Title: Annabel
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher/Year: HarperCollins Publishers 12/26/12
Length: 50 pages
Series: Delirium #.5
Overview
Lena’s mother, Annabel, has always been a mystery—a ghost in Lena’s past. Until now.
Discover her secrets in Lauren Oliver’s brilliant original digital story set in the world of New York Times bestsellersDelirium and Pandemonium.
Lena Halloway’s mother, Annabel, supposedly committed suicide when Lena was only six years old. That’s the lie that Lena grew up believing, but the truth is very different. As a rebellious teenager, Annabel ran away from home and straight into the man she knew she was destined to marry. The world was different then—the regulations not as stringent, the cure only a decade old. Fast forward to the present, and Annabel is consigned to a dirty prison cell, where she nurtures her hope of escape and scratches one word over and over into the walls: Love.
But Annabel, like Lena, is a fighter. Through chapters that alternate between her past and present, Annabel reveals the story behind her failed cures, her marriage, the births of her children, her imprisonment, and, ultimately, her daring escape.
My Thoughts
I had forgotten that this was going to be one of the smaller novellas off the series while we’re waiting for Requiem to come out, so it was a nice miss on my part. mind you i had pre-ordered it, so it wasn’t a complete miss.
Something that i’ve come to really enjoy about Lauren Oliver’s writing style is that she gives us both the past perspective and back story on things as well as the current day POV. It makes sure that we know why things happened as they did and maybe get a better sense of who these characters are.
So …Annabel – she’s Len’s mother if you don’t remember. What we learned in the previous books was that we thought she had committed suicide. That wasn’t the case – instead she was imprisoned because her ties to the part of society that wasn’t in agreement of ‘the cure’ and what was going on. So…we find that Len’s rebelliosness comes from her mom – Annabel had in fact run away from home to escape what was going to be her fate…and this gave her a real taste of what life was before everything changed and of what it could be.
When we’re told in previous books that she had committed suicide…we’re led to believe that maybe she didn’t have the strength to care for her kids – and that she didn’t see things in them that a mother would. As we read this novella though, we learn that it’s FAR FAR from the case. I actually like annabel a lot more and it makes me happy that we’ve found that there’s a reconnection going on that will hopefully be continued in Requiem.
The nice surprises here are that we learn of the interesting pairing with her husband (Lena’s dad), and we learn that what society thinks happens once the cure is administered isn’t always the case.
The even better piece of this story is that there was an extended ‘trailer’ to Requiem at the end, so it was a tease for sure but now i really can’t wait to see what this next installment brings.
click covers and go to BN.com to buy!
