Coverlicious: Delirium by Lauren Oliver new covers!

Coverlicious is a feature that I hold here talking about anything to do with covers from newly revealed covers to cover lookalikes!

You may remember that I read Delirium by Lauren Oliver a few months ago and loved it. Only I wasn't a big fan of the original cover so I was excited to hear about the new covers that had been designed for it that Lauren Oliver recently announced on her blog Deliriously Falling  here. Here are the new designs and my thoughts on them :

The UK Paperback

I was  disappointed by this UK paperback design because it's just  plain compared to all the beautiful YA covers out there at the moment and because Delirium is such an amazing book, it deserves an equally stunning cover. This one just doesn't do it for me and wouldn't entice me to read it if I saw it in a book shop. The girl's large blue eyes are pretty, show a lot of expression and  match the background colours but it just strikes me as somewhat old fashioned and I've never really liked close up faces on covers.

The Special Edition 

I love this one SO much more! I first spotted it in a post over at Daisy Chain Book Reviews and I knew that I would just have to buy this edition because I don't have a copy of Delirium yet. It's not one of the most beautiful covers I've seen but I just love the soft pastel colours used and the green sparkle around the title  gorgeous. It  has a very earthy feel and contrast well with the model's pale skin and peachy lips! Again, the expression in the girl's eyes tells a lot  and the intense emotion displayed in them would  have me intrigued if I hadn't read it yet. However, the design doesn't really give away much about what the story is about. This cover design wins for me!

Full spread =)

What do you think of these new cover designs for Delirium? 
 Which is your favourite? Do you like them more than the original Delirium covers?

A Cornucopia Of Dystopia: Lauren Oliver Scavenger Hunt Interview

Today is the finale of A Cornucopia Of Dystopia event held by Casey at The Bookish Type and Danya at A Tapestry Of Words and to have some fun on the last day we're doing a scavenger hunt interview with Lauren Oliver, the bestselling author of Before I Fall new dystopian Delirium. The interview is spread across eight blogs, each linking to the next in the chain. You'll have to follow the link trail to see the interview in its entirety!

Here's my question for Lauren:

What was your absolute favourite aspect of writing and researching Delirium?

I loved spending time in Portland, Maine, and getting to know the city and the feel of the place. It felt very exotic to me—not necessarily because it is exotic, but because it was a huge moment where I suddenly realized, “I’m a writer—this is my job—to go places and listen to people.” And of course I had so much fun playing with the idea of love as a disease, and more importantly, writing about the fears and anxieties that love can provoke. It’s funny; I really have lived through times when I would have gladly taken the cure. And when I meet people who haven’t, and can’t understand it, there’s a disconnect to me. I feel like: wait, haven’t you ever had you heart broken? Haven’t you ever felt like you’d been smashed into bits by someone else? So I liked exploring that.

Thank you so much for answering my question Lauren! I hadn't read Delirium at the time I wrote the question but I have now and I absolutely loved it (you can find my review here). It had me thinking about whether I would take the cure and it must have been interesting pondering that whilst you were writing. The concept is challenging but I imagine you had fun coming up with and creating Delirium's dystopian world. You can really tell from the detail about the setting in Delirium that you've spent a lot of time there researching and it adds an extra dimension to the book. I would love to be just to go and visit places to 'people watch' and look around- all the more reason for trying to become an author....

The next question of the scavenger hunt interview can be found over at

 Supernatural Snark

so don't forget to pop on over there and keep reading the rest of the interview! Enjoy :D

Finally, (I know I've said it before in my interview with Katie Kcvinsky) but I want to say another huge thank you to Casey and Danya for putting so much hard work into organising this wonderful event to celebrate new dystopian releases and making it a success. It's been a privilege to take part and a lot of fun. I hope everyone has enjoyed it as much as I have whether you're a reader or a blogger taking part in the event!



A Cornucopia of Dystopia: Delrium by Lauren Oliver Review

Goodreads description

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 governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holloway 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 Review

Warning: This review is filled with lots of gushing and praise!

There have been so many raving reviews for Delirium in the blogosphere but I'm going to have to jump on the bandwagon and say that it left me speechless. A book that has the power to leave me feeling like that with my emotions churned up inside is something special because it's very rare that it happens. It's so difficult to put into words why it had the 'wow' factor. Whilst reading it, I wanted to race ahead to the end and turn the pages as quickly as I could to find our what happens but at the same time savour it because I didn't want it to end. I've read several other dystopian books but Delirium just had so much more of an impact on me.

Delirium's dystopian world appeared at first to not be so wildly different from our own but as different aspects are slowly revealed and a fulled picture of the society built up in my mind, I could see more and more of the differences. It is easy to see why Lena is looking forward to having the treatment because she wants to be able to be free of unbearable memories from her early childhood. She appears to be the perfect normal teenager awaiting the treatment that will change her life forever: she can quote the Book of Shhh, she knows the answers to her interview questions by heart; she's always home by curfew and she only listens to the music and reads the books set by the government. Yet Lena still bears the scars of losing her mother and the taunting of having a mother who committed suicide because she fell in love underneath. When she falls in love herself, she must decide whether to trust the Society or her heart. All her conflicting emotions and insecurities came across really well because the first person present tense way that the story is related in means Lena has a distinct voice.

Lena and Alex's relationship was wonderfully pure and the bond that they shared was evident. It was beautiful! I thought that Lena's feelings at experiencing her first love in a time where love of any kind is forbidden were captured very well because they were realistic. Alex is a mysterious character who is vibrant and full of life in his attitude and I enjoyed watching him slowly showing Lena what living life is really all about. He just seemed so perfect as he was romantic, kind, loyal, brace AND quoted poetry! Whilst I usually don't like this in characters, I loved it in this context. However I would have liked to have seen more development from his character because the development is focused on Lena all the time because she has a lot more flaws.

I also liked seeing Lena and Hanna's best friend relationship unfolding because they have known each other almost all their life and are obviously very important to each other. Although, they've come to a point in life where they're changing, growing up and going separate ways in life whilst there friendship is being tested by this strain.

My favourite thing about the book was Lauren Oliver's amazing writing and phenomenal word building that is full of colourful description and imagery that brings the dystopian world that Lena lives in to life. I found that instead of detracting from the story as I sometimes find in books, they enhanced it. I was inspired to sit down and write and that just about sums up my feelings about it. Lauren Oliver knows how to build up an extremely tense and suspenseful scene because the ending had my heart pumping and was desperately heart wrenching as the book is driven to a dramatic climax. The cliffhanger that it is left on is possibly the biggest I've ever read and had the intended effect because I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel Pandemonium.

Final words: Delirium is an incredible love story infused with enthralling and emotional writing that also explores the coming of age of a teenage girl in a society that is trying to eradicate love. This might be cliche but it's one of the best books I've read in a long while!

Rating: 5 stars

In My Mailbox 13/3/11

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren and encourages bloggers share the new books that have made it into their homes this week.

Here's what I got this week:

For review:

Chime by Franny Billingsley (thanks to Bloomsbury UK)

I hadn't heard of this on before it arrived through my postbox and it's really not what I would normally choose to read but I'm always up for different things AND there's sparkles on the cover (that's always a good thing!) Except, just looking up the synopsis on Goodreads, I found out it's historical too (set in the early twentieth century), which is doesn't mention on the cover, so now I like the sound of it more.

Bumped by Megan Mcafferty (from NetGalley)

When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society. Girls sport fake baby bumps and the school cafeteria stocks folic-acid-infused food.

Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and have never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody’s doorstep. Up to now, the twins have followed completely opposite paths. Melody has scored an enviable conception contract with a couple called the Jaydens. While they are searching for the perfect partner for Melody to bump with, she is fighting her attraction to her best friend, Zen, who is way too short for the job.

Harmony has spent her whole life in Goodside, a religious community, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to convince Melody that pregging for profit is a sin. But Harmony has secrets of her own that she is running from.

When Melody is finally matched with the world-famous, genetically flawless Jondoe, both girls’ lives are changed forever. A case of mistaken identity takes them on a journey neither could have ever imagined, one that makes Melody and Harmony realize they have so much more than just DNA in common.


I'm so excited to get this one because I'm interviewing the author for A Cornucopia of Dystopia hosted by A Tapestry Of Words and The Bookish Type. I have got one book from Net Galley before and found it really hard to read it on the computer so it didn't work out but this time I'm determined to get to the end. Also, I'm hoping to get a Kindle for my birthday in late April so it should be a lot easier then!

From library

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

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 governments 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.
 
I'm reviewing this one for the A Cornocupia of Dystopia event and I know there was so much hype around the blogosphere that some people were left disappointed but I loved it and was left feeling 'wow' by the end of the book, mainly because of Lauren Oliver's writing. You'll have to wait until my review to find out more!

What did you get in your mailbox this week?

Reminder: I'm holding a US/Canada giveaway of Dark Mirror by J.M Putney. To find out more and enter, click on the link.

A Cornocupia of Dystopia event!

During March and April, the lovely Casey from The Bookish Type and Danya from A Tapestry Of Words are holding an awesome dystopian blogging event that I am taking part in- very exciting! Thank you so much to Danya and Casey for all the hard work they have put into organising the event.

There will be author interviews, reviews, guest posts, cover-redesign contests and giveaways.It will feature lots of the dystopian books that many bloggers are eagerly anticipating or have already been released including:

I will be reviewing Delirium and welcoming authors Megan Mcafferty and Katie Kcvinsky for a guest post here :D

Here's the current schedule:

March

21 – A Tapestry of Words Dark Parties Review & Interview, The Bookish Type Memento Nora Review & Interview

22 – I Swim For Oceans Awaken Review & Interview, The Book Worms XVI Review & Interview

23 – A Writer’s Review Bumped Review, Musings of a YA Reader Memento Nora Review & Interview

24 – Books in the Spotlight Delirium Review, Supernatural Snark Possession Review, Reading Teen Wither Review

25 – Down the Rabbit Hole Bumped Review & Interview, Supernatural Snark Possession Interview

26 – Musings of a YA Reader Awaken Interview, A Writer’s Review Dark Parties Review, Books in the Spotlight Dark Parties Review

27 – Midnight Bloom Reads Awaken Review, The Bookish Type Delirium Review, BSAOT XVI Interview

28 – I Swim For Oceans Bumped Review & Interview, Midnight Bloom Reads Awaken Interview

29 – Supernatural Snark Memento Nora Review & Interview, Reading Teen Possession review & Interview

30 – 365 Days of Reading Bumped Review & Interview, The Bookish Type XVI Interview & Review

31 – Loud Words and Sounds Awaken Review & Interview, Good Choice Reading Dark Parties Review & Guest Post

 April

1 – Reading Teen Bumped Review & Interview, The Book Worms Memento Nora Review, Literary Explorations Wither Review

2 – Musings of a YA Reader Possession Review & Guest Post, Books are a Girl’s Best Friend Delirium Review, Books in the Spotlight Awaken Review

3 – Books in the Spotlight Awaken Interview, Down the Rabbit Hole XVI Review & Interview, 365 Days of Reading Memento Nora Review

4 – The Bookish Type Dark Parties Review & Interview, 365 Days of Reading Memento Nora Interview

5 – Books are a Girl’s Best Friend Awaken Guest Post, A Tapestry of Words Awaken Review, Literary Explorations Possession Review

6 – Loud Words and Sounds Bumped Review & Interview, Reading Teen Delirium Review, Musings of a YA Reader XVI Review

7 – Books in the Spotlight Dark Parties Interview, Supernatural Snark Awaken Review, A Tapestry of Words Possession Review

8 – The Book Worms Bumped Review, Midnight Bloom Reads Delirium Review, Supernatural Snark Awaken Interview, A Tapestry of Words Possession Interview

9 – The Book Worms Bumped Interview, Literary Explorations Memento Nora Review, 365 Days of Reading XVI Interview

10 – A Writer’s Review Awaken Interview, The Book Worms Possession Guest Post, The Bookish Type Possession Review

11 – Reading Teen XVI Review & Interview, The Bookish Type Possession Interview

12 – The Bookish Type Awaken Review & Interview, Books in the Spotlight Memento Nora Review, Literary Explorations Bumped Review

13 – Supernatural Snark Bumped Review, A Writer’s Review Possession Review, Books in the Spotlight Memento Nora Interview

14 – Reading Teen Awaken Review & Interview, 365 Days of Reading Dark Parties

15 – A Tapestry of Words Memento Nora Review & Interview, 365 Days of Reading Dark Parties Interview

16 – The Bookish Type Bumped Review, Books in the Spotlight Possession review, Supernatural Snark XVI Interview

17 – The Bookish Type Bumped Interview, Literary Explorations Delirium Review, Books in the Spotlight Bumped Review

18 – Delirium Scavenger Hunt Interview

So make sure to keep your eyes peeled for these posts across the 17 participating blogs, which can be found at A Tapestry Of Words or The Bookish Type and share in the fun! Also, a giveaway schedule will be announced soon by Casey and Danya.