03 July, 2014

Book Review: Delirum

From Goodreads: Ninety-five days, and then I'll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It's hard to be patient. It's hard not to be afraid while I'm still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn't touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't.

Thoughts: I chose to listen to this because I needed a new audio and I had enjoyed listening to Panic. The premise also sounded interesting - a world where love is seen as a disease and a cure has been found. Once you reach 18 you can be cured and live a life of blissful happiness, never bothered by those pesky, overwhelming emotions again. Except of course, there are people who get infected before 18 and those for who the cure doesn't work. Given the whole outline of the world it's not hard to see where this book is going.
I mentioned in a recent review that I have some trouble with the current batch of YA dystopian novels. I gave this one a go because I liked the author. My problem now is I'm not sure if I have issues with this because of the book or the person who narrated it. When I think about the story I can't complain about it too much. Yes there was a little too much teenage angst, but it's a novel aimed at teenagers specifically about love - I can't be surprised by the angst! The world created is believable, the characters genuine. The narrators voice though was grating. Narrated by Sarah Drew, I just found her voice annoying. The best I can come up with is was it wasn't old enough, and not even that is right. Her voice for the female teenage characters was fine, but for any male or grown up character it just didn't work for me.
Any way, I'm going to read the second one rather than listen to it and see if that's the issue. I hope so, I really do want to like it.