[Review] Requiem - Lauren Oliver

Title of Book: Requiem
Series: Delirium #3
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: Harper
Publication Year: 2013
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 470

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.

Lauren Oliver’s thrilling story of forbidden love in a totalitarian world comes to an epic conclusion in REQUIEM, an extraordinary culmination to the bestselling Delirium trilogy.

This is a review of the final book in a series. Beware of spoilers ahead.

Requiem is the third and final book in the Delirium trilogy. The previous book ends with a ‘sudden’ appearance of Alex which Lena believed to be dead. Alex then joins Lena’s group and they decide what their next move, whether to run away or stay and fight for what they believe in. In Requiem, the story mainly focuses on the Resistance attempts to take over the country. Because of that, this book is more action packed than the previous books. However, this book also explores Lena’s relationship with her long lost mother, boyfriend, and best friend.

Requiem is told from two alternating viewpoints between Lena and Hana. Of course, Hana in this book is already cured; kind of, actually. When I knew that the cured Hana was one of the narrators in this book, I was intrigued. Ever since I learned about how the Delirium world, I always wanted to know how the cured’s mind work. Will theirs be like psychopaths’ who have no remorse or robots with no feeling at all? Apparently, Hana’s is a special case. Even though she’s cured, she still has feelings for Lena, mostly guilt. So that’s a bit disappointing.

I love how Lena and Hana’s relationship is explored in this book. Although they are not technically together, but somehow Hana’s flashbacks and her guilt show how deep their connection actually is. Because they love each other, like sisters. I really appreciate it when there is another kind of love other than romantic love in a young adult book. The funny thing is, (spoiler alert) it was actually Hana who told the regulators about Lena and Alex because she’s jealous of what Lena has with Alex. That was when Hana didn’t realize that she loves Lena because love was such a foreign thing to her.

There’s a lot of action in this book because of the supposedly war between the resistance and the regulators. When you learned about that and since Requiem is the last book in this trilogy, you would hope that you knew how the war concluded. Instead, this book ends with an ambiguous yet hopeful note telling the reader that the whole point of being a resister is having the freedom to choose and not knowing what the future brings. I understand why some people dislike this book for its ending. I mean, it’s cheesy and kind of sound like an excuse to avoid wrapping up the series. I don’t know, it doesn’t do it for me. 

Overall thoughts on the series, I think it has an interesting premise. It raises interesting questions such as whether or not, love is the one that makes us human. Lauren Oliver’s writing is beautiful as always. The pacing is too slow for my liking. My most favorite book in the series is the first one, Delirium, and the least favorite is this one, Requiem. I’d still like to read Oliver’s other books though.