Review: Requiem

Requiem by Lauren Oliver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Requiem switches between Hana's and Lena's points-of-view. It gives us perspectives of the world and its current events through the eyes of a girl in the Wilds and one in society. Hana has chosen her path and it is different from Lena's. The action comes to a head and their existences are thrust together again.

While I enjoyed this book, it wasn't quite as good as the previous two. The book ended and I wasn't quite sure how I felt. In some ways, I was satisfied. There were no little questions or loose ends that should have been tied up. Lena has chosen her love, even if we don't see the effects of it. When you think of the immediate story everything seems good, but then you wonder about the world at large. The Resistance attacked and seemingly brought down the walls (both literally and we assume legally) in Portland. Success! But.. what happened in the rest of the world? Were those attacks conducted simultaneously across the United States? If they weren't, then the book ends with Portland no longer under government control and seemingly a new safe space for the Resistance/Invalids to live... but they're still in a world where love is a disease and the government will come for them. What happens to the people? The last we see of Hana, she's running off into the woods. I personally would like to know what happens to her. The more I think about the book, the more questions I'm faced with.

I loved the series and highly recommend reading it. Just a warning that there are more curse words in the novel than in the first. It's a great young adult series set in a world similar to our own, about learning more about yourself, growing and learning to love.

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