Requiem

Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: Harper (HarperCollins)
Released: March 5, 2013
Genre: YA Dystopian
Series: Delirium #3
Source: Library

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has transformed. The nascent rebellion that was underway 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 infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels. As Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain of the Wilds, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor. Requiem is told from both Lena and Hana's points of view. They live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge. With lyrical writing, Lauren Oliver seamlessly interweaves the peril that Lena faces with the inner tumult she experiences after the reappearance of her first love, Alex, the boy she thought was dead. Sophisticated and wide-ranging, Requiem brings the Delirium trilogy to a thrilling conclusion.

I usually cut out the last few lines of Amazon's summaries, since they're usually reviews in and of themselves,  giving opinions about the book. And since I'm going to give you my opinion after the summary, I usually feel like it's either unnecessary or counterproductive to include their review. But this time - this time, Amazon's reviewers got it just right. The writing is lyrical, the weaving of peril and tumult is seamless, and the whole book is definitely sophisticated and wide-ranging. As for my own feelings...

I love the alternating points of view from Lena to Hana. The juxtaposition of the war Lena is fighting, with all the danger and narrow escapes, against the silent struggle Hana has as a cured, paired, soon-to-be wife, heightens the sense of urgency and necessity for rebellion and revolution. Of course, I was hoping throughout that they would meet up and somehow reconcile. And we sort of get that - but it's much more beautiful than I could have imagined. Because Hana is cured, after all, but the hints of her not being totally cured and the horrors that she is uncovering mean that her choices are not all according to the rules. I love that she is instrumental in the final battle. After seeing her struggle every second chapter, that little bit of fight means so much.

But as for Lena - her tragic love story continues, and only gets more tragic as Alex reappears in her life after she thought he was gone, after she found another love. And worse, Alex seems to hate her now. She wants to go back to Alex, but she doesn't want to hurt Julian, and Alex doesn't seem to want her anyway. She struggles to find her place in this new and shifting territory, to suppress her seemingly doomed love for Alex, and I love the way the interactions between the two boys mirror her inner struggle. There are a lot of symbolic gestures in this plotline, and when it finally comes to a conclusion, I was relieved that Lena could find peace and love, and that she felt that as she was fighting for the right to choose, she was able to be happy with the choices she was allowed to make.

The rest of the story - the fighting and danger - is beautifully written. It feels so immediate, every time the characters go into battle. Twice, people are carrying bombs to be detonated at a certain point, and Lena worries that the bomb will go off in the carrier's bag. I think that's symbolic of how the whole story goes - they plan things, but with all the variables and the danger, they never know when the whole thing will blow up in their faces - and not just in terms of the fighting but also in terms of all the relationships. Some of the people we've grown to love end up dying, and the others are left to cope with these expected but still shocking losses.

The final few pages, with the images of the walls around Portland being torn down, remind me of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. I couldn't help comparing the Delirium series, then, to East Berlin and Communism. Not to go too deep, but then, too, there were "regulators" and people were denied the right to choose. And that gave me more of a rush as the people of Requiem finally got their freedom, finally tore down the barriers to love and feeling and emotion, finally reclaimed the basic right to choose, even when those choices could bring heartache and anguish.

One thing - I don't think the final few paragraphs, a sort of essay about tearing down the walls, was necessary - we got it from the descriptions of the act itself. 

Definitely a thrilling conclusion to a really great trilogy!

Reached

Author: Ally Condie
Author's Website: www.allysoncondie.com
Publisher: Dutton (Penguin)
Agent: Jodi Reamer
Editor: Julie Strauss-Gabel
Released: November 13, 2012
Genre: YA Dystopian
Series: Matched #3
Source: Library

After leaving Society to desperately seek The Rising, and each other, Cassia and Ky have found what they were looking for, but at the cost of losing each other yet again. Cassia is assigned undercover in Central city, Ky outside the borders, an airship pilot with Indie. Xander is a medic, with a secret. All too soon, everything shifts again.

This is a good conclusion to the series. I was a bit puzzled by it, since the focus seems to have shifted from rebelling against the inability to choose to fighting a Plague, but I did enjoy the book. On its own, not as part of an ideological trilogy, the book provides a hint of intrigue and a bit of suspense.

I'm having a hard time writing about the book, because I don't want to give the impression that I don't like it. I do. But it's a low-key, slow-paced book. There's a sort of elegant understated quality to the tone of the storytelling, whether it's Cassia, Xander, or Ky narrating that chapter. For me, it gave a sense of the naivete that these three have, even as they've gone through so much. They still know so little about the Society and the Rising and Pilot. By the end of the book, they grow out of this naivete, and in fact the focus turns back to the gift of choice winning out over security.

I love how the love plays out in this series. By this point, Cassia has no doubts about who she chooses, and the way she handles Ky and Xander is beautiful. It's also great that Xander gets his own resolution in the love department, not just that Cassia and Ky live happily ever after. Again, the end of the book goes back to the issue of choice, and it plays out nicely for the emotions of the characters.

I just felt like the book was longer than it had to be, with the pacing a bit slow. It was a great read for a slow day at work when I had a lot of downtime! But there's very little sense of urgency through most of the book, even when finding a cure now or a few minutes later means the life or death of a few hundred people. Still, I enjoyed the slow ride of the book.

Prodigy

Author: Marie Lu
Agent: Kristin Nelson
Editors: Jen Besser, Ari Lewin
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons (Penguin)
Released: January 29, 2013
Genre: YA Dystopian
Series: Legend #2
Source: Library

June and Day arrive in Vegas just as the unthinkable happens: the Elector Primo dies, and his son Anden takes his place. With the Republic edging closer to chaos, the two join a group of Patriot rebels eager to help Day rescue his brother and offer passage to the Colonies. They have only one request—June and Day must assassinate the new Elector.
It’s their chance to change the nation, to give voice to a people silenced for too long.  But as June realizes this Elector is nothing like his father, she’s haunted by the choice ahead. What if Anden is a new beginning? What if revolution must be more than loss and vengeance, anger and blood—what if the Patriots are wrong?

Just as in Legend, in Prodigy there's a perfect blend of action and emotion, scheming and loving, heartache and heartbreak. It's a constant mass of twists and turns, so that you never know what's going to happen next, though there are clues that have your heart in your mouth wondering what it all means and how everything will work itself out.

I love the ups and downs of both June's and Day's emotions - and Tess's as well. I love that Day himself is not sure of the answers to what Tess challenges him with about June. And June doesn't always know either. Though no one is asking her those questions about her loyalty, she is conflicted and doubts her own motives, whether she thinks Anden is different because he really can be the change the country needs, or because she is deep down a Republic girl, part of the elite, and will always sympathize with them. Both Day and June being unclear about all this adds a twist to the actual events, as each of them makes decisions that could affect a whole nation.

The action is great also. I like that there's not that much real killing, that for the most part the action is people running, climbing walls, and blowing things up. It produces just the right amount of urgency in their missions, just the right amount of danger should they mess up or be caught. 

And, oh, the ending! I can't wait for the third book so that gets cleared up - and I hope it somehow works out for good! Though I can't see how any of that could be good, I'm trusting Marie Lu to keep us connected to our favorite characters...

Starters

Author: Lissa Price
Author's Website: http://www.lissaprice.com/
Publisher: Delacorte (Random House)
Released: March 13, 2012
Genre: YA Dystopian
Series: Yes
Source: Library
Challenge: 2012 Debut Author Challenge, Dystopia Challenge

Callie has been living on the streets with her brother and friend for the past year, ever since the spores during the war killed her parents, the same way they killed every adult between 20 and 60, who didn't qualify for the vaccination. She's desperate to provide decent food and a home for her brother, so she joins Prime Destinations as a body renter - she'll lend her body for Enders, people as old as 100 or 150, to inhabit for a while. But she learns horrifying things about the body bank, and what starts as desperation to help her brother turns into an effort to save the entire country from the clutches of these murderous scheming people.

This book has got it all!! From gripping emotion, to thrilling action and suspense, complete with lush details and technical brilliance, it's a masterpiece!

First, I'm going to gush about the emotional connection. I completely connected with Callie right from the start, and stayed emotionally attached to her throughout the whole book. And her own emotions are so life-size, so real and overwhelming, that I felt them right along with her - the confusion, the betrayal, the moral dilemmas, the determination, the courage. Added to that, the cast of characters is utterly amazing. Every single one is a full character - down to Trax, the body bank technician, who appears only briefly for two scenes. The good guys, the bad guys - they're all completely fleshed out, no stock characters here! I whole-heartedly loved all Callie's friends and allies, and whole-heartedly hated her enemies and adversaries - except for when I was confused, along with her, as to which they were. Then the ambiguity consumed me.

The other thing that kept me enthralled, aside from the emotional rollercoaster, was the edge-of-your-seat pacing of the action and suspense. Lissa unfolds the details and information slowly, teasingly, and then the action creeps up on you and you're in a full-on car chase scene! When the "plot thickens" and things start heating up at the end, I had to remind myself to keep breathing - and then when I read the last few paragraphs, I found myself staring blankly at the page and willing it to offer up more information so I wouldn't have to wait until December to find out what that all means.

And then on the other side of the brain, while I was just enjoying the ride of the novel, I was appreciating the technical mastery that Lissa pulls off. Unwisely, before I read the book, I read Lissa's FAQs (I'm not sure why I'm linking to it here when I don't advise reading it until after you've read the book), in which she addresses fan questions about details of the story. So I went into this thinking about how sometimes stories don't hold together and details don't seem to match up. Well, that is so not the case here. Everything makes sense, every little setup detail has payout further on in the story. The craft of the novel is subtle, so that unless you're paying attention to it, it just reads like a really good book. But if you're looking for it, you can see that Lissa knows what she's doing.

I am so waiting on pins and needles for Enders, December 11, 2012!

EDIT: ENDERS will be released in 2013.

Meanwhile, enjoy Portrait of a Starter and Portrait of a Marshal.

Under the Never Sky

Author: Veronica Rossi
Publisher: Harper
Released: January 2012
Genre: YA Dystopian
Series: Yes, trilogy
Author's Blog: http://veronicarossibooks.blogspot.com/
Source: Library
Challenge: YA Debut Author, Dystopia

Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland - known as the Death Shop - are slim. If the cannibals don't get her, the violent energy storms will. She's been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He's wild - a savage - and her only hope of staying alive.


A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile - everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria's help too: she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

I couldn't help but compare this book to the other dystopian books I've been reading lately - books like Delirium and Crossed/Matched,  as well as the older book The Line. I noticed that the thing these books have in common is that there's an insular, protected realm, and then the "outside" where all the rules and regulations of the new society don't operate.

The difference between this book and the others is that here, the new society is not based on a totalitarian government, with oppressive rules in the guise of ensuring safety for all its inhabitants. Instead, what Under the Never Sky explores is the choice between complete safety at the expense of feeling anything real, or the chance to feel real pleasure and pain at the expense of comfort and certainty. I think Veronica deals with the issue brilliantly. Having the Outsiders have heightened senses is an added bonus to it! The way Aria discovers real feeling, both good and bad, and the way she keeps comparing things to the way they are in the Realms, really does raise questions about which one is better. And to be quite honest, I'm not sure that's answered in this first book.

But part of the reason I think it's not answered is that I feel like Veronica lost a bit of the focus at the end of the book. All along, seeing Aria's and Perry's feelings, both for each other and separate from each other, made me think about this concept. But the way the book ends and sets itself up for the sequel let me down, as it turned from a philosophical question to simply a - good - action and adventure story. I felt like the last bit was tacked on only to give momentum for continuing the story in the second book.

I also thought that we didn't get to see enough of Aria's world before she was taken away from it. I didn't understand a lot of the things about the way the Pod worked, and while it didn't actually detract from the story, it did leave me with a niggling feeling of "but why? and how?"

Leaving that aside, I want to say that I thoroughly enjoyed watching Perry and Aria's relationship unfold. They're both such distinct characters, so different from each other but so much the same at the same time, that it was really interesting to see them spar, wary of each other at first and then slowly growing to like each other while resisting it with all they have!

So my opinion of the book on the whole: The beginning and the end are a throwaway for me. The middle swept me up in the wave of the story and kept me enthralled. I'm definitely going to look out for the second book because I do want to spend more time with Aria and Perry!

The Line

Author: Teri Hall
Publisher: Dial (Penguin)
Released: 2010
Genre: YA Dystopian
Series: Yes (Away #2)
Source: Library
Challenge: Dystopia 2012

Rachel lives with her mother on The Property. The good thing about living there is that it's far from the city, where the oppressive government is most active. The bad thing, at least to most people, is that it's close to the Line - an uncrossable section of the National Border Defense System, an invisible barrier that encloses the entire country. 

She can see the Line from the greenhouse windows, but she is forbidden to go near it. Across the Line is Away, and though Rachel has heard many whispers about the dangers there, she's never really believed the stories. Until the day she hears a recording that could only have come from across the Line.

It's a voice asking for help.

Who sent the message? What is her mother hiding? And to what lengths will Rachel go in order to do what she thinks is right?

Published before the huge success of dystopian trilogies like Matched and Delirium, The Line deals not with governmental regulation of love but with governmental oppression and the fine line between security and freedom. I really liked that though Rachel is the one to take the action forward at every step, she's not always alone and she does have adult help at times.

The writing of this book is superb. There's a tense undertone to everything, even to some extent before Rachel gets involved in anything suspicious or illegal. And the explanation of what happened to get the country to this state is brilliantly woven into the story so we get it smoothly and without interruption of the action.

I love the characters of the story. Rachel, her mom, Ms. Moore, and even Jonathan and Peter, sound really believable - flawed in ways that propel the story and in ways that make sense given the situation of their society.

The Line  is a really good exploration of issues very relevant to today's young adults, beautifully executed and a good read.

Matched

Author: Ally Condie
Publisher: Penguin
Released: November 30, 2010
Genre: Dystopian YA

Cassia is looking forward to her Matching Banquet when she'll learn who the Society Matched her with. Her belief that the Society knows what it's doing is confirmed when she's Matched with her best friend. Xander. But when she gets home and pulls up the information on the microcard they've given her, another boy's face flashes on the screen before it goes blank - Ky, another boy she knows. An Official comes to her to give her the correct card, but Cassia is now in turmoil - she's falling in love with Ky, someone she could never be seen having a "fling" with, and besides that lots of things are happening to make her doubt the perfection of the Society. She begins thinking for herself, wanting a choice in her life, something unheard of in the improved, regulated Society.

Matched is a book that really makes you think. It touches on many issues worth thinking about - love, censorship, choices, freedom. Many parts of the book remind me of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, with constant supervision and even dream-tracking, and the way only a select few works of art, literature, and poetry are allowed to survive. And I think Ally Condie does a really good job of exploring these topics for teens the way those books do for adults. I love that the book is open-ended, that there is no neat resolution, because that is a mark of a book that really is meant to make you think.

But even so, it was great to have compelling characters. Cassia, Ky, and Xander are all interesting in their own ways, and the other smaller characters add to the construction of what's accepted and what's considered breaking out in this dystopian society. I love that Cassia is not at all passive, that she's a thinker and can think for herself even before everything starts to change, before Ky starts to affect her. This book is very like Delirium in its concept, and that was the one thing that bothered me about Delirium - that Lena seemed a bit weak until Alex started bending the way she thought about things. Cassia is a strong girl in her own right, and the choices she makes are all her own.

I love the writing style, too. The story speeds along, slowing down at fitting moments, speeding up when confusion abounds. I felt completely involved in the new Society, and I actually physically felt fear when Cassia faced choices or was called out by Officials!

This is a really great book - thought-provoking and a great love story at the same time.

Delirium

Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: February 1, 2011
Genre: YA Dystopia
Author's Website: http://www.laurenoliverbooks.com/
Author's Blog: http://laurenoliverbooks.blogspot.com/

Lena lives in a world where a cure for love has been found. After their eighteenth birthday, people have a procedure done which eliminates love, thus eliminating all the terrible side effects of love - faintness, difficulty focusing, even suicide. The government matches boys and girls with each other after they graduate from separate schools, and life is so much easier and happier. Lena is looking forward to her procedure, to the time when she can escape the disease that led to her own mother's death. But just months before her procedure, starting at her evaluations, things start to change. And she meets a boy - and falls in love. Lena starts finding out that almost nothing is actually the way she's been led to believe it is, and she finds out the true meaning of love and the absence of love.

The concept of this book is so great - the idea that people would call love a disease, and all the effects of removing love. I like how Lauren Oliver examines all sides of the idea, not just romantic love but also parent-child love. She portrays the effects of a loveless world so beautifully - well, heart-breakingly, actually. Although some of the things that Lena notices sound like comments only a person who has lived in our world would be able to say, things like commenting on the absence of love which she never knew, for the most part the things that Lena and her friends think really show what living in a world without love, a world of lies, would feel like.

Lena is an interesting character. It's funny how at the beginning of the book I almost couldn't stand her, but I felt like I had to know what would happen to her. Her friend Hanna was more compelling at the beginning, since she had more backbone and sounded more like a person, less like a robot as Lena sounded like. But as I got deeper into the story, it became quite clear that neither one of them is as simple as they sound at first. They're both complex in their situations, thoughts, actions, and opinions. I love how they're fully developed people, and their actions are hardly ever predictable, because each time they are responding to different parts of themselves - and isn't that actually what happens in real life?

The ending - well, the ending. I can't say I love the way the book ends, but oh, I love the way the book ends. It's heart-wrenching, the kind of conclusion that has me sitting and staring at the last page for minutes after I finish, trying to absorb what just happened. But it fits perfectly, the way Lauren writes it, going back to something that had been said earlier and that basically sums up the whole point of the book. It's not a happy-ever-after end, but I felt wholly satisfied with the way things were left.

I was a little surprised to find out that there will be a sequel to Delirium.  I felt like this was the end of the story, like everything there was to be told was told. I'm not sure how I feel about a sequel. Maybe once I know more about what aspect the second book will focus on, I can decide if I'm going to read it or not. Lauren Oliver's style of writing is definitely worth reading more of, though!

Thanks to HarperTeen and NetGalley for providing a digital copy for review!