Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Release Date: 2/1/2011

Publisher: Razorbill
Age Group: HarperTeen

Pages: 480
Flirt Factor: Playful
Overall: 5/5 Stars

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 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

  I don't really remember how I used to set up these reviews so I'm just going to babble.

Oh my freaking god this book is so good. It's a mix of an amazingly horrifying dystopian world and awesome characters and adventure and a great plot line and ugh literally this book has no flaws.

Because I can't put into words the awesomeness that oozes from this book's pages I will put in some quotes that, if you have read this book, will make you weep.

"I'd rather die my way than live yours."

The story follows 17 year old Lena, who lives in fear of the disease and cannot wait to have her procedure administered so that she may be cured. She can feel the disease in her blood, and for her it is unbearable. She is counting down the days until she can be cleansed and free from the worry of ever contracting the deliria.

Then she meets Alex. "As soon as I look up, his eyes click onto my face. The breath whooshes out of my body and everything freezes for a second, as though I am looking at him through my camera lens, zoomed in all the way, the world pausing for that tiny span of time between the opening and closing of the shutter."

Alex is a beautiful soul with an intriguing and heartbreaking story. Not only is he strong, confident, and brave, but he is gentle and tender. While this is a wonderful, tumultuous, and exciting love story, for me this book was about sacrifice - Ultimate sacrifice. Lena’s relationship with her mother and her mother’s story was poignant, at times heart wrenching, and enormously gripping.

"I love you. Remember. They cannot take it".

And the ending? A cliffhanger of epic proportions. It will definitely be a book to treasure and savor for quite some time. Delirium is easily one of my top five favorites. Literally the only books that this is topped by is like Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, and the sequel which I will review next week!

Until then,
“Love. It kills you both when you have it, and when you don’t.”

Loving being back! xoxo,
Shelbie

Teaser Tuesday

Starting off getting back into things with the great Teaser Tuesday! If you are looking for a way to get integrated into the book blogger community this is an easy one to start with! Just go to the book you are reading at the moment, open to a random page and list two teaser sentances, then link below and Should be Reading but make sure to comment with links to your own Teasers or if you don't have a blog you can just post two lines in the comments!

This one is from Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter, which I finished, but I don't have the book I'm currently reading with me right now so this will have to work :) This is from page 77:

"What am I doing here, Bex?" I asked, suddenly afraid. "What time is it? How did I get here?!"

There you go! Best teaser on the internet.

Be sure to post a link to your teaser or post it below!

xoxo,

Shelbie

Would You...?

Hey everyone,

So, as a part of our revamp I was thinking about releasing something I have been working on for a while. As you know both amanda and I love books and don't know what we would do without them, but some people aren't nearly as fortunate to have the money to afford books or a library with a large selection to check them out from.

This is the basis behind Mortals Give Back, we make t-shirts with favourite quotes from books and with the purchase of one we donate a book to a community in need. They would sell for around $22.00 not including shipping and for now they come in two quotes on two different colour t-shirts.

One is the quote "it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live" from Harry Potter around the deathly hallows symbol. It will look something like this:

The second is a quote from The Perks of Being a Wallflower and it's "and in that moment I swear we were infinite" and it will look something like this:

So my question to you is: 

is this something that you would be interested in?

Ehmegerd We're Back!

Being in high school and dealing with all the aspects of being a teenager and having homework and jobs, it's very easy to forget about this blog. BUT it is back and we are totally revamping it for the end of 2012 - 2013!

I am very excited about some of the updates we are making and I am so thankful that so many of you guys stuck around while us mortals were on hiatus.

Please bear with us as we get back into the swing of posting regularly because it's been so long (almost a year, yikes!) since we posted, and I know at least I'm for sure out of practice.

Thanks again for reading and I'm so excited to be back!

xoxo,
Shelbie

Review: Liesl and Po by Lauren Oliver

Release date: 10/4/2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Age Group: Middle Grade (Ages 8-12)
Pages: 320
Flirt Factor: Chaste/None
Overall: 5/5 stars

Summary from Amazon:

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.

Going into Liesl and Po I had high expectations. After reading Before I Fall and Delirium, both of which I loved, I knew Lauren Oliver's writing would be beautiful and that I'd instantly fall in love with the characters. However, neither of those books could prepare me for Liesl and Po. Liesl and Po was entirely different from Oliver's first two novels, and not just because it's a middle grade novel. In the beginning of my copy of Liesl and Po (I have an ARC so the finished copies may be different) Lauren Oliver talks about how much more personal for her Liesl and Po was compared to her other books, and it definitely shows through her writing.

Liesl and Po is a beautiful children's story with an excellent set of characters. You'll fall in love instantly with Po, the ghost who's forgotten what it's like to be human; Bundle, the cat-dog-ghost that brings a little bit of happiness to the dreariest of moments; Liesl, the determined little girl who loves her father; and Will, the alchemist's apprentice who seems to always be missing a hat.

Liesl and Po is both fast paced and mysterious, filled with twists and turns that intertwine the many characters lives. Lauren Oliver did a wonderful job with her world building, making you feel as if you were in that dark and dreary place or in the chaos of the Otherside. She writes a deeply personal and enchanting story about grief, adventure, and hope for new life.

Liesl and Po is so entirely different from Lauren Oliver's other works that it's almost impossible to put into words how I feel about this book. Liesl and Po is a mix of the haunting sadness of Coraline and the bravery and adventure of The Tale of Desperaux. I definitely recommend this book if you're looking for an exciting cast of characters, a little bit of adventure, and an emotional story.

Writing: 5/5 stars

Characters: 5/5 stars

Plot/setting: 5/5 stars

Ending: 5/5 stars

Visuals/drawings: 5/5 stars

Cover: 4/5 stars

Love always,

Amanda