Line #42 Literature/DeliriumSeries


1	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/delirium-lauren-oliver-200_9779.png]]
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3	This is a series of YoungAdult {{Dystopia}}n novels by Creator/LaurenOliver. The first book was published in January 2011, and the sequel, ''Pandemonium'', was released on February 28, 2012. The third and final book, ''Requiem'', was released in Spring 2013.
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5	Then there's the ProtagonistTitle stories, and the ''Book of Ssh''.
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7	The story is set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, in a version of America where love has been officially diagnosed as a mental illness, ''amor deliria nervosa'', and every citizen is "cured" by an operation at the age of eighteen. Lena Haloway is eager for the procedure, having even more reason to be afraid of love than the average citizen, but then of course she meets a handsome young man -- can you see where this is going?
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9	The series was made into a film starring Creator/EmmaRoberts which was made available on {{Creator/Hulu}} in June 2014.
10	----
11	!! This series contains the following tropes:
12	%%* AbusiveParents: Julian's father in the sequel.
13	%%* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler:Hana's husband Fred.]]
14	%%* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Scavengers.
15	* BigApplesauce: Half of ''Pandemonium'' is set in a severely "cured", colorless New York.
16	* BigBad: [[spoiler:Fred Hargrove. Turns out he's been working with the government to undermine the resistance, killed his father and is intending to impose a horrible, strict rule on the country, including taking people's heat/power/water away if they show any resistance, or just to keep people in line.]]
17	* BigBrotherIsWatching: Everyone is under constant surveillance, even in their own homes. Regulators and other enforcers of the PoliceState are told to watch for any behaviors indicative of "amor deliria nervosa."
18	* TheBluebeard: [[spoiler:Fred, Hana's husband-to-be. He had one wife committed for discovering the truth of what he'd done - killed his father and worked with the government to destroy the rebels, and it's implied he's done it several other times.]]
19	* BureaucraticallyArrangedMarriage: At eighteen, everyone gets a list of four potential matches to choose from.
20	* ChainedToABed: [[spoiler:Lena]] by her family after they [[spoiler:find out that she has fallen in love/been infected with "amor deliria nervosa." They even drug her with tranquilizers to make the job easier.]]
21	%%* CoolBigSis: Rachel used to be this, before the procedure.
22	* CrapsaccharineWorld: Much is made about how curing people of the ability to love has increased social stability, but over the course of the book, many things are exposed that are wrong with the society that Lena lives in.
23	* CulturePolice: Dancing, poetry, certain types of music, loud laughter and public displays of affection are all banned.
24	%%* CureYourGays: One of the intended effects of the procedure.
25	* CuteMute: Gracie, too traumatized to speak except in her sleep, and then only the word "Mommy".
26	* CynicalMentor: Raven and Tack. [[spoiler: They arrange for Lena and Julian to be kidnapped together, so that Julian will bond with her and be discredited as a symbol of the DFA. The fact that his father will literally kill him is considered a necessary price to pay.]]
27	* DangerousSixteenthBirthday: Everybody gets the procedure done at age 18.
28	%%* DistressedDude: Julian.
29	* DoubleStandard: If two "uncureds" of the opposite sex fall in love and get involved with each other, they're merely considered to have "amor deliria nervosa" and it's bad because it's considered an unnatural version of the usual husband-wife relationships. If the two "uncureds" are of the same sex, though, their behavior is labeled as "Unnaturalism."
30	* DrivenToSuicide: Lena's mother. When not even three operations managed to erase her love and grief over her dead husband, she dived off a cliff into the ocean. [[spoiler: At least that's what Lena has been told.]]
31	* DysfunctionJunction: Lena's whole family, basically.
32	* DystopianEdict: The entire prohibition on love is basically this.
33	* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: The book starts with Lena about to be evaluated, mentally and physically, by a team of civil servants who will determine which career she is suited for and what sort of boy she should marry (she'll have to choose from among four boys).
34	* FascistsBedTime: A curfew is imposed on "uncureds" for the dual purpose of adding appeal to "the procedure" and for prevention of any illicit gatherings between lovers.
35	* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: An entire society where love is outlawed. Did they really think it would work out as planned?
36	* ForYourOwnGood: [[spoiler: Lena's family, trying to force her to be cured.]]
37	* FunWithAcronyms:
38	** ''The Safety, Health and Happiness Handbook'', practically a second Bible to this culture, is nicknamed ''The Book of Shhh''. Hana calls the Controlled Information Department the "Corrupt Idiots Department".
39	** In the sequel, there's "Correction, Regulation And Prevention". Check the initials.
40	* FutureImperfect: Many stories in Literature/TheBible are twisted to accommodate the belief that love is a disease. For example, the story of Mary Magdalena is twisted into an anti-love story.
41	* GreatEscape:
42	** [[spoiler: Both Mrs. Haloway and, with Alex's help, Lena herself escaping from her own home just before she's "cured".]]
43	** [[spoiler: In ''Pandemonium'', Lena and Julian escape from the Scavengers.]]
44	* HeroicSacrifice:
45	** [[spoiler:It's insisting that Lena climb the border fence ahead of him that causes Alex to be shot by the guards.]]
46	** [[spoiler:Raven for Pippa, in the third book.]]
47	* HobbesWasRight: The official stance of the government.
48	--> "Humans, unregulated, are cruel and capricious; violent and selfish; miserable and quarrelsome. It is only after their instincts and basic emotions have been controlled that they can be happy, generous and good."
49	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: OneWordTitle style.
50	* ItRunsInTheFamily: Everyone believes this about the "deliria", which makes Lena's family somewhat unpopular considering what happened to her mother [[spoiler: the alleged suicide who's actually a prisoner]], and her cousin Marcia's husband, a convicted Sympathizer. Lena herself feels this way at first.
51	* KickTheDog: Almost literally. Lena's next door neighbour's dog is savagely beaten by police officers during a raid, and Lena finds him dying in the street.
52	* LaResistance:
53	** The Invalids, groups of un-cured people hiding out in the wilderness between the strictly guarded cities. They occasionally pull pranks, such as sending a herd of cows into a hospital (to imply that all the compliant citizens are mindless cattle) and have a network of spies and sympathizers in the cities. Government propaganda, of course, treats them as AlwaysChaoticEvil; there's even a children's rhyme that compares Invalids to vampires and werewolves.
54	** [[spoiler:Lena joins them]] in the sequel.
55	* LackOfEmpathy: Leads to horror when Lena matter-of-factly mentions that after the "cure", some people can get so emotionally detached that they'll ''kill their own children''.
56	* LostCommonKnowledge: Lena does not know what poetry is.
57	%%* LoveEpiphany: Milked for all it's worth, naturally.
58	%%* LoveMakesYouCrazy: The entire population is brainwashed to believe this.
59	* LoveTriangle:
60	** [[spoiler:It's been set up for the third novel, ''Requiem'', between Julian and [[NotQuiteDead Alex]]]].
61	** Turns into a LoveDodecahedron with the addition of Coral, a rebel girl who seems to have fallen for Alex. [[spoiler:At the end of the third book, Alex and Lena reconcile, but Lena realizes she also loves Julian, who loves her back.]]
62	* MadDictatorsHandsomeSon: Julian. Mr. Fineman isn't technically a dictator, but he's powerful and certainly mad enough.
63	* TheMasquerade:
64	** [[spoiler: Alex, an Invalid, has a scar on his neck to pass for cured and works as a security guard at the hospital. At one point he uses this persona to let Lena into the prison where her mother was once kept, pretending she's a troublemaker he is frightening into compliance with a prison tour.]]
65	** Lena [[spoiler:does this in the sequel, pretending to be a Cured so she can assist [[LaResistance the resistance]]]].
66	* MeaningfulName: Lena has one, and most of the Invalids encountered are named for some part of their appearance or personality.
67	* NaiveEverygirl: Lena presents herself as this.
68	* {{Nephewism}}: Lena is raised by her aunt and uncle.
69	* NotSoDifferentRemark: [[spoiler: After finding out about how Julian was set up to be "infected", captured and killed in order to tarnish the image of his father's "Deliria-Free America" organization, a furious Lena accuses Raven of being just as callous and inhuman as the Cureds.]]
70	* OneWordTitle: The IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming for each book.
71	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When Gracie speaks near the end of the novel, everyone takes notice.
72	* OrphansOrdeal: Lena, Gracie and Alex.
73	* PlaguedByNightmares: Lena and her little cousin Gracie, who have both lost their mothers, are plagued by recurring nightmares about their deaths.
74	* PortmanteauCoupleName: In-universe, a(n officially) nonromantic version. Hana and Lena use their Portmanteau Friendship Name, "Halena", to pump each other up before races and exams.
75	* POVSequel: The online-exclusive novella, ''Hana'', retells parts of ''Delirium'' from Hana's perspective. It includes TheReveal that [[spoiler:''Hana'' was the one who alerted the authorities to Alex and Lena's relationship]].
76	* PrecisionFStrike: When Hana tries to convince Lena to sneak out to an illegal party with her. They get into an intense argument, and when Hana puts her finger on the problem (that Lena is afraid of being like her mother), Lena fires two F-bombs, runs away, and sets out to prove her friend wrong.
77	* PropagandaMachine: All those "love is evil" texts quoted at the beginning of each chapter.
78	* RoomFullOfCrazy: When Lena and Alex visit the Crypts, the combined maximum-security prison and mental institution, they find [[spoiler:Lena's mother's empty room with LOVE written all over the walls along with a keepsake from Lena's father.]]
79	* RunForTheBorder: [[spoiler:Alex and Lena. She makes it out; he doesn't.]]
80	* SceneryPorn: Who wouldn't want to visit Portland, Maine (that is, the present-day democratic one) after reading this novel?
81	* ScrapbookStory: Each chapter of the first book begins with a children's rhyme or a quote from a historical, medical or religious textbook from Lena's world. Some of them are quite bizarre, such as the rhyming Periodic Table, or the skewed Biblical myths that present Mary Magdalene and Joseph as separated lovers.
82	* SicklyNeuroticGeek: Brian Scharff, although he does have a brief sympathetic moment. He's skinny, unattractive, a MommasBoy and allergic to practically everything.
83	* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Not that Lena seeks him at first, but Alex is really very sweet [[spoiler: for an Invalid]].
84	* ShoutOut: Lena has a fondness for ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''; even though it is taught as a cautionary tale. Later on, Alex quotes Shakespeare's sonnets to her and, never having heard poetry before, she positively melts. Lauren Oliver has stated that ''Delirium'' is "a riff on ''Romeo and Juliet'' in a dystopian world".
85	* StepfordSmiler: Everyone over eighteen as a result of the cure.
86	* ThemeTune: Written and performed by a David J. [=DeSmyter=].
87	* TooDumbToLive: Who in the hell was the "genius" who thought outlawing love was a good idea anyway?
88	* [[TurnOutLikeHisFather Turn Out Like Her Mother]]: Lena is mortally afraid of turning out like her mother -- at first, anyway.
89	* TwistEnding:
90	** Alex [[spoiler:getting shot, arrested and possibly killed.]]
91	** And [[spoiler:Averted]] in the sequel, where [[spoiler:Alex shows up alive at the end. Really, who ''didn't'' see that coming]]?
92	** And in the third, [[spoiler: who didn't guess that it was Hana who betrayed Lena, Lena's mother was still alive and that Alex and Lena would get back together?]]
93	* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: The reasoning for curing every citizen of the ability to love as soon as they turn eighteen and sometimes even before that. This is deconstructed over the course of the novel as more social flaws are exposed.
94	* TheVoiceless: Grace, Lena's cousin is nearly mute in the first book, with Lena only hearing her say "Mommy" at night and [[spoiler:"Wait", which she says in order to distract everyone and save Lena]], but by the third book [[spoiler:she's able to say a few more sentences]].
95	* WhamLine: In ''Hana'': [[spoiler:[[GreenEyedMonster "I'm sorry, Lena."]]]]
96	* WhamShot: In the second book, [[spoiler:Lena discovering her mother is alive , and Alex's return to the group.]]
97	* WildTeenParty: They're illegal, but they happen anyway.
98	* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: The massacre that was supposed to wipe out all Invalids two generations ago is called the "Great Sanitation", otherwise known as "the blitz".
99	* YouAreNumberSix: [[spoiler: At one point, Lena is helped by a mysterious masked woman with a numbered prison tattoo on her neck. Later in Mr. Fineman's hidden study, she finds a record of prisoners and matches the numbers to a name - her own mother's.]]

Context Literature / DeliriumSeries