Let me preface this by saying that I first read Delirium and Pandemonium back in 2012. A few months ago I did an audio re-read of those books so I could finally get Requiem off my shelves. I’d heard things. The kicker was the Epic Reads awards earlier this year when a bunch of (probably) young girls voted that a world without love would be worse than a world without water.
I meant to do this as a vlog, but I’m lazy and technologically impaired and it’s been like 4 months now, so I’m just posting this to clear it out of my review drafts. That’s basically my entire feeling towards the series: just get it over with so I can get rid of it.
First read in September 2012 – 4 stars. Audio re-read in June 2014 – 3 stars because I’m feeling generous. I’m giving this series another go so I can finally finish it and possibly get the books off my shelves.
I have matured a lot as a reader since my first read of Delirium, because the story makes me angry now (this might be leftover from that Epic Reads Oscar voting thing earlier this year where people voted that a world without love was worse than a world without water and I still can’t even). Lena is a regular 17 year old girl who becomes too obsessed with her boyfriend, unfortunately for her love is considered an illegal and infectious disease. Alex is so completely bland I can’t stand it – just because he was never cured he has a great love of poetry? He’s still a 19 year old boy, and he’s totally stupid. Who shows up to a middle of the night kidnapping on a loud-ass motorcycle? Ugh, go back to the wild. PLEASE STOP DESCRIBING THINGS OTHER THAN FOOD AS DELICIOUS.
First read in September 2012, audio reread in June 2014 – I’d like to change my rating from 4 stars to 2, but like I say below I really believe it’s mostly the narrator’s fault that I had such a hard time with Pandemonium this time around. Same narrator (Sarah Drew from Gray’s Anatomy, a show I’ve never seen and also the voice of Stacy on Daria which makes me like her a little more now, and she was also in the episode of Supernatural where that nerd used magic to switch bodies with Sam), though she’s changed how she pronounces Hana and I don’t like the new way. Okay. So. Lena was ready to escape into the wilds with Alex, because of their TRU LURVE or whatever. Now that she’s there without him, she’s suddenly distraught about being around men and goes back to being afraid and it’s like why did the first book even happen? Was she planning on not living with Alex? HAHAHAHA I FORGOT ABOUT JULIAN HE’S TIED FOR THE WORST WITH ALEX. Alex’s major offense is extreme blandness, while Julian peeps on Lena while she is bathing and just shrugs it off like “I was never allowed to see boobs, and now here are boobs” and then they continue on like it’s fine. I’m not enjoying the then and now/flashback storytelling. I can’t tell if Pandemonium (and the entire series I guess) is overwritten, or if the voice actor is over voice-acting.
I have not previously read this, so all of my reactions are for the first time. Dual POV between Lena and Hana – I hate when a series switches to dual POV. At least it’s not Lena/Alex or something. Requiem is 100% about Lena trying to make Alex jealous with Julian. Hana’s side of the story is about her horrible husband-to-be and literally this did not need the dual POV AT ALL. And that was not an ending. I didn’t care about ANY of the characters coming into Requiem, but any kind of outcome for anyone would have been preferable to that.
And that’s that. I wrote those reviews back in June when I did the series read. I can say that I honestly don’t even remember what happens at the end of Requiem, but I think it’s probably better that way.
Paperback Heart 