Requiem
Sunday, March 10, 2013
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. - Goodreads
REVIEW
After subjecting myself to two cliffhangers from reading the previous books and had eagerly waited for months for the final installment to be released, I finally got a copy of the conclusion to Lauren Oliver's Delirium series. Though for the most part it is a fairly satisfying read and I enjoyed every bit of it, it was kinda not what I had expected.
Delirium introduced us to Lena and Hana and how Lena got "infected" with the deadly amor deliria nervosa - the love disease that lets her experienced her first love and first heartbreak. Pandemonium shows us a different Lena, struggling to survive in the wilds with the rest of the invalids and with the pain of loosing what she had loved and lost. It introduce us to another boy that Lena saved and shared experiences with that somehow helps her forget the first love she had lost - not until at the end when HE came back.
In Requiem, Lena is a transformed woman. Though her love life sucks because of being sandwiched between the boy she loved first and lost but came back to her as a stranger and the other boy she rescued and shared experiences with, she is an active member of the resistance. In this installment, romance and love triangle takes a back seat but not totally because it also played a great deal in some important parts. It gave us a glimpse on the opposing sides of the rebellion and the impending war and everything that came with it
My annoyance with Lena in Pandemonium also took a back seat because in this book. She's not the scared and whining damsel in distress anymore but a matured unselfish fighter that thinks about the others rather than feels sad for herself. Meeting her mother after years and coming full circle makes me happy. Though she had changed and kinda crept back into me, she can't beat the two characters that solidified their place on my heart. These characters started out differently but ends up on a pedestal:
Hana - Lena's best friend to whom I hated for after I read the companion book Hana redeemed herself her. Quite honestly, I actually like her in Delirium but that was before reading her POV in the companion book. When I read about what she had done, how she betrayed Lena, she instantly earned jealous bitch from me. Requiem is told between two POV's, hers and Lena. After reading her thoughts, her compassion, her actions especially on the last part, my resentment to her turned into admiration.
Alex - I'm Team Alex ever since. I shed tears after the end of Delirium and was ecstatic when he came back. Don't get me wrong, Julian is really a nice guy and all but Alex is on a different league. We know from Delirium what a sweet guy he is - always taking care of Lena even sacrificing himself for her in the end, now who wouldn't fall for that? Not much to say about him in this book though. He is rarely discussed by Lena unless its about him being different than the guy she had known before and her jealousy of his closeness to the new addition to their group. I admit, I hated him on the first few chapters. I was hoping at the end of Pandemonium he will get Lena back but in this one, he was a douchebag. I was slowly resigning myself to accepting Julian for Lena but there's still a bit of hope that first love never die. So when it came to the last chapters, he once again made a sacrifice, letting Lena go to make her happy and admitted that he didn't forget about her and still loves her. I know you would asked why he didn't fight for her but for me its the sweetest thing a guy can do. Letting her go not because he had resigned but because he wants to do something to make Lena totally happy - a new free world by sacrificing himself for the resistance.
I know I had said the good parts but the reason why I was somehow disappointed with this is because of how it ended. I was already feeling something that I don't like towards the end and so when my eyes came to the word The End , I was not satisfied. It totally felt rushed and anti-climaxing. I know Oliver wanted it to be because of the cause and the fulfillment of what the resistance was created for but there were some loopholes that were not explained, questions that were not answered and scenes that left me hanging hoping against hope that there will be a fourth book to explain everything and making this series substantial.
And what about the constant question that most of us wants to know? Will it be Alex? or Julian?
It wasn't what I wanted to hear and I know its vague but I was not surprised at all. This is actually a typical Oliver style. I noticed that it was the same thing as what she did on her other YA Novel Before I Fall . Oliver didn't specifically tell who Lena ended up with. Maybe because the book is not all about the romance part but with something much more bigger or it could be because she wants the readers to comprehend and believe what they want to believe. But one thing's for certain, Alex confesses that he is still in love with her and promises that when they see each other again on the other side, he will not let her go again and what about Lena? She also confessed to Alex that she still loves him and was so worried about him she thought she will die again and smiled on what he promised. Then she look at Julian and remembers what they had been through. Complicated? definitely. So, go figure it out! That's the reason why I want a fourth book.
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