Requiem is the third and final book in the Delirium trilogy by Lauren Oliver, set in a dystopian world where love is considered a disease. In order to cure this disease, society has come up with a procedure that everyone must go through when they turn eighteen. After this procedure, people can't feel anything anymore. They are matched with suitable mates and live like robots. However, Lena Haloway, who was always a good little girl, takes a walk on the wild side and falls in love with Alex, an outsider. She escapes into the wilds and becomes a part of the resistance. Believing Alex to have died at the end of book one, she starts having feelings for Julian in book two. However, Alex reappears on the scene and it is up to Requiem to tell us who Lena finally ends up with.
Requiem also tells the story of Lena's best friend, Hana, who had the operation and is living within society as a member of the upper classes while Lena continues to be a part of the resistance in the wilds. In Requiem, the resistance gains more power and the government can't ignore it anymore. People are fed up with a society that forces them to give up their emotions and they're rebelling against it. While Lena has to deal with her own dilemmas, personal and resistance-related, Hana is also having problems when she finds that her life is not completely hunky-dory, as the government promised. Requiem brings things to a stunning conclusion and completes Lena's journey which began in Delirium.
With each successive book, Oliver has given us more character development and more action. Lena has gone from a girl who did as she was told to one that has the power to overthrow the government. This is a beautiful end to the series told in Lauren Oliver's flowing prose.
Lauren Oliver, whose real name is Laura Schechter, was born in Queens, New York and grew up in Westchester. Her parents were literature professors who encouraged her to be creative from an early age. She earned her Bachelor's in Literature and Philosophy from the University of Chicago and went on to do a Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from New York University. She worked at Random House before turning to writing full-time. A movie based on her first book, Before I Fall, is upcoming. Requiem is part of a dystopian trilogy consisting of Delirium, Pandemonium and Requiem. Lauren Oliver lives in Brooklyn with her fiancé.
“It has been a long
time since a book has had such an impact on me as Lauren Oliver’s Delirium
did…As Delirium swept me off my feet, and Pandemonium raised so
many questions, Requiem sucked me in from page one…The beautiful
metaphors and similes are abundant in Requiem—Oliver has a way of
writing about love that makes you sigh out loud, clutch your heart, and do
other things that boys think girls do when they fall head over heels for
someone…Save Oliver’s Delirium concluder for a quiet weekend—you’ll need one
day to give it your wholehearted attention, and another to grieve its passing.”
—
Glamour