Is Ignorance Bliss or Just Plain Ignorant?

Lena chose love and feeling and pain over the simple bliss of surgically altered numbness, but it cost her. Not only did she cut herself off from every sense of normalcy and family she ever knew, but now she has lost Alex as well, the very reason she abandoned her life and took to the Wilds. But Lena has a lot more to learn about the world at large as well as herself in Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver.


Then: Lena must survive, but survival isn't easy in the Wilds. They know they are constantly hunted by the officers of a government who wants to take away what they treasure most- their ability to feel emotions and care deeply. They depend on supplies from sympathizers inside what they jokingly refer to as "Zombieland". And the toughest part of all is life in the Wilds is flung into the dangerous world of centuries ago with no hospitals or even the simplest of medicines... and sometimes no food. But the people who find Lena want to help her. They know how hard it is to transition from Zombieland and that her loss is the greatest thing she has ever experienced. But in the Wilds, they can't afford "transition time". Lena must pull it together or she endangers everyone. But how can you pull it together when you have lost everything you ever cared about in one fell swoop?


Now: Lena's job is to keep an eye on Julian, the poster boy for the Cured. He, to his father's particular delight, is getting the Cure even though countless doctors have told him it could very easily kill him. He is meant to speak at a rally for the Cure, but when protestors and rebels turn the rally into a coordinated attack, Lena follows Julian into the tunnels. What she gets for her efforts is being held prisoner right alongside him. While being a prisoner isn't exactly the best situation, it allows Lena to get to know Julian. Now she feels like she has to protect him. Unfortunately, that might be harder than Lena could have ever imagined. 


I love that this book flies between present time and flashbacks to tell both stories in the most efficient way possible. I thought at first that these flash-arounds would be difficult to keep track of, but Oliver does a great job of making it easy to follow. It also gives you a chance to see Lena in two ways- the raw and emotional Lena and the Lena she becomes: mature, determined, and not nearly as afraid. It was a brilliant way to tell of a personal journey without having to detract too much form the action to sink into character development! 


This book gives you more of the dystopia that you wanted to see in the first book. It also gets to the heart of the initiative for the Cure and just how far they will go to make the population dull and pliable. But most interesting was the fact that the rebels have moments where they cross a line in order to get what they want too. It makes them more real and fallible, blurring the lines between who is good and who is not so good. I think this series continues to be a great story for any young adult reader with decent skills. It remains interesting and you feel invested in the characters by the time you are done. But you can't wait for more! Oliver has a knack for leaving you hanging with the very last word to the point where you keep flipping the final page back and forth hoping there is more to the final chapter!

A World Without Pain... Or Love

A world without pain can't be bad, right? But if you don't feel any pain, grief, or loss, how can you truly understand love, passion, or desire? In Lauren Oliver's new trilogy, Delirium, you become a witness to a world where a mandatory surgery "fixes" people to prevent them from contracting a dreaded disease: love.


Lena (short for Magdalena) was named for the first woman to ever be cured of love, mary Magdalene. She suffered all her life because of love and started the movement that create a society free of the disease that will cause you to act impulsively, make you crazy, and will undoubtedly end in death if you contract it. Lena's surgery is only a few short months away, but she is desperate for the big day to be here so she doesn't have to live in fear of the dreaded disease. When she goes for her evaluation, something goes horribly awry and the Invalids (people who aren't cured and live outside the protected communities) or their sympathizers stage a demonstration that sends cows through the evaluation building and ends her interview. Since she found herself answering the questions in a way that would surely cause her to fail, she is almost grateful for the interruption. She saw a boy during the cow stampede and now she can't stop thinking about him. Hopefully she hasn't already caught the disease...


Lena's friend Hana has been toying with the boundaries of what is allowed and what will get you branded a sympathizer. Lena tries to get her friend to stop this dangerous behavior, but still she feels compelled to follow her to a party at an abandoned farm. There Lena experiences more emotion and overwhelming stimulation than she has ever experienced, and she flees almost as soon as she gets there. On her way out, she bumps into the same boy from the evaluation, Alex. As the days pass, she keeps bumping into Alex until she starts spending time with him. After all, he is cured, so it is both legal and safe for her to spend time with him. But when Alex admits to her that he isn't cured and is actually an Invalid, Lena can't believe her ears. She can't ignore her heart, either, and finds herself drawn to Alex and happily suffering from the very disease she was so afraid of just a few short weeks ago. What she doesn't expect is how quick her surgery date is approaching and how far everyone will go to "cure" her of the best feeling she has every experienced in her life: love. But is love enough to keep Lena and Alex together?


In the wide world of dystopias, there are the soft dystopian worlds like in Matched or The Giver where you can see how the world went to hell on a road paved with good intentions. Then there are the hard dystopias like Birthmarked and Forest of Hands and Teeth where the world was corrupted by greed and power. This world is more like the first category, giving the world an almost acceptable premise, but we still realize how it has been twisted and warped to create a society that has taken the protection of its citizens too far. You read the book and can't imagine how the people don't see where everything went wrong, but then you think about everything people get used to and can see how people would hold onto this broken world so fiercely- it is all they know. The idea of cutting out love is so hard to imagine, but what about the elimination of pain or grief. To anyone who has lost a loved one or watched a great love end, it doesn't sound like a bad option, does it?!


That is the beauty of this book. The discussion possibilities are simply endless. I went to the reading Lauren Oliver did at Oblong Books in Rhinebeck this weekend and was absolutely in love with her! She was a really normal, cool lady with lots to talk about, in particular, just how hard it is to write a book! I wish my students had more opportunities to meet the authors of the books they love because it is an experience that nothing can compare to. I would recommend this book for a wide range of students from strong middle readers through to young adults. It is a good clean, not-too-harsh dystopia that will be great for any fan of The Giver. The sequel is out and I have it staring at me right now, but I am going to wait a little while to read it. I want all the ideas from Delirium to ruminate and not be clouded by the second book! And if you get a chance to see Lauren Oliver, make sure you do! She is a cool, cool lady who will reinforce your love of her books (not that you need anything but the books themselves, but it can't hurt!).

Who Would Your Match Be?

Having just finally read Lois Lowery's The Giver, I knew I had to read the book recommended to me as "a romantic Giver". Ally Condie's breakout dystopian/utopian novel Matched challenges all we know about life, questions, and choices. Very similar to The Giver's false utopia, this world has done everything to make sure there is no pain, no confusion, and no choices. But in taking away our ability to choose, have they also taken away our ability to live?

Cassia is excited about her Match Banquet. Here she will meet the man she will eventually marry. He will be from another city, but through interactions monitored by Officials, she will get to know him and they will eventually start a family. In Cassia's world, the Officials have created a life where no one has to make choices. The food they eat, what they wear, where they live, the jobs they do, and even the people they marry, are all choices carefully made by sorters who evaluate data in order to assign choices for everything. Food is delivered every day prepackaged and ready to eat. Even the waste they throw into their disposal is monitored to make sure it is the right amount and proper density compared to the amount of food and products they are given. Without any choices to make, people can't make the wrong choices.

Something strange happens at Cassia's Match Banquet. She is assigned to Xander, he best friend. Usually Matches occur with people from other cities, but she got someone in Mapletree Borough. Cassia is excited, but the situation means they won't have the typical courting scenario since they already know each other. Still, Cassia gets the box with Xander's card in it and plugs it into her portscreen to read the information about Xander, but it isn't Xander's card- it's Ky's- another boy from town. While Cassia knows this was a mistake, she still can't stop thinking about Ky, especially when she learns of his status in the society- Ky Markham is an Aberration. Aberrations are outsiders within the society. They can live and work in the Boroughs, but they aren't given important jobs and aren't allowed to Match. They aren't dangerous like Anomalies, who aren't allowed to live in the Boroughs, but they aren't exactly accepted either.

Ky's status intrigues Cassia, and when they are put together in the new hiking group for free time, she grows to really enjoy his company. In fact, Ky is the only person she shares the illegal poem her grandfather gave her before he was released (everyone is "released" at the age of 80). The poem, "Do Not Go Gentle" by Dylan Thomas keeps swirling around in Cassia's head. It is not part of the Hundred Poems (the Society has only saved 100 poems, 100 paintings, etc. Everything else was destroyed and the people of the society are only allowed to view the 100 that have been deemed appropriate). In fact, it is dangerous for her to even know about the poem, but she can't forget about it since her grandfather gave it to her. And Ky understands why. The poem, Ky, and so much more are making Cassie question the Society and the lack of choices. She knows why the Society has created the world she lives in, but she isn't as willing to accept it's rules anymore. She likes Xander, but she starts to love Ky. She is angry about losing her grandfather, and hates that the Officials can come into her home and take anything they want. She chooses to Not Go Gentle. She wants to Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light.

Cassia has become exactly what the Society has worked hard to eliminate- a young woman who wants to make her own choices. I am so intrigued by the thin line between utopia and dystopia. A utopia is always flawed and therefore teeters on the edge of a dystopia, such as in Matched. A dystopia may be a horrible new world, but there is always hope, always someone willing to stand up to the tyranny. This story is beautifully written and will make you appreciate each and every choice you make- including the ones that might seem difficult at the time. While choices might not always be easy or fun, they are still ours to own and be responsible for. Sure it might be easier not to have to decide what to wear everyday, but where does it stop? Where does giving up control become too much lost?

This is an amazing book filled with deep questions and budding romance. You can feel Cassia's dilemma between Xander who has always been her friend and confidante, and Ky who just knows her. Both young men are great people, so you don't even know who you want her to choose! But in the end, we all have to ask ourselves, how many choices are we willing to give up? If we were Cassia, would we be willing to continue our humdrum lives with Xander, or slip into the vast unknown with Ky? Give this story a shot... after all, it is your Choice to Make!

The Giver of a Story You Can't Forget

There aren't many people out there who haven't read Lois Lowry's classic, The Giver, but I happened to be one of them. Then I talked to my longtime friend (since 2nd grade!) who I often share great YA titles with (and a love for cheesy RomComs) and she told me The Giver was a book that she read in middle school that stayed with her. She still thought about the book 20 years later (god we are getting old). So, I decided I had to quit being a turd and do my YA collection justice with this 1994 Newberry winner. After finishing it in one voracious sitting, I had to ask myself if I would ever learn. I avoided Percy Jackson for years- did I learn? I refused to read Harry Potter, Twilight, and so many more for no other reason than they were popular. Now The Giver. Will I ever learn?! Why do I deprive myself of great stories?

The story begins in a utopia. No one feels pain, no one is unhappy. Any feelings of anger, jealousy or concern are to be voiced in family units every morning in order to address and release them. Children are not born and raised with their parents. Instead, a sensible couple the community puts together is allowed to ask for children and they can receive up to one boy and one girl. Only Birth Mothers are allowed to have children, but since all the community members take drugs to inhibit sexual impulses from the time they reach puberty, no one seems to object. When people get too old, they are "Released" into a better state. If twins are born, the smaller of the two will be released. Even careers are not chosen, but rather given to the people of the community by the Elders after careful consideration. When children reach their twelfth year, they are assigned a career to focus on. Although they can request a career change, it doesn't happen. Instead, people are content in the community. They contribute, they live, and they are content. Nothing more. Nothing less.

When Jonas reaches his twelfth year and is assigned, however, it changes everything. Jonas is assigned as the new Receiver of Memory. He is to report to the Giver of Memory, an old man who was chosen as Jonas was chosen, to be given the memories of times forgotten. This includes happy memories, like snow, sledding, warm sun, and fun. It also includes bad memories like pain, breaking an arm, war, and anger. These memories begin to change Jonas, but he is forbidden to share them with others. All he wants to do is show his sister and his friends the colors of the world, the sunshine.

When his father, a Nurturer in the nursery, brings home a baby who isn't sleeping well, Jonas takes him into his bedroom at night and shares the happy memories with him. This soothes the baby, but is strictly forbidden, of course. Jonas and the Giver begin talking about leaving the community in order to give the people back the memories of past times, good and bad. It will be traumatic for them, but The Giver will be there to guide them. When Jonas's father announces the baby is going to be "released", Jonas, who has seen what "releasing" really is, refuses to leave the baby to that fate.

This story is one that will truly rock your world. With so many dystopias swirling around out there, it is hard to imagine one that could sweep you off your feet as easily as this one. Nevertheless, this classic bested me. It makes the reader question their wants, their desires, their hopes. It keeps the reader on their toes and examines what is really important in life. Do we need a life free of pain and suffering? Or will that lead to the loss of all this beautiful, wonderful, and sublime as well. Do we need to experience pain in order to truly know love and happiness when we have it?

This book is a must read for anyone who hasn't read it already. Recently a coworker said she was using it in her middle school Lit class, and I was thrilled! (eerily she told me about using it in her classroom the very same day I finished reading it!) To hand this story over to students, especially in a student-driven setting, means opening the door to struggling readers who can't get enough of a story. This will be that story- it will have them questioning everything they have ever known, and then some. And isn't that why we read anyway? To question ourselves, our worlds, what we know, what we think we want to know, and so much more? Don't be afraid to give this story to your children or students- like my grade school friend, they will never forget it!