Requiem

Requiem by Lauren Oliver. Published 2013 by Harper Collins.

I was so excited to finally finish up this trilogy from Lauren Oliver. Her writing is head and shoulders above a lot of other YA authors in my opinion. There's a lyrical richness to it and the character's emotions pull you through even the most absurd situations. The premise of the whole trilogy is that love, or amor deliriosa, is a disease and must be eradicated through brain surgery when you turn 18. The trilogy follows a Romeo and Juliet style relationship in this world where love shouldn't happen with twists, turns and intrigue along the way. The last book picks up in the Wilds with Lena faced with confronting her first love triangle. I don't want to go into too much detail in case their are readers who haven't picked up the first two books yet.

This book switches point of view in every other chapter between Lena and Hana. I appreciated this choice because I was able to go back into the world we saw in the first novel. This is a device that Oliver employed throughout each book but has changed in some small way. In the first book we were given passages from the Book of Shhh and in the second the switches were between past and present from Lena's point of view. In any trilogy, the story shifts in the second book and pulls us away from what we loved about the first, losing some readers, but the third comes back in full force and brings us full circle to where we started.

Intended Reading Level: YA-Grade 7+ (I have sixth graders that have read it, but I think it would be better appreciated by older readers)
Third book in series

Question to Readers:
Do you think the surgery was effective on Hana? Do you think she may have a relapse like Lena's mother did? What do you think will become of Portland? What do you think will happen to the rest of the republic after the end of the book? Who would you have chosen if you were Lena?

Read-alikes:
Matched Series by Ally Condy, All These Things I've Done, The Giver series