Delirium by Lauren Oliver is a dystopian fictional book that is filled with suspense, drama, and actions that can jeopardize Lena Haloway’s future. Lena Haloway lives in a world that considers love a dangerous disease, amor deliria nervosa. Electric walls entrap the citizens of Portland Maine, where food is rationed, boys and girls are segregated in schools, and youths have strict curfews. As adolescents grow into adults they are forced by the government to undergo a procedure called The Cure. The government controls everything. They control your job, your partner, and your whole future.
Lena looks forward to her 18th birthday, when she can have the mandatory procedure which she believes will make her safe. A few months after the procedure she undergoes an evaluation that will determine her partner. During the evaluations a herd of cows come stampeding into the buildings where Lena and a handful of other teenagers were getting evaluated. As Lena and every other human being in that building gawk in confusion, Lena glances at the observation deck in the evaluation room and sees a boy with golden brown hair and amber eyes standing there. As they lock eye contact he winks at her.
After the evaluations Lena feels confused and backstabbed as she finds out her best friend Hanna is breaking government rules and listening to illegal music and going to underground parties. Hanna invites Lena to the party, and she decides to go. When she attends the illegal party she runs into the boy from the evaluations, she learns that there is a whole other world beyond the electric walls of Portland, Maine. Lena doesn’t want to like Alex, but quickly catches amor deliria nervosa. As she learns more secrets about the city she grew up in, she has to quickly decide if she wants to stay or run to “The Wilds” with Alex.