Author: Lauren Oliver
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: HarperCollins
Rating: 4/5 stars
Summary:
In an alternate United States, love has been declared a dangerous disease, and the government forces everyone who reaches eighteen to have a procedure called the Cure. Living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in Portland, Maine, Lena Haloway is very much looking forward to being cured and living a safe, predictable life. She watched love destroy her mother and isn't about to make the same mistake.
But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena meets enigmatic Alex, a boy from the "Wilds" who lives under the government's radar. What will happen if they do the unthinkable and fall in love?
This is the first book I've read by Lauren Oliver and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Lately I haven't really been into fantasy/scifi lately so I was pleasantly surprised.
Like is stated in the summary, love is considered a disease. It's illegal to love or fall in love and when everyone turns eighteen, the government forces a cure. The cure enables you to live a healthy happy life without the fear of catching the delira (aka falling in love). They believe that love is the source of everyone's depression and the bad in the world and that it would kill you in the end.
Minor spoilers
I really loved the whole concept of love being considered a disease. I never imagined what the world could be like if love didn't exist, but this book gave me a cool understanding. Everyone kind of just exists. To me they seemed a lot like robots, just going about their every day lives. You cant even say that they live in harmony because they don't feel anything towards each other.
I didn't like how controlling the government was (although it's like that in every scifi dystopian novel). Everything anyone did was recorded, regulators patrolled the streets, it felt very totalitarian. After they're cured, they are told where to attend college, what job they'll have, and they even receive a list of matches on who to marry.
Major spoilers (skip to last paragraph)
As for Lena's character, she wasn't exactly what I expected (but I'm also kind of happy about that). I expected her to be like every strong female character in these types of books. At first she was excited about her procedure and living a normal life just like everyone else around her. But after she meets Alex, she begins to question the government and whether or not their telling the truth. Especially since Alex is from the Wilds (the unregulated land), a place Lena was told was uninhabited.
After Lena found out the truth behind all the lies, I was expecting her to want to take action and make a change right away. But no, she wants to run away with Alex. Also, Lena and Alex getting caught a week before they're supposed to run away was all to predictable. But even thought I saw it coming from a mile away, it still gets me when it actually happens (if that makes any sense).
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I'm excited to see what direction the next two books go in and I'm hoping all my questions get answered. If you haven't already read this, I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who's a fan of scifi/fantasy!
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