Requiem

Title: Requiem
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: Harper Collins
Year: 2013
Series: The Delirium series
Genre: YA, Science Fiction/Dystopia

Plot Sumary: The final book in a dystopian trilogy, this is the story if Lena and her struggle to chose between two guys: Alex and Julian. After having run away and fallen for Julian in Pandemonium, Lena discovers that her first love Alex is alive, but he is not the same man he used to be. The old Alex was sweet and caring, this one is hard and jaded. Lena, Alex and Julian must work together in the same group in order to survive and continue with the movement. The other side of Requiem is of the perspective of Hana, Lena's former friend who has gone through with the cure but is scared it may not have worked.

Opinion: Pretty soon I am going to write a theory based on the third book in a dystopian trilogy called the Mockingjay Effect. By this I mean the first two books in a trilogy are just mesmerizing and wonderful and keep the reader sucked in, whereas the third book feels rushed, muddled and always has an outcome which leaves the reader unsatisfied. Right from the beginning of the book Lauren Oliver skips ahead from the pivotal moment at the end of Pandemonium (where she should have picked up in the third book) and quickly skips to the three unhappy lovers on their trip away from the bad guys (the regulators). The rest of the book is just them traveling around, kind of helping the resistance but not really and having Lena ponder on the past. In my opinion Lena was a bit more passive than active. The more interesting story line was that of Hana, who has had the procedure to be cured, but is having doubts about her wedding, her cities morals, and the everlasting guilt of a betrayal she committed against Lena a while back. Hana's situation was the most intense because she had to hide her feelings in plain sight (her procedure probably helped with this). Hana's fiance was literally terrifying, as it became clear he was a sociopath and wanted nothing but to harm others under the guise of helping them.

Overall, I call a redo. Books one and two were great, but I wish someone had pulled Oliver aside and told her to fix the book because it did not match the rest of the trilogy and felt VERY muddled and rushed. Unfortunately Requiem falls for me under the same category as Mockingjay (Hunger Games trilogy), Reached (Aly Condie) and Forever (Mercy Wolves trilogy). All had so much potential that they never accessed.  I waited eagerly for over a year to read this book so I was very disappointed. I give this book a 3 out of 5, mostly because I loved the first two books so much.