guilty pleasure. I’m nervous about the state of Jay and Violet’s relationship in the next book!

The killer in this book is especially creepy! He’s convinced that when a girl looks at him and smiles then that’s the start of their relationship. He kidnaps them because he thinks they’re his girlfriends but he doesn’t see it as kidnapping. He even paints their nails!

The Last Echo is a great addition to the Body Finder series! As long as Derting continues to write fantastic books, I will continue to read them! I give The Last Echo 4 heart because I just love it so much!

Review- Masque of the Red Death

Title: Masque of the Red Death
Author: Bethany Griffin
Publisher: HarperTeen
Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads
Source: ARC compliments of HarperTeen

Everything is in ruins.

A devastating plague has decimated the population. And those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles to pieces around them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery make-up . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club. And Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither boy is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.

And Araby may find something not just to live for, but to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

My thoughts:

When I first read the title of this book I added to my wish list on Goodreads even though it didn’t have a cover or a synopsis. I’ve been a huge fan of Edgar Allen Poe ever since high school and the Masque of the Red Death is one of my favorite short stories. Then the cover and the synopsis were revealed and I about died! I knew I had to get my hands on an ARC of this book no matter what I had to do to get it!

And let me tell you, I was in no way disappointed! Never have a read a book where the writing and the story was just as dark and beautiful as the cover. They fit each other perfectly.

I loved the dark world of death that Griffin created. The way she depicted the dying in the streets and the carts picking up the dead, is exactly how I pictured the Bubonic Plague that ravaged Europe in the 14th century. More modern of course but definitely the same concept. In this world, people are either so rich that they are able to lock themselves away and hope that the virus never reaches them, those that have turned to religion and those, like Araby who go to the clubs and take drugs to numb themselves of the pain.

This first book (after the ending it has to be a series) is a great setup for what is going to happen next. The world building was amazing, we got to know the characters and now the momentum is really going for book 2. And let me tell you I cannot wait!!!

As much as I absolutely loved the book, I thought the ending was somewhat anti-climactic. I guessing all the action is going to happen in the next book which is understandable. There was also a huge surprise that I wasn’t expecting so that really helped too! I’m giving this book 5 hearts and putting in on my list of favorite reads of 2012!

Review- Slide

Title: Slide
Author: Jill Hathaway
Publisher: HarperTeen
Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads
Source: ARC from HarperTeen

Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.
Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body.

Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane.

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

My thoughts:

Over the past few months I have really become a huge fan of books that I consider to be mysteries with just a hint of the paranormal. In these books, there's usually no such thing as vampires or werewolves, just someone with a slight ability that makes them unique. For example: Violet from the Body Finder Series can sense the echos of those that have been murdered, Delany from Fracture is drawn to those that are dying and Vee from Slide can fall into a person's body if she is holding one of their personal items. I really love a good mystery, who-done-it type of book.

The main character Vee pulled me in two opposite directions. On the one hand she is very closed off, has about one friend who doesn't even know about her ability and acts like a mother to her younger sister. She seems to be this really closed off person who doesn't really let anyone in but as soon as the new guy in town shows a little bit of interest in her she is all over him! I thought it was kind of a contradiction to her character.

I thought Vee's little sister was a brat and I wanted to slap her so many times! She was always mad at Vee because Vee chose to be best friends with someone who was considered a “loser” and never really wanted to go to the big parties or the social functions at school. Characters like that are just really shallow and very annoying.

Even though I sort of figured out what was going on about two-thirds of the way through the book, I still really enjoyed it and I was still surprised to find out who all was involved in the murders. I thought it was a very good stand alone book and I have just come to realize that it's the first in a series. I don't know how this is going to be a series because I think it's a great book by itself. I give this book 3 hearts because I really thought it was an original idea but I figured out who was master-mind murderer.

Review- The Lying Game

Title: The Lying Game
Author: Sara Shepard
Series: The Lying Game #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads

I had a life anyone would kill for.

Then someone did.

The worst part of being dead is that there's nothing left to live for.  No more kisses.  No more secrets.  No more gossip.  It's enough to kill a girl all over again.  But I'm about to get something no one else does--an encore performance, thanks to Emma, the long-lost twin sister I never even got to meet.

Now Emma's desperate to know what happened to me.  And the only way to figure it out is to be me--slip into my old life and piece it all together.  But can she laugh at inside jokes with my best friends?  Convince my boyfriend she's the girl he fell in love with?  Pretend to be a happy, carefree daughter when she hugs my parents good night?  And can she keep up with charade, even after she realizes my murderer is watching her ever move?

My thoughts: 

I absolutely loved the Lying Game! It was full of mystery, secrets, nasty teen-girl gossip, high school pranks and murder! I felt like I was right in the middle of a Mean Girls episode!

I love the characters Emma Baker and Sutton Mercer! They're twins, who have never met yet have, surprisingly, a lot of similarities despite growing up separately.  Emma is able to put herself into Sutton's life without many people noticing the difference.  I was on the edge of my seat the whole time wondering if someone was going to finally figure it out or if Emma's real life was going to catch up with her.

I also loved the concept of the lying game.  The group has to continually out-do each other and make the next prank bigger and better than the last.  But where does it end?  They literally put their reputations and their lives on the line when they play the lying game.  And they've done it for so long and have gotten so extreme that even the law enforcement won't bat an eye in their directions because they've cried wolf too many time.

The Lying Game was absolutely incredible! I love the book and I love the show even though they're completely different.  It completely rocked my world and I can't wait to see what happens to Emma in the next one!

Review- Desires of the Dead

Title: Desires of the Dead
Author: Kimberly Derting
Series: The Body Finder #2
Publisher: HarperTeen
Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads
Source: Purchased

Violet can sense the echoes of those who've been murdered-and the matching imprint that clings to their killers.  Only those closest to her know what she is capable of, but when she discovers the body of a young boy she also drawn the attentions of the FBI, threatening her entire way of life.

As Violet works to keep her morbid ability a secret, she unwittingly becomes the object of a dangerous obsession.  Normally she'd turn to her best friend, Jay, except now that they are officially a couple, the rules of their relationship seem to have changed.  And with Jay spending more and more time with his new friend Mike, Violet is left with too much time on her hands as she wonders where things went wrong.  But when she fills the void by digging into Mike's tragic family history, she stumbles upon a dark truth that could put everyone in danger.  

My thoughts:

I love this series! It's one of my favorite YA mystery/semi-paranormal series right now! It's full of romance, murder, dark murky places and a strange girl who uncovers dead bodies in the most random places.

Violet and Jay are still together in the second installment of the Body Finder series which makes me so happy because they are one of my favorite fictional couples.  Their relationship started out as best friends in elementary and junior high school and slowly evolved into a deep loving romantic relationship.  They know each other's deepest, darkest secrets and they love each other just the same for it.

I love that the story just mainly revolves around them and all the other characters are just supporting roles.  It's all from the perspective of Violet so we never have to worry about getting a random inside look on what her friends are doing because they don't ever really matter all that much.  The other perspective the story is told from is either a killer or someone who is eventually going to play a part in the story and sometimes those little sections really freak me out.

My one tiny complaint about Violet her is lack of common sense when she should be using it the most.  When she hears an echo, she drops everything she is doing and starts to follow it no matter where it leads her.  Even if it takes to her to the middle of the wood until she gets absolutely lost and of course there's no cell reception.  This is what she should do instead: When she hears an echo, she should immediately go find Jay so he can go with her to find it and then she would be so much safer.  But she almost never does that so it's no wonder Jay like never wants her to leave the house.

The Body Finder series is finally coming to a close when the Last Echo is released next year.  It makes me kind of sad but all, even good, things must come to an end eventually.  If you haven't read the Body Finder or Desires of the Dead yet, I high recommend that you do so! I'm glad I did and I wasn't disappointed!

Review- Paranormalcy

Title: Paranormalcy

Author: Kiersten White

Publisher: HarperTeen

Rating: 4/5

Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads

Evie's always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she's falling for a shape-shifter, and she's the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours.

But Evie's about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.

My thoughts:

I was so skeptical when I bought this book because of all the hype that it got. I've had a few bad experiences with a couple of really hyped up books so this book sat on my shelf for a little while before I gave it a chance. I am so glad I finally read it!

What I liked most about Paranormalcy was that it still had the seriousness of a book with supernatural characters with the light humor of a teenager. I also really enjoyed Evie's personality and the way she made me laugh during the dangerous times with vampires and other paranormal creatures being killed.

Kiersten White did a great job of webbing a story of secrets and exciting revelations. I was totally shocked by Evie's status in the Paranormal Containment Agency. I also thought that the story was very unique within the genre of paranormal and it wasn't assumed that all paranormal creatures are bad or killers by nature. In a lot of paranormal books, supernatural characters are bad and trained killers are going around staking vampires, but in Paranormalcy, almost all the supernatural beings are given a chance to prove themselves.

Evie is just awesome in general. She travels down faery paths around the world to catalog supernatural creatures while wearing high heels and leopard print mini dresses! I also loved the very honest relationship that she has with Lend. They show each other their true nature without any judgement and they accept each other for who they are.

Paranormalcy is such a unique story and I did not expect it to be so good. I'm super excited to see how this story continues in Supernaturally. And the covers are pretty awesome!

Review- The Body Finder

Title: The Body Finder

Author: Kimberly Derting

Publisher: HarperTeen

Rating: 5/5

Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads

Blurb:

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies-or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world...and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet as never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer-and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer...and becoming his prey herself.

My thoughts:

First of all, I can't believe it has taken me this long to finally read The Body Finder! Second of all, it was one of the best books that I've read all year! And third, I'm quickly becoming Kimberly Derting's very won stalkerazzi! I cannot wait to get Desires of the Dead and November is just way too long for me to wait for The Pledge to be released!!! What ever will I do? On to the good part!

The Body Finder is so creepy, hunting and scary. It literally put me on edge and I was very jumpy while I was reading. What really creeped me out the most were the little snippets from the killers perspective. It really gave the reader a glimpse into what the killer was thinking and, even scarier, how he would choose his victims. After the first snippet which comes by chapter 2 or so, I was absolutely hooked!

I had such a hard time putting this book down! I wanted to turn the lights off, crawl in my bed and under the blankets and use a flashlight to read this book so that no one would bother me. I was just blown away by how intriguing the story was. It's mystery with supernatural and some romance thrown in to make it an amazing young adult novel! Kimberly Derting is proving herself as a writing force to be reckoned with.

Review- 13 Little Blue Envelopes

Title: 13 Little Blue Envelopes

Author: Maureen Johnson

Publisher: HarperTeen

Rating: 4/5

Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads

Blurb:

When Ginny receives thirteen little blue envelopes and instructions to buy a plane ticket to London, she knows something exciting is going to happen. When Ginny doesn't know it that she will have the adventure of her life and it will change her in more ways than one. Life and love are waiting for her across the Atlantic, and the thirteen little blue envelopes are the key to finding them in this funny, romantic, heartbreaking novel.

My thoughts:

Who wouldn't want to go on a super exciting treasure hunt around the world with only letters to guide you?! This would be a dream for me and I would go in a heartbeat. Of course I wouldn't want it to be at the expense of my aunt's death but it would still be so cool.

The writing was so fresh and new that I found myself flying through the book, hardly able to put it down! The character, Ginny, was so shy but by the end she had found a new sense of self-confidence after the journey she had been on.

Of course I wish it had ended differently and that she stayed in London but that's pretty unrealistic. It was still really good and I'm glad I read it!

Review- Delirium

Title: Delirium

Author: Lauren Oliver

Publisher: HarperTeen

Rating: 4/5

Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads

Blurb:

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 it's 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 Holoway 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.

My thoughts:

Lena lives in a world where people believe that love is a disease. They believe that it is responsible for crime, poverty, psychosis and any other crazy thing that you can think of. This dystopian society is strictly limited to only the essentials: working, creating more children with an approved match and raising those children to live the same kind of life. No one travels, no one reads classic literature anymore (torture!) and no one even has friends really. Life seems quite dull after the cure is administered. The "cure" is apparently this procedure that takes out the part of the brain that processes emotions and feelings. Sometimes even personalities are altered in the process. Mothers aren't even supposed to show too much affection towards their children.

I really enjoyed this book (then again, I enjoy most dystopian novels). I couldn't even imagine living in a world where everything is chosen and laid out for you. Especially not being able to freely travel between states and/or cities as I choose. What I thought was most interesting was the fact that the main character could not wait to enter into a zombie-like state (not the blood thirsty type) and live the rest of her life without any excitement!

I also noticed a lot of parallels between Delirium and Romeo and Juliet. Starcrossed lovers, breaking the rules to be together and the sacrifices they made for one another.

Lena really comes into her true self and questions everything that she has been taught to be true. She learns that her society is afraid of love because it is something that they don't understand and most have not experienced because they were given the cure before they had the chance. By the end, she relies on her own instincts and realizes there's more out there than a just a perfectly laid out life.

Delirium is excellent! It's beautifully written and very much believable. I don't know it this is the first in a series or not, but the end definitely left me wanting to know more!