"Mama, Mama, help me get home..."

Today was like a trip down Delirium-memory-lane. When I first read Delirium back in March of 2012, I was blown away by Oliver's beautiful writing. It was poetic, deep, touching, simple, and just... all the pull-at-your-heartstrings things. When I was Googling graphics to use for today's post, I was yet again reminded of how amazing and gorgeous her writing is.

You're probably wondering why I'm out-of-the-blue talking about Delirium and the reason for that is because my good pal, DJ, has something quite awesome to share with all of you, today! I'm serious, it's really awesome! So, without further ado, check it out!

In My Mailbox (13)

IMM is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren with some inspiration from Alea at Pop Culture Junkie where we post about books we have received during the week via mailbox, local library, or store bought, etc.

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• A Touch Morbid by Leah Clifford (Goodreads | Amazon)

• Incarnate by Jodi Meadows (Goodreads | Amazon)

• Wings of the Wicked by Courtney Allison Moulton (Goodreads | Amazon)

• Unearthly by Cynthia Hand (Goodreads | Amazon)

• Hallowed by Cynthia Hand (Goodreads | Amazon)

• Fracture by Megan Miranda (Goodreads | Amazon)

• Everneath by Brodi Ashton (Goodreads | Amazon)

• Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver (Goodreads | Amazon)

• Timeless by Alexandra Monir (Goodreads | Amazon)

• The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan (Goodreads | Amazon)

• Black City by Elizabeth Richards (Goodreads | Amazon)

• The Waiting Sky by Lara Zielin (Goodreads | Amazon)

• The Right & the Real by Joelle Anthony (Goodreads | Amazon)

• Cold Fury by T. M. Goeglein (Goodreads | Amazon)

• Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton (Goodreads | Amazon)

• The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa (Goodreads | Amazon)

• Pure by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Goodreads | Amazon)

• Masters of the Veil by Daniel A. Cohen (Goodreads | Amazon)

A close up of the ARCS from Putnam

• Angelfire/Wings of the Wicked bookmarks

• Ten bookmarks

• A manuscript that I'm beta reading for the awesome Cait from Writer's Wanderings

• A CD of Alexandra Monir's book playlist for Timeless

Now, the copies of Angelfire, Wings of the Wicked, Incarnate, Everneath, Unearthly and Hallowed have already been featured in previous IMMs but I got them back yesterday from Katie over at Mundie Moms after she did me a huge favor by taking them to a Pitch Dark Days tour stop to get them signed for me!

Reapers, did ya see that? I'm her favorite! ;)

The three books below are also signed copies that I won in giveaways!

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Overall, it has been a pretty epic mail box week. I received my Dark Days Book and the Putnam ARCs just yesterday but the other books arrived earlier in the week or the previous week.  I am beyond excited to get to all of these awesome books!

A ginormous thank you to Putnam, Katie B., Cait, Amy from the YA Sisterhood, HarperCollins, Alexandra, Daniel, and Angela from Reading Angel!

Whew, it took me a decade and a day to get those photos formatted correctly! Anyway, it would be an understatement to say that I am excited to read all of these pretties; I've got enough to keep me occupied for a while! Eep! So, my awesome lovely bookworms, what did all of you receive this week? Leave your links or a comment below and I will surely check out your load!

Happy Sunday everyone! Omgomgomgomg, Sunday! Aah, the Walking Dead finale is tonight! WOOT WOOT!

Book Review: Pandemonium

Title: Pandemonium

Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: February 28th, 2012

Find Lauren Oliver Online: Twitter | Website | Blog | Facebook

I’m pushing aside the memory of my nightmare,
pushing aside thoughts of Alex,
pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school,
push,
push,
push,
like Raven taught me to do.
The old life is dead.
But the old Lena is dead too.
I buried her.
I left her beyond a fence,
behind a wall of smoke and flame.

My $0.02

I didn’t think I was going to be this affected by this book.  Everyone has a number one most favorite book.  Well, that book became your number one most favorite because there was something about it that touched you personally or something about it that tugged and hooked onto you—hard.  After you find a book like that and the feelings you felt when you read it, you’re constantly on the search for the next book that will deliver that same high to you—a higher high than that favorite book, even.  My point is, those kinds of books are rare.  You can read a thousand books and all of them could become your favorite but only a small percentage of those would be your most favorite; you’ll like all of them but you’ll only love a few of them.  Okay, I shouldn’t make this such a general statement because I’m not sure about anyone else but for me, this is true.

It’s no secret that Delirium, very quickly, became one of these books for me.  Something about everything in those 441 pages that made it unforgettable.  The words tumbled out of the pages and whispered sweet nothings into my soul (no joke!) and before I knew it, I couldn’t, I wouldn’t not love this amazing series.  So, of course I was very eager to dive head first into Pandemonium.  When I start the next book in a series, I get bored—sometimes.  For example, with the way how Delirium ended, I wanted to open up Pandemonium and get taken right back to the very second where Lena was before my eyes swam across that last word in Delirium.  But naturally, that didn’t happen.  Various times during my reading of Pandemonium, I kept searching for that little thing that would stand out to me and make it better than Delirium and overall, Pandemonium was highly enjoyable but for some reason, it was…slow to me.  I was looking for that spark that would pull me back in whenever I lost a little bit of interest.

Oliver distributed those “sparks” perfectly—right when I was going to close the book and stop my reading for the night, I was pulled in for another few pages that turned into one more chapter, three more chapters, five more chapters—un. put. down. able!  The slowness for me came when Lena took us back to the then parts of the book, which is ironic because at the beginning, I wanted so badly to know what happened to her after…the ending in Delirium.  All of this was overlooked as I got to the ending.  I knew from many people that the ending in Pandemonium was going to be a killer; I prepared myself, or at least, I tried to.  But no matter how much I tried to prepare myself, when I got to that very last page, the tears came and came and came and came.  I was so overwhelmed with emotions that I became hysterical; my hands were shaking, I ran out of breath, I was making weird shrieking noises—I was a mess. I couldn’t and I still can’t even comprehend…deep sigh.

Pandemonium definitely had a different feel to it than Delirium.  I’m not the biggest fan of dystopians and I guess one reason why I love Delirium so much is because it didn’t really feel like a dystopian to me, not completely.  But when I got to Pandemonium, those dystopian factors were very present and it kind of drew me away from the story.  A lot of bombs were dropped into the plot; Oliver has a way of hinting at them as you read but they’re so vague you hardly pay any attention to them so when they’re brought to light, you’re dumbfounded, left speechless.  I didn’t see a bunch of them coming but after they were explained the oooh effect set in.  Also, Oliver has a way of creating the biggest impact of the entire book on the very last two pages of both books.  So, I highly recommend you staying away from those two pages because without a doubt, you will be spoiled rotten if you flip to them, even accidentally, so don’t even think about looking back there.

Everything that happens in Pandemonium builds you up for the earth-shattering ending.  When people say that the ending will kill you, trust them because they know what they’re talking about!  Pandemonium is a swirl of crazy emotions: angst and confusion and happiness and pain and sadness and cold-heartedness, and so many other emotions that I can’t even identify right now.  Needless to say, Oliver has made a crazy, obsessive fan out of me and I absolutely cannot wait for Requiem—I’ll seriously do anything to get my hands on a copy. Anything, I tell you!  I can’t even believe that we have to wait basically a whole year until we get to see that pretty on shelves! WAAAH!  Anywho, read Pandemonium, stat!  If you’ve read Delirium and you still haven’t gotten to Pandemonium…well, then you’re crazy and I can’t be friends with a crazy! ;) Trust me, read it…because you’ll fall insanely in love with it!  You will, I dare you not too!

Links to purchase Pandemonium: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Teaser Tuesday (15)

This meme is brought to you weekly by MizB over at Should Be Reading!

Anyone can play along, just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and the author, too, so other TT participants can add the book to their TBR List if they like your teaser!

I really suck at the two line thingy, no surprise (if you look at all my TT, they're hardly ever just two lines), but this week, I'm really pushin' it. Also, instead of just one teaser, I have two for all of you awesome sugah muffins!

My 1st Teaser

But it's not just me. Everything looks beautiful. The Book of Shhh says that deliria alters your perception, disables your ability to reason clearly, impairs you from making sound judgments. But it does not tell you this: that love will turn the whole world into something greater than itself. Even the dump, shimmering in the heat, an enormous mound of scrap metal and melting plastic and stinking things, seems strange and miraculous, like some alien world transported to earth. In the morning light the seagulls perched on the roof of city hall look like they've been coated in thick white paint; as they light up against the pale blue sky I think I've never seen anything so sharp and clear and pretty in my life. Rainstorms are incredible: falling shards of glass, the air full of diamonds. The wind whispers Alex's name and the ocean repeats it; the swaying trees make me think of dancing. Everything I see and touch reminds me of him, and so everything I see and touch is perfect.

- Page 261-262, Delirium by Lauren Oliver

I could have easily stopped this quote after the third sentence and it would have gotten my point across but I didn't just want to share with you one of my favorite quotes from Delirium, I wanted to share with you the beauty and elegance and simplicity of Lauren Oliver's writing. Those lines that are colored are a few examples of what I love most about Oliver's writing. <333

As some of you know, I just finished Delirium on Sunday and boy, am I still on that high or what! Delirium doesn't leave you with a feeling of, "WOW! THAT WAS AMAZING!" It's more like, "Wow. That was breathtaking." There's a subtle difference. ;) It's just too good to pass up!

My 2nd Teaser

Old words; words that nearly brought me to my knees.
Life free or die.
Four words. Thirteen letters. Ridges, bumpes, swirls under my fingertips.
Another story. We cling tightly to it, and our belief turns it to truth.

- Page 86, Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

I don't even have to say anything about that one. Just know that right now, where I'm at in the story, I'm all sorts of sad. The way how Delirium ended to the way how Pandemonium started...I just...have the strongest gloomy, melancholy feeling hovering above me - I can't shake it! I've become emotionally, mentally and maybe even physically involved in Lena's story that it's become a part of me.

I've heard/read from everyone who has read Pandemonium that it ends with a killer cliffhanger; that makes me scared and excited. As I'm reading, I'm trying to come up with various scenarios as to what could possibly occur on that last page of the book...just so I won't be too shocked...but who am I kidding? We all love those little jaw-dropping surprises! ;)

As if it's not obvious enough, I'm knee-deep into this crazy world that Lauren Oliver has created and...quite frankly, I don't wanna leave it. For a while. But I guess I could spare a little time to check out your Teaser Tuesday, if I must, so leave your link below and I'll be by.

Happy Tuesday!

And because I'm feeling inspirational...or whatever.

Book Review: Delirium

Title: Delirium

Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: February 1st, 2011

Find Lauren Oliver Online: Twitter | Website | Blog | Facebook

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

My $0.02

Wow, Delirium is nothing short of amazing!  I knew before I even started reading that everyone loved it for a reason and sure enough, every good thing anyone said about it was the truth.  It didn’t take long for me to get wrapped up in the words and the beauty of Ms. Oliver’s writing.  Every few paragraphs, the descriptions that Oliver delivered just left me breathless.  I wanted to take a highlighter and light every single word up!  Oliver’s writing flowed together and it was soft and gentle with the truth swimming beneath it all.

It was a trip to read about amor deliria nervosa—what it is, what it does, what it means—I couldn’t wrap my head around it.  I just knew that I kept thinking, “Wow, Lauren Oliver is a pure genius!”  To take this idea of love, something so common to us, and twist it into something so forbidden…just blew my mind away and up into the clouds, into little pieces of nothingness.

Here we are, introduced into this world where without love, all is good in the world.  It’s drilled into everyone’s minds that love, is the deadliest of all deadly things.  Lena can’t wait to get cured so she can be happy…because that’s what they’ve drilled into her.

            Unhappiness is bondage; therefore, happiness is freedom.
            The way to find happiness is through the cure.
            Therefore, it is only through the cure that one finds freedom.

While I’m reading this, my mind’s going off and shouting, “What the eff? What kind of BS is that?!” But of course, this is a fictional story we’re talking about here. ;)  I’m not going to go into detail the plot of the story because you could read and find out for yourself, but I am going to talk about all the times Lena had with Alex because those moments are what stood out to me the most, like they should.  It’s no surprise that Lena and Alex are the leading male and female of Delirium…just so no one’s surprised or spoiled or anything like that.  Anyway, I couldn’t get enough of all the times they spent together.  When they were together it wasn’t like an omg-you’re-so-hot-and-I-want-you kind of thing, it was gentle and sweet and soft—like when you blow bubbles and sometimes you catch a bubble in the palm of your hands and then you cup them together ever so calmly as to not pop the bubble—their love was fragile.  It was sweet, innocent, passionate; they didn’t have to say anything at all to convey the candle of love burning ever so brightly within them.  It was, they are, the Romeo and Juliet of our time.

To point out a few favorite scenes of mine:

·      • When Alex recites back to Lena what she said during her first evaluation. Which is why I nearly jump out of my skin when he leans forward and directs a single word into my ear: “Gray.”

·      • The barn party scene. Alex: “Would you like to?”

Lena: “Would I like to what?”
Alex: “Dance.”
We dance.

·     • When Alex saves her. …and there’s an arm around my waist and a voice in my ear—a voice so familiar in that moment it’s like I’ve been waiting for it all along, like I’ve been hearing it forever in my dreams—breathing out, “This way.”

and last, but most definitely not least:

·     • The tiny wooden shed scene. Lena: “Why do you care?”
Alex: “I told you. I like you.”
Lena: “You don’t know me.”
Alex: “I want to, though.”

Like I said, and I’ll keep saying, Lauren Oliver is a genius, she might even be my hero and another reason why is because in Delirium she kept bringing up how life always goes on.  It doesn’t stop, or slow down for anyone.  There were a few scenes where Lena described how certain events would occur, yet the next day, everything kept going on like usual—people got up to go to work, people got up to clean the house, do the dishes, brush their teeth, go to school, etc. as if nothing ever happened.  And it…just the idea of it, put into words, struck me dumb.  You know how when an idea hits you so hard, you don’t know how to think or function for a while?  Well, yeah Delirium was that idea that hit me like a freight train—caught me in the headlights, leaving me stunned.

Delirium is brilliant and it undeniably wedged its way up into my favorites shelf!  When I turned that last page of the book, Delirium left me with a feeling of happiness and sadness.  Sadness for Lena and Alex because….WAAAAH, how could Delirium just end like that; totally tore me apart!  But happiness also, because it definitely makes you think twice about what you have and after I closed the book, it made me want to love harder, it made me want to shout I love you at the top of my lungs to anyone who cared to listen, it made me hopeful, it made me full, it made me more brave, it made me never, ever want to stop loving, even if I loved the littlest, craziest, weirdest things.  Love.  I’m only eighteen—and what do I know about love—but from all my years, I’ve come to learn that love is a beauty and a beast; there are times when it’s the most amazing thing in the world and times when all you have are black days.  Yet despite all the blackest days of all the blackest days, it’s better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.

Okay, I didn’t mean to get all philosophical on you there but I don’t know man, Delirium did something to me and…deep sigh.  I just love it crazy!  I want everyone to stop reading whatever book they’re reading at the moment and go out and purchase Delirium and Pandemonium (because it’s out and because it’s what I’m going to do after this) and start reading them as fast as you possibly can.  I don’t know how someone cannot not read this book; everyone has too and that’s all there is to it!


Links to purchase Delirium: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository