Requiem (Delirium Trilogy, #3)

by Lauren Oliver

BONUS: read an exclusive short story about Alex, Lena's first love - only in the first hardcover printing.

The final instalment in the internationally bestselling Delirium trilogy.

It is the rule of the Wilds

You must be bigger, and stronger, and tougher.

A coldness radiates through me, a solid wall that is growing, piece by piece, in my chest. He doesn't love me

He never loved me.

It was all a lie.

'The old Lena is dead', I say, and then push past him. Each step is more difficult than the last; the heaviness fills me and turns my limbs to stone.

You must hurt, or be hurt.

Lena can build the walls, but what if there's no one left to take them down? The powerful, heartbreaking conclusion to one of the most eagerly awaited, talked-about series is here.

• ISBN10: 0062202960
• ISBN13: 9780062202963
• Publish Date: 5 March 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kelly]

http://divainpyjamas.blogspot.com.au/

Keeping my review short and sweet, as I don't want to reveal too much. Great action scenes and it was a brilliant to show how far both Lena and Hana have come and their differing worlds now. Beautifully written and a unique concept, but felt empty once I had finished. For myself, there was no definitive ending as I had hoped, and it overshadowed the important social message that the series tries to portray.

A thank you to my fairy book mother, who was kind enough to share.

[kimbacaffeinate]

I enjoyed Delirium, was sickened by the cliffhanger ending that Oliver left us with in Pandemonium and found Hana fascinating. As you can imagine I was very anxious to step back into Oliver’s final book of the series Requiem. Fans are either going to adore this one or loathe it. The author ends this series without a lot of closer. I thought it was perfect and if you read my reviews you already know I loathe endings forced into a happy little bow. Filled with battles, death, suspense and unrequited love I consumed this in a single day.

The tale picks up where Pandemonium left off, and it took me a second to place all the faces. They are headed back into the Wilds and Alex is with them. Things are awkward, disorganized and there is tension. The tale is told from the points of view of Hana and Lena. As Hana moves towards her upcoming wedding and Lena and the resistance move towards a rebellion uprising. The tale that unfolds is packed with emotion, contemplation, heartbreak, mystery and fear.

Lena has joined the resistance but struggles to commit, I felt if not for her loyalty to her new family in the Wilds, that she would have sat this whole thing out. She struggles with her feelings towards both Julian and Alex. She loved Alex, and losing him was so painful for her that she holds back. Julian is strong, heads into danger and wants Lena by his side. Alex has changed, and when confronted by Lena he holds back and doesn't open up. He is absent from most of the book leaving us without the epic love triangle I anticipated. While he isn't present he is very much in Lena’s thoughts. We see some really brave stances from some of the characters in the wild and I admired them and wished we knew more about them. Someone close to Lena reappears and guides her. Hana is really struggling; she worries the cure didn't work, she feels guilt over her betrayal and worries about her upcoming wedding. She questions what kind of man she is about to marry and we become caught up in her fears. His storyline made me shiver but Hana does a lot of brave things, and I liked the woman she is becoming.

Chaos and war rules supreme in this final installment. The Wilds are no longer safe, and those who are uncured struggle with their daily existence. There is unrest and fear within the government cities and the more we learn about the mayor of Portland and his plans the greater our fear becomes. We get plenty of action and eye-opening moments. The transformation of both Hana and Lena were delightful but I still wish some of the secondary characters were fleshed out more. Yeah, I know we get all these novellas with the deets, but I’d rather have a six hundred page novel with fully fleshed out characters. *just sayin* The writing is beautiful and the flow kept me turning the pages. The ending was climatic and this is where a lot of you may take issue. If you need your ending wrapped up in a pretty box with a neat little bow this might leave you reeling. Personally I thought it was beautiful and that last page was so powerful and moving. I think Oliver did it perfectly.
ARC provided in exchange for unbiased review.
Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[stefu1]

Hated the ending, wanted Lena to end up with Alex, with the hair like Autumn leaves on fire.

Ending was just like; we took down the government, yay

Only liked the fact that Hanna stood up for herself.

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

It's hard to know how to even start writing this review. The final book in a trilogy I fell in love with back in 2011, finally in my hands, finally read, and all I can think of to say is... wow. Quite simply beautiful!

Lena and the rest of her Invalid friends are continuing the fight, but now the fight is super serious. Teaming up with other Invalids and the resistance in other parts of America, they know now is the time for some major action. They may be uncured, they may be free to love, but they are not free. This is not the life they should have to live, so they're going to take the life they deserve. Amongst all the planning and the travelling, Lena is having some issues of her own; Alex, the love of her life, doesn't want to know, but Julian, lovely, kind, sweet Julian, is still there, waiting, but not forcing the issue. Life for Lena simply isn't easy.

At Portland, a cured Hana is getting ready to marry the man who will become Portland's new mayor. She is aware of the plans of the Cureds, of how they plan to wipe out the Invalids once and for all. She is expected to play the part of dutiful wife, smile, wave and support her husband-to-be. But... she feels things. She's not quite sure what those things are, but something isn't quite right. Has Hana truely been cured, or is she "defective"?

I love that this story is told from the points of view of both girls in alternating chapters. You know what's coming towards each side at various points, know the plans, and are increasingly excited and nervous for these two characters you love, and worry about their survival. Yes, I did say "love"; despite being cured and having changed quite drastically, there's something about Hana that you can't help but love. It's a bit of an eye-opener too; despite questions over whether the cure has worked right for her, she is still cured, and seeing how the cured think is brilliant. It seems feelings are muted, but they're still there; Cureds can be happy or sad, scared or suspicious. Life as a Cured is simpler, cleaner, clearer, but not completely numb. It was awesome of Oliver to show us this, but also necessary, because Hana has her own story too, a subplot that interweaves with the main, but still separate. She has a life, a future, and problems of her own, and it's not as plain sailing as you would think.

In Lena's chapters, half the story is more about her feelings and issues regarding the two boys in her life - or not in the case of Alex. Though planning, strategising and the lead up to the action is all taking place, there is no real action for quite a while. I don't want to say too much about what happens regarding Alex and Julian, I feel this is something you should discover yourself, but it was great seeing Lena going through so many new feelings. She feels torn, and she doesn't know what to do. For her, for Alex, for Julian. She remembers lines from The Book of Shh describing the effects of love, realising that she is going through exactly what it says. The Book is right about some things. Is this life happier than a Cured one?

Requiem is as beautifully written as you would expect of a novel by Oliver, but this time round, I noticed it more. It's just so gorgeous; the imagery, the contemplation of feelings, how she describes most things. Oh, you could get lost in her descriptions, it's just amazing. But you could also die from a heart attack during the action! My god, the action is unbelievable! And again, I don't want to say too much about it, but you know, it's the final book. It's pretty epic!

And the ending! Oh my gosh! It's just perfect. Not all questions are answered, and even some smaller issues aren't resolved, but despite this, I think it's brilliant. There are no happy-ever-afters in anyone's life in the real world, nothing gets all sorted perfectly and tied up in a neat bow. Life continues, and life is messy, and you don't always know where life will lead. Requiem's main plot points and issues are resolved. It has an ending, a satisfying one, a fantastic one, but one that says living doesn't just end with the turn of a final page for anyone. And the final, final few paragraphs are just so beautiful; inspiring, empowering, motivating. But that's true of the whole book, really, the whole series. Fighting for what you believe in, fighting for your right to freedom, fighting for love. Requiem has finished off a beautiful trilogy that will forever have a place in my heart as one of my favourites.

Lauren Oliver, I have two words for you; thank you.

Thank you to Hodder and Stoughton for the review copy.

[Ashley]

BookNook — Young Adult book reviews

I had a couple ups and downs with Requiem, but at the end of the day, I enjoyed it. It is an intense conclusion to the series, with a lot at stake, and a lot to fight for.

I really didn't like Lena for the first half of Requiem. I honestly couldn't help but think that she didn't deserve Alex's forgiveness. I didn't like how she expected things to suddenly be okay between her and Alex. I didn't like how she thought she could run back into his arms. I didn't like how she used Julian as a rebound when Alex rejected her. Anytime Alex spoke to another girl or ignored her, she'd go running into Julian's arms, as if she was trying to make Alex jealous.

"I thought you were dead," I say. "It almost killed me."
"Did it?" His voice is neutral. "You made a pretty fast recovery."
"No. You don't understand." My throat is right; I feel as though I'm being strangled. "I couldn't keep hoping, and then waking up every day and finding out it wasn't true, and you were still gone. I—I wasn't strong enough."
[...]
Finally he says, "When they took me to the crypts, I thought they were going to kill me. They didn't even bother. They just left me to die. They threw me in a cell and locked the door."
[...]
"There were days when I asked for [death]—prayed for it when I went to sleep. The belief that I would see you again, that I could find you—the hope for it—was the only thing that kept me going." He releases me and takes another step backward. "So no. I don't understand."
—Requiem by Lauren Oliver

To be fair, Lena did get better towards the end, but she was never my favourite character. She just lost my favour in Pandemonium and never quite earned it back.

Hana is the character that really shone for me in Requiem. I think I'm attracted to the girl who's being shut down and struggling to be set free. That's why I liked Lena in Delirium, and why I liked Hana in Requiem. I like sitting there rooting for the character to rebel and break free.

Mama, Mama, put me to bed
I won't make it home, I'm already half-dead
I met an Invalid, and fell for his art
He showed me his smile, and went straight for my heart
—Requiem by Lauren Oliver

Hana is being pushed into horrible marriage. On the surface, Fred seemed to be the perfect husband: handsome, wealthy, and sweet, but Hana soon realizes that he's really the Bluebeard tale at work. A mysterious ex-wife who has gone missing from society, Fred's sudden threatening behaviour, and streaks of violence. Hana begins to fear for her future and doubts that her cure really worked as intended. She reveals mistakes she's made in the past, and the reason for guilt haunting her every day. I loved Hana's dark secrets, I loved seeing her perfect world come crashing down, and I loved watching her redeem herself at the end!

In some ways I do feel like the ending was a little open ended and not as satisfying as I was hoping for. For me, this series has always been about love. It started out with Lena falling in love for the first time—with Alex. But it ended up being all about the Resistance and taking down society. The Lena-Alex-Julian love triangle does kind of get resolved, but it sort of gets wrapped up in one page. I was hoping that the romance would dominate more of the book, instead of it all being about Resistance Resistance Resistance. There were no swoony moments at all in the story, and that's really what I was craving.

With the cure, relationships are all the same, and rules and expectations are defined. Without the cure, relationships must be reinvented every day, languages constantly decoded and deciphered. Freedom is exhausting.
—Requiem by Lauren Oliver

It was a bit of a bummer, and the ending really did leave me wondering, "What happens now?" It just kind of drops off. I would have enjoyed some sort of epilogue at least, to help wrap things up better and answer a few more questions.

But overall, Requiem was an enjoyable read. It didn't quite have the same magic and excitement and swoony romance that Delirium did, but I enjoyed it more than Pandemonium. I loved the strength of the Resistance, Fred's complete and utter creepiness (loved to hate it), Hana's slow progress towards fighting the cure, and Lena's growing relationship with her mother. The book is filled with bravery, fighting, loss, and love.