Requiem (Delirium #3)

Reviewer: Kristen
Author: Lauren Oliver 
Pages: 391
Format: Hardcover 
My Rating: ummmmmm, ahhhhhhhhh 6 out of 10 

**SPOILER ALERT: This is the third of a series. Reviews of Delirium and Pandemonium here! **

Summary (Goodreads): They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.

But we are still here.

And there are more of us every day.

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way 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 now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.

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.

My Thoughts: This one I'm going to keep short. I know that this quite literally just got released, and that it's not even out in some countries yet (hang in there guys!). I was disappointed, to say the least. Honestly, while reading it, I was getting closer and closer to the end, and the feeling that I wasn't going to get the ending I wanted/expected kept getting stronger and stronger. I didn't get the ending I wanted, or expected to say the least. But I don't think many people did. The ending was left open, and that's a little bit of an understatement. While I like that I can draw my own conclusions, I'd like a little guidance as to how these conclusions should be drawn. When I finished, I turned to the end and expected there to be an announcement of a fourth book. It just really doesn't feel like that was the end. It felt like a cliffhanger to me, and seeing as it's the final installment, I hate that I feel that way. Enough with the negative, though. 

I really liked how Lauren Oliver wrote this book. I loved the switching perspectives. Again, I wish we got to know a little bit more about Hana. Especially at the end, but I said that I was done being negative. I liked how we saw the contrast between the cured and the uncured. I like that it was obvious, and that we could see why there was a fight, but at the same time, it made me stop to think... Why are they fighting? That life seems so much better, kind of thing. There were definitely some moments in the book that I had my jaw on the floor and I just couldn't believe. I grew to love characters I didn't expect to, and I grew to (totally rationally!) hate characters too. I'm really not sure what I think of this book yet. What did you guys think?

Side note about the TV series: Usually after seeing people cast as characters, when I read the novel, they are who I think of. I didn't with this series, at all. I still see Lena, and Alex, and Julian and Hana how I pictured them the first time around. Now, I don't know if this is a testament to Lauren Oliver's writing, or if the casting directors were just really off point... but anyways, that's my rambling for you. 

Final Thoughts: One thing is for certain, I wasn't satisfied with the ending of this book. I just thought the characters deserved so much more! What did you guys think?

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Reviewer: Kelsey
Rating: 6 out of 10

My Thoughts: I'm going to be short because I agree with Kristen's review. The writing is really good but I just didn't get into this novel. I looked forward to Hana's point of view a little more than I did Lena's. This made me sad because in the other novels in this series I was so into Lena's story. I wanted to know how it ended and what would happen in the end. Don't me wrong, I still cared for many of the characters and there were characters that I loved to hate but still. I thought it could have been so much more. 

Also, I think this book could have used an epilogue. I think the ending, though alright, was more suited for the second in a series not the final book. We don't really get any glimpse into the future and in this case I think it would have been a great idea. 

On another note, I am so tired of love triangles...Can't we just have one romance to fight for? I'm tired of all the tension and hurt feelings and being confused as to which person I want the girl to be with. I know that this is practically a genre in itself but I don't care anymore! Can't we get a book where they are both happy in the end?

Final Thoughts: If you read the others in this series, you need to know how it ends. I wish it had had an epilogue as an extra three pages from the future will have better concluded everything that was left hanging in the story.