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 Haloway 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 enjoyed reading the quotes from the health and safety handbook and various sources of books and poems at the beginning of each chapter. Oliver's writing is outstanding! She's created this twisted world where love is considered a disease. I wondered how she would pull it off and as I continued to read, I fell effortlessly into her world. Ah, the dangers of love. Who would have ever thought the idea of love could be so construed in one’s society making it deadly to one's health? Oliver's take on a society governed with rules against love captured me page by page.
The characters are well-crafted. The weight of society and its rules really takes a toll on not only Lena and Alex, but you can see its effects of the so called cured. Lena has dreamed of how life will be after the cure. She wants to forget and be free of her memories of her mother and to her the cure is the only thing that will solve this. I don't think she ever imagined that her life would turn out totally different. Alex, the love interest in this book is definitely a keeper & the two of them together fighting against the odds only endured me more to their plight. A heart-breaking romance - Just amazing!
This book had my mind churning and wondering what if? I can't imagine living in a society where you are forced to take a cure for love. Everything about the whole process of eliminating love was beyond my imaginings but at the same time, I got it. I guess this is a testament to Oliver's writing that it provoked so many emotions out of me.
Book review by Fantastic Book Review.com
Rating: 4 out of 5
Reading Next: Tension of Opposites
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