Requiem
Lauren Oliver
Hodder and Stoughton 2013
Requiem is the final book in Lauren Oliver's Delirium trilogy. As such, this review contains spoilers for the previous two titles. You can find our reviews of Delirium and Pandemonium by clicking on the links.
Having escaped the clutches of
Deliria Free America and the vicious Scavengers, Lena and Julian thought they
were home free or that they at least had the freedom of the Wilds to explore
together, while cultivating their growing relationship. But the Resistance has been simmering for a
while and the situation is now at boiling point. With the rebels getting bolder and the
response getting harsher Lena faces the beginning of the end. To complicate matters, a face from her past –
merely glimpsed at the end of Pandemonium
– is back and he isn’t happy. Elsewhere,
Hana has been cured of the Deliria which she half believes led her to make a
decision that haunts her and affects Lena to the present day. Set to marry a Jekyll and Hyde Mayor, she
can’t quite let the past go, and it scares her.
Requiem tells the stories of
these two very different girls whose pasts and futures inextricably intertwined
with that of the society around them.
Lena is a very different girl to
the one first seen in Delirium. While she certainly toughened up during her
stay in the Wilds, her subsequent capture, escape and rescue of Julian from the
DFA has arguably matured her more than anything. While she’s still pretty young she’s gained a
focus and determination that carries her through this last instalment in Lauren
Oliver’s trilogy. She’s not always nice
and certainly not always fair but her actions are believable and she’s
ultimately both a sympathetic and admirable character. Requiem, however, is not all
about Lena – a refreshing change from the relentless (although excellent)
narrative of the previous two books.
Here, another story is told – that of Hana. Hana has been Cured and so, to an extent, her
voice is cool, remote and analytical.
Yet Hana still has feelings – it’s just that these feelings don’t rule
her, even as she fears that their very existence might mean her Cure was
unsuccessful. She thinks often of Lena,
and more of Lena’s family, with a vague guilt and as her own situation becomes increasingly
untenable, she starts to wonder if Lena had the right idea. She’s an absolutely fascinating addition to
Oliver’s core story and her own personal journey is entirely compelling.
While the characters in Hana’s life
are largely familiar, with the Cured’s oddly obsessive attention to image and
detail, her future husband is frightening in that he has a temper. Not something that would necessarily be unusual,
but in a Cured adds a truly frightening aspect to an already deeply
uncomfortable situation. In Lena’s life
is Julian, who is just so good. He adapts well to his new life in the Wilds,
works hard, loves Lena with an entrancing innocence and is thoughtful enough to
give her the space that she needs. And
she really does need that space of course, because Alex – long thought dead –
has returned. Alex, like Lena, has gone
through a bit of a metamorphosis. Gone is the loving figure of Delirium and in his place is a young man
of hard edges, scars and bitterness. He’s
frequently cruel, often irritating and always entirely understandable.
The story that runs through Requiem is two pronged. On one hand it is a story of rebellion, resistance
and the road to war while on the other it is a study of love, relationships and
the myriad of emotions that both create and end them. These two aspects run seamlessly alongside
each other being, as they have always been in Oliver’s beautifully realised
world, so hopelessly intertwined. One of
the most interesting ideas touched upon is that Lena and Julian only know that
there is Deliria – love – and the alternative Cure. They have no idea that not all romantic relationships
have to begin or end with love because
they have no frame of reference. Lena,
in her confusion, starts to realise that some relationships – some loves even –
are different to others, something that very few in her life have had the
opportunity to understand. Alex,
perhaps, having always been relatively free to love, understands it more than
most, something that is perhaps at the heart of his bitterness.
The ending of Requiem has attracted much criticism, all of which is entirely
unfounded. Lauren Oliver has never
chosen to make any aspect of this trilogy easy, or pretty, or anything other
than complex, reflecting the fractured and bizarre society that she has
imagined. Perhaps readers have become
too used to clear-cut endings, where all ends are tied up and everyone lives
happily ever after. Lauren Oliver has
chosen, instead, to end her trilogy in a beautifully ambiguous manner, leaving
the story almost unfinished yet filled with a sense of triumph and hope, even
as it is tinged with sadness. It’s not
tied up in a pretty bow partly, one suspects, because Oliver respects her
readership more than that. If I recall
correctly, similar criticisms were levelled at Suzanne Collins’s Mockingjay and it seems to have done
alright regardless. Ultimately, the Delirium
trilogy is a tour de force of great world building, strong characters and
extremely accomplished authorship and if its ending allows that story to
continue untold, then it is all the better for it. Highly recommended.
This review was brought to you by Splendibird. Requiem is available now.
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