Goodreads Synopsis: 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 cute 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 Confession: I'm still reeling from this book. Like, seriously reeling. I haven't read too many dystopian books, save for Orwell's superb 1984 and Lois Lowry's The Giver (which I read in seventh grade and was terrified by). Reading the back cover of this book, I was instantly drawn to the idea of a futuristic world where love, identified as a dangerous disease, has been eradicated by the government. The world painted in this novel is nothing short of terrifying. It's like Big Brother, only worse. Emotions are closely monitored; boys and girls are kept separate and "matched" once they reach eighteen--a horror arranged-marriage of sorts. There is no sensitivity, no compassion, no attachment.
The reasoning behind the eradication of love is because it causes too much pain. It causes humans to act like animals and behave irrationally. Without love, the world is a much more ordered place; hardly anyone divorces, and everyone is a functional member of society. "Invalids," people who escaped the cure and are diseased by love, live on the outskirts of the boundaries set by the United States.
Lena, whose mother committed suicide because she could not be cured of love, is a fully functioning and happy member of society. That is, until she meets Alex, an Invalid who captures her attention and eventually, her heart.
Moving Moments: There are some brilliantly moving quotes throughout this novel. Some of my favorites are:
You can't be really happy unless you're unhappy sometimes. You know that, right?
Sometimes I feel like if you just watch things, just sit still and let the world exist in front of you--sometimes I swear that just for a second time freezes and the world pauses in its tilt. Just for a second. And if you somehow found a way to live in that second, then you would live forever.
Love, the deadliest of all deadly things: it kills you both when you have it and when you don't. But that isn't it, exactly. The condemner and the condemned. The executioner; the blade; the last-minute reprieve; the gasping breath and the rolling sky above you and the thank you, thank you, thank you, God. Love: it will kill you and save you, both.
"I love you. Remember. They cannot take it:" This quote appears a few times throughout the book. Looking past the romance and the post-apocalyptic society, this is a novel that asks a pretty large question: What is love? And more importantly, what does it mean? The answer, discovered in the last few breath-defying pages, will truly astound you. The conclusion, the moment of clarity when Lena discovers exactly what love is, and why it's been hidden, will entrance you. It floored me. It makes you reflect on the loves in your life, and if you could possibly imagine living without them. And, in the moments closer to the end of the book, you wonder if there's anything you wouldn't do to keep the love of your life safe.
What would our world be like if there was no love? If love was something to be feared, something to be hunted down and erased forever? There were moments in this book where I had to mark my page and close the covers, even if just for a brief moment to digest what exactly I was reading. It sucked me in from cover to cover. The love between Alex and Lena was anything but sappy; in the end, it seems the two of them have truly grasped what love means.
Recommendation: Alex continually refers to Lena as "beautiful," even though she only sees herself as ordinary. After reading the last page, with my heart pounding, the only word that came to mind was just that: beautiful. This novel is absolutely gorgeous. The action left me gasping for air and the turmoil that love causes between these two young people left me aching. You'll feel this book in your limbs: read it.
Rating: 4.5/5
441 pages, published by HarperTeen (Feb. 1, 2011)
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