Review: Requiem

Title: Requiem
Author: Lauren Oliver
Date Released: March 5th, 2013
Pages: 391
Rating: 4 out of 5

Description:
They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.
But we are still here.
And there are more of us every day.

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.

Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.
But we have chosen a different road.
And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.
We are even free to choose the wrong thing.

Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

Review:
I don't even know what to say!  It's sad having to finish a series that was so good and so captivating throughout all three books.  Requiem definitely carried on the amazing-ness of Delirium and Pandemonium and I'm so sad that there won't be anymore books about Lena's world :(

Requiem pretty much follows Pandemonium, especially after that killer cliffhanger that left me wanting more.  This time, the chapters alternate between Lena and Hana, with Lena in the dangerous Wilds as an Invalid and Hana, who has been cured, in Portland where the Resistance keeps growing.  The whole story kept me intrigued and wanting to know what could possibly happen next to Lena and her group and Hana and Portland.

When you put the Delirium Lena side by side with the Requiem Lena, you see how much she has developed into a completely different person.  She has become stronger, more aware, and even a bit cold at times, but I guess living in the Wild just transforms a person.  I didn't read the novella Hana, but from reading Requiem, I think I kind of got the gist of what probably happened.  Hana changed to since we last saw her in Delirium, but she's different from the other ones that have been cured.  Obviously I'm not a big fan of any cured person, but Hana changes throughout the course of the novel and becomes a little more open and aware of what's going on and how the system actually is kind of corrupt in a way, and I liked her more for that.

The ending was a bit open ended, when considering the actual rebellion that the whole entire series was building up to, and I could see why people were upset with the ending.  But overall, I think that Lauren Oliver did give her fans one thing that they wanted to know, which was who Lena would end up with, because that was what was pretty much killing me throughout the book.

This might be a bit of a spoiler if you haven't read the first two books yet, but I just had to address this.  So, the love triangle (I know) was a bit crazy in this book.  I wanted to know so badly who she would end up with, but it was kind of painful actually reading about it because you could see that she favored one more than the other and it just sort of broke my heart because the other one was still kind of vulnerable, but I was rooting for who she *vaguely* ended up with anyways :)

Overall, Requiem was a great follow up to Delirium and Pandemonium.  While it did leave some things open ended, you could only hope for the best, if you're an optimist like me anyways.  It's not going to have The Hunger Games ending where you know Lena's future, but I liked it nevertheless, although my sister disagrees with me.  I love Lauren Oliver's writing so I can't wait to see what she has next.  I'll probably have to start reading her middle grade stories until her next novel comes out and the TV show will have to suffice :)

Cover Review:
I'm still stuck on the fact that they changed the whole cover concept with Delirium and I always wonder what the covers for Pandemonium  and Requiem would have looked like.  Nevertheless, I do like this cover.  It doesn't quite fit the story because it just seems too peaceful for such a action-filled book, but I do like the flowers though and the overall dark color scheme.  It's a very eye-catching cover.

Cleo :)

*Description and cover from goodreads.com
**Review copy purchased.