The Good Stuff Perfect ending to a brilliant series Exceptional character development - I detested Lena at the beginning of this trilogy and was disgusted with her acceptance of her life & ended up cheering and hoping for her The ending is so wonderful. If Oliver never writes anything else about these characters you can be satisfied and left with a sense of hope. At the same time it leaves it open if she wants to write more she can - brilliant Oliver is a gifted storyteller. Everything feels so very real and you are emotionally invested in the characters Kept on the edge of my seat about what was going to happen Really makes you think about love - at times it does feel like a disease - and maybe we would all be better without it -- but at the same time it is the thing that gives us purpose Last page is beautiful and wise The Not So Good Stuff A little too angsty with the two love interests - hey I am old, this sort of thing irritates me at times Favorite Quotes/Passages "Who knows? Maybe they're right. Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings. Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it. But we have chosen a different road. And in the end that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose." "How can someone have the power to shatter you to dust - and also to make you feel so whole." "I like seeing the Wilds this way: skinny, naked, not yet clothed in spring. But reaching, too, grasping and growing, full of want and thirst for sun that gets slaked a little bit more every day. Soon the Wilds will explode, drunk and vibrant." "This is the strange way of the world, that people who simply want to love are instead forced to become warriors." Who Should/Shouldn't Read Obviously if you enjoyed the other two books in the trilogy, you will love this You have to read the other two stories first - won't make sense unless you do 5 Dewey's I purchased this from Chapters Shawnessy because I read the rest of the series and loved it

The conclusion to the Delirium Trilogy was a bit of a disappointment for me. While I really loved Lauren Oliver's writing style and the underlying premise of the books, I was never really invested in her characters or the progression of the story. This last book was said to be, (by so many readers), fantastic, wonderful, and heart wrenching. Unfortunately, I didn't feel any of that. Yes, it was extremely well written but it never had my heart pounding or made me fly through the pages because I wanted or needed to know what happened next. I'm disappointed that Lauren Oliver didn't give me a concrete reason to root for Lena and Alex or Lena and Julian. I just didn't care. I also didn't care to know what had become of Lena's family or her best friend Hana. I really expected more excitement, conflict, and romance from this series because it had all the right elements. But they just didn't seem to come together in any meaningful way. I'm struggling with the rating because the writing, in and of itself, is top notch but the story just meandered and never really took me away. Overall, the series for me, was a 3.5.

This is a really difficult review to write. The Delirium trilogy has meant a lot of me and I’m sad to see it come to a close. I still remember when I first picked up Delirium on a whim, during a Borders closing sale. I had no idea what the book was about or who Lauren Oliver was – I only knew I had seen the cover on some blogs and people seemed pretty excited for it. I had no idea I was picking up what was soon to become one of my favourite books and that Lauren Oliver was about to become an author I would never forget. I had a lot of expectations going into Requiem. And a lot of fears too. Would the series end the way I wanted it to? Would my heart end up smashed into a million pieces? It was a lot of pressure for one little book. There’s really not much I can tell you about the plot of Requiem without giving anything away. I will say that there was a certain direction I thought this book would go in and it didn’t. But that isn’t a bad thing. I like the direction Lauren Oliver chose to take series in. It was different and unexpected and because of that it kept me guessing. It wasn’t what I expected but that worked out for the best because that meant I was just as obsessed with finding out what happened next as I had been in Delirium and Pandemonium. The unique thing about Requiem was the addition of alternating chapters between Lena and Hana’s point-of-view. I have to say I really enjoyed Hana’s chapters. Having read the short story, Hana, I found I wanted to know more about her character and what she had been up to. But even if you haven’t read the story, you’re going to be heavily invested in her chapters. There is some crazy stuff in there! And as always I enjoyed Lena’s voice. I think she’s grown a lot over the series but she’s still not perfect – which in my opinion is how it should be. She’s still so young and has so much ahead of her, it would be crazy for her to have it all figured out. However, I do have one criticism of Requiem. It doesn’t change my overall feeling about the novel/series but it did leave me a little disappointed. I found there are certain issues that don’t get addressed until late in the book. And because they are presented so late they really don’t get as fleshed out as I would have liked. There are two in particular that kind of bugged me and left me wanting more. I think there was so much potential to explore the effects of certain relationships and it just wasn’t met. I know I’m being super vague but I don’t want to give anything away. If you’ve read the book I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Perhaps a discussion post is in order? Reservation aside, I do think Requiem is a beautiful end to an amazing series. Lauren Oliver has brought to life some amazing characters, she has made me cry sob, kept me up until all hours of the night, eyes glued to the page. She has given me a series that I want to re-read over and over. The Delirium series is a powerful story of love and resistance and freedom with universal themes everyone can relate to. So this isn’t so much a review as it is a love letter to Lauren Oliver. 3 Recommendation: A hard breaking but strong end to a fabulous series. A must read. This and other reviews at More Than Just Magic (http://morethanjustmagic.org)

I had a significant number of worries coming into Requiem. This book was easily my most anticipated read of 2013; I've invested so much emotion and energy into this story and its characters. Delirium easily stands as one of my favourite books ever. But there was so much riding on this one little book! I'd say that Alex, rather than Lena, is my favourite character of the bunch and Pandemonium just didn't seem to set things up for the ending I wanted to see. And there's always something heartbreaking about the ending of a series; bittersweet, like saying goodbye to old, familiar friends. I'll say right away that I was not nearly as disappointed or as devastated as most other readers seemed to be by Requiem. It made me look at the trilogy from a whole new light, and I'm curious to see how I'll feel after re-reading the three books. Also: this review is the hardest one I've ever written, hands down. Reasons to Read: 1. A story about love that's about more than romance: One thing I've noticed is how easy it is for us readers to get caught up in the Julian/Alex debate. But while reading Requiem, I soon became aware that this was not the biggest focus of the book or even the series. I'm so appreciative that Lauren Oliver took the chance to explore other avenues of love, from the relationship between Lena and her mother, to her best friend Hana, to the deep, life-altering friendships she makes in The Wilds and within the resistance. I think it's easy for us to focus so much on these swoon-worthy boys that we miss some of the other heartbreaking moments; for me, it was notably the deterioration of Lena and Hana's friendship and Lena's lack of a relationship with her mother, Annabel. And you know what? I was honestly & pleasantly surprised by how much Requiem didn't focus on the romance. That's a blessing in YA these days and really great for those who want to see more from a book than just romance. Yet it still has some of the best romance I've ever read about (in the series, as a whole). 2. Lena's epic character transformation: I'd hate to call this "character development" because it's much more than that - rather, it's more like an evolution. When you compare the old Lena from Delirium to the changing Lena in Pandemonium with the new Lena in Requiem, it becomes apparent how drastic these changes have been. Yet, one thing I noticed re-reading Delirium is that the seeds of change were already planted in Lena before Alex ever came along. I might even say that she's more like her mother than she may ever realize. But I believe it is entirely consistent with her character and who she is for this transformation to take place. 3. A world falling apart: One of my favourite parts of this series is that Lauren has so much attention on the world she's created, and really works to bring it to life through her stories. I found Requiem to have a bit more of an emphasis on this, and we really get to see a society that's crumbling apart. I'm incredibly curious to know what happens in the future, but I think it's clear that big changes are coming for society. 4. Hana offers a fresh perspective to the book: Hana is easily one of the most interesting characters from the Delirium cast, and I think this is another reason in support of saying that by Requiem, it's very clear that the books are about so much more than a love triangle or even just Lena's life. While Lena is busy with the resistance, Hana is our insider view to Portland and the "upper class" of that community. I found Hana's story to have the potential to be just as heartbreaking as Lena's, and her voice stood out so much from Lena's narrative that it was a great way to freshen up the series. I'll also admit that it would take a lot for me to truly hate this book - I'm well aware that I'm biased (and maybe partially blinded?) by my love for these books. And I can understand why so many readers may be disappointed by how few plot elements are actually wrapped up. That is disappointing, but I can see how the open-endedness works well too. (For me, I'm happily convinced that Alex and Lena are together forever and have ten happy little babies and they spend a lot of time reading poetry and kissing. It doesn't matter what happens in these books, that has always been the ending I invented.) I was, however, a tad disappointed with Lena at a few points. I was surprised by her reactions a few times, particularly when it came to Alex and Julian because most of that felt so immature. While something so big is happening with the resistance, it didn't fit to have so much angst between a handful of characters about personal problems. Maybe it was the stress of it all that brought out their worst, but it largely felt out of character to me (and yes, I'm pointing my blame-finger at you too, Alex). ARC received from HarperCollins Canada for review; no other compensation was received.