Book Review: Requiem by Lauren Oliver

Requiem (Delirium #3) by Lauren Oliver

Genre: Young Adult (Dystopian Romance)
Date Published: March 5, 2013
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has transformed. The nascent rebellion that was underway 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 infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels.

As Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain of the Wilds, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor. Requiem is told from both Lena and Hana's points of view.

Requiem is the third and final book in the Delirium Trilogy by Lauren Oliver. We are given the point of views of Lena and Hana through this book. When I first found that out, I thought "Okay, who dies?" I'm not going to tell you if anyone dies or not. After the way book two ended, I had such high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, I was left with a lot of holes and unresolved issues. The main issue for me being the love triangle. The odd man out, kind of gets the shaft, in my opinion. Or at least, we don't get to see how Lena handles the situation with him. All the progress I thought Lena made with her character growth in Pandemonium regressed. Hana's point of view was odd. I enjoyed it enough, but I'm not sure why it was necessary. Especially with all the unresolved issues we needed from Lena's point of view. This lead to a disappointing ending for me. I don't feel like we got a real ending. There is so much left unfinished. I enjoyed reading this book, and I was entertained through most of Requiem, but I was ultimately left disappointed.

“For a minute he stands there, looking at me, and I can tell that he knows why I'm crying, and he understands, and it's going to be all right. He opens his arms to me.

"Come here," he says quietly.

I can't move to him fast enough. I practically fall into him. He catches me and pulls me in tightly to his chest, and I let myself go again, let sobs run through me. He stands there with me and murmurs into my hair and kisses the top of my head and lets me cry over losing another boy, a boy I loved better.”

Be sure to check out more books by Lauren Oliver!

Lauren Oliver comes from a family of writers and so has always (mistakenly) believed that spending hours in front of the computer every day, mulling over the difference between “chortling” and “chuckling,” is normal. She has always been an avid reader.

She attended the University of Chicago, where she continued to be as impractical as possible by majoring in philosophy and literature. After college, she attended the MFA program at NYU and worked briefly as the world’s worst editorial assistant, and only marginally better assistant editor, at a major publishing house in New York. Her major career contributions during this time were flouting the corporate dress code at every possible turn and repeatedly breaking the printer. Before I Fall is her first published novel.

She is deeply grateful for the chance to continue writing, as she has never been particularly good at anything else.

To learn more about Lauren Oliver and her books, visit her website. You can also find her on Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook.