Review: Hana (Delirium 1.5)

Author: Lauren Oliver
Release Date: February 28, 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 64
Source: eBook
Series: Delirium #1.5
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Summary:  The summer before they're supposed to be cured of the ability to love, best friends Lena and Hana begin to drift apart. While Lena shies away from underground music and parties with boys, Hana jumps at her last chance to experience the forbidden. For her, the summer is full of wild music, dancing—and even her first kiss.

But on the surface, Hana must be a model of perfect behavior. She meets her approved match, Fred Hargrove, and glimpses the safe, comfortable life she’ll have with him once they marry. As the date for her cure draws ever closer, Hana desperately misses Lena, wonders how it feels to truly be in love, and is simultaneously terrified of rebelling and of falling into line.

In this digital story that will appeal to fans of Delirium and welcome new admirers to its world, readers will come to understand scenes from Delirium through Hana's perspective.  Hana is a touching and revealing look at a life-changing and tumultuous summer.

My Favorite Lines:

“And when we are with Alex, I might as well not be there. They speak in a language of whispers and giggles and secrets; their words are like a fairy-tale tangle of thorns, which place a wall between us.”

Why I Loved It:  Ok I just recently re-read Delirium, and I read this book just as soon as I finished.  I mean I literally closed Delirium and opened Hana on my Nook.  It worked for me that way.  Delirium was so fresh on my mind, I was able to make the jump from perspectives.  I really loved Hana in Delirium.  I still think I love her.. maybe.  I'm not sure.  It's hard to say what I would do in her situation when I live in a society where love is so accepted, it's taken for granted.  What would I do if that love was a disease?  I really don't know.

The book takes a look at what Hana was thinking while Lena was doing her thing.  Hana is very... alone.  She is really a typical teen set in a world full of rules and boundaries that are so confining, it makes it hard to breathe.  It's no wonder she starts to press those boundaries in any way she can.  But if you read Delirium, you know how she reacts in the end.  Well this book brings a few more things to light, and I actually was not expecting it.  I was a bit ticked off at the end.  Just saying.

Anyways, I think it would be something good to read if only because I think Hana is showing back up in Requiem with an alternating POV with Lena.  So get on that if you are even more behind than me.