Title:  Raven
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher/Year: Harper Collins 3.5/13
Length:  46 pages
Series:  Delirium #2.5

Overview

As a teenager, Raven made the split-second decision to flee across the border to the Wilds, compelled to save an abandoned newborn—a baby girl left for dead and already blue from the cold. When she and the baby are taken in by a band of rebels, Raven finds herself an outsider within a tight-knit group. The only other newcomer is an untrustworthy boy known as the Thief until he finally earns himself a new name: Tack.

Now she and Tack are inseparable, committed to each other, the fledgling rebellion, and a future together. But as they both take center stage in the fight, Raven must decide whether the dangers of the revolution are worth risking her dreams of a peaceful life with Tack.

As her story hurtles back and forth between past and present, Raven transforms from a scared girl newly arrived in the Wilds to the tough leader who helps Lena save former Deliria-Free poster boy Julian Fineman from a death sentence. Whatever the original mission may have been, Raven abides by a conviction that she believes to her core: You always return for the people you love.

By turns surprising, revelatory, and poignant, Raven’s story enriches the Delirium world and resonates with a voice that is as vulnerable as it is strong.

My Thoughts

As you’ll all remember from Lena’s time in the Wilds, she was ‘close’ to a girl named Raven who became a force to be reckoned with during those tough times.  what we have here is the snippet into Raven’s life – how she fell in love with Tack, and how a secret that we didn’t know in the main story came to be – and how Raven found out.

the point in time of this novella is just about when Julien is about to be operated on / killed and Lena’s going in to save him as part of her role in the Resistance.  Raven goes with Tack on a recon mission to get Lena and of course comes back with Julien as well.

We get a peek though into how Raven actually is a bit human and maybe not as hard as she comes off in the big series.  You begin to understand a bit more as to why she is how she is and it’s sweet.

The other bit is the teaser into the ‘Boy from the Crypts’ who had just joined them.  Of course no one knows that it’s Alex – the boy from Lena’s past and i think that it’s a good segue into the point in the story where he does pop up, just when things with Lena and Julien are about as confusing as they can be.

On that note – happy saturday all!