Interview Time with Lauren Oliver

One of my top 10 favorite books last year was Before I Fall, Lauren's debut about a girl who dies but is able to go back to that day & relive it, each time seeing the impact she had. It was so beautiful, complex and a book that sticks with you. Lauren newest book, Delirium, is a dystopian novel with the view that love is a disease that needs to be cured. Her writing invokes a variety of emotions which is something I love, making it more like active rather than passive reading! The characters feel so real that you can't help struggle with them...and at times you also want to vent some frustration. I recently had a chance to ask Lauren a few questions about Delirium, so without further ado, please welcome Lauren to the blog!!

Where did the idea for Delirium come from?
The idea for Delirium came from an essay I read by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in which he wrote that all great books were about love or death. The next day I was thinking about that quote--particularly about how and in what form a modern love story could be told--while I was on the treadmill at the gym. I was simultaneously watching a news story about a flu outbreak that had everyone freaking out about the possibility of a pandemic, and I was kind of marvelling that people so easily go into panics about reports of these diseases, and at some point the two trains of thought--love, and disease--just sort of combined in my head.

Lean's best friend Hana appeared to be more on the rebellious side. Were you a rebel growing up?
In some ways. I was always a good student and a dedicated friend. But I definitely liked to do things my way. I’m pretty stubborn. And I wore leather pants a lot! Does that make me a rebel?

Hopefully life in the future won't treat love this way. If you could live in any time period, what would you chose and why?
I mean, I would probably choose now. There are a lot of things about modern life that frighten me, it’s true, but I think people have a tendency to romanticize the past needlessly. It’s like, sure, Victorian life was good…if you were in the top 99.99 percent of the population that could afford to make it good! Most people, like, washed linens all their lives for ten dollars a year.

Can you give us a sneak peek into what we can expect in book #2, Pandemonium?
Okay, a teensy one…Lena will have to learn to survive in the Wilds. And some crazy stuff happens! That’s all I’m going to say.

(ok guys, I tried. If you've read Delirium the ending will leave you with a whole lot of questions, especially a big one about one character in particular!!!)

Have you read Delirium yet?