SuitabookPandemonium
Lauren Oliver
- Reading
- Check familiarity with Delirium first, since this is a sequel. If choosing it, flag the violence and grief beforehand, then pause after major losses or moral choices to discuss consent, freedom, revenge and the personal cost of resistance.
- Themes
- Freedom and social control: The society treats love and other strong feelings as an infection, while Lena and the Invalids resist a controlling government. The controlling system is presented as oppressive, and retaining emotional freedom is treated as worth significant personal risk.
- Resistance and violence: The book addresses resistance and violence; the detail of how it is developed remains unclear. Resistance is associated with courage and sacrifice, but the violence is not presented as consequence-free: leaders’ decisions can hurt or kill people.
- Grief, love and identity: Lena is heartbroken and remembers Alex while developing feelings for someone new; Julian discovers that love is not a sickness. The book presents this favourably.
- Worth knowing
- The book may merit particular attention if grief, a child’s death, imprisonment, lethal execution, starvation or violent conflict could be difficult. Its portrayal also raises questions about whether resistance can remain defensive when opposing oppression.