The highlights:

Fireside Recs: Divergent by Veronica Roth

The Catching Fire IMDb Page

Remember, to hear the rest of our discussions, listen to the full episode!

Miss Episode 99 live last night? Never fear! You can click here to listen to the recording or simply use the embedded player below!

Episode 99 of Hunger Games Fireside Chat will air live this Monday, March 18, at 10pm ET/7pm PT! This week, our panel of experts will include some of our fabulous friends from Down with the Capitol, Crystal of Mockingjay.net and FictionalFood.net, Courtney of Welcome to District 12, Kait from Victor’s Village, and Ashley of Divergent Lexicon!

It’s finally time for another Fireside Recs episode! Since casting for the Divergent movie is finally beginning to wrap up, we figured Veronica Roth’s YA dystopian series would make a fitting choice for this week’s discussion!

- We’ll spend the first half of the show talking about Divergent: why some of us like it/why some of us don’t like it, why it’s so popular amongst fans of The Hunger Games, what we think about the casting choices for the film adaptation, etc. Ashley from Divergent Lexicon will be joining us for this discussion, and we’re very excited to have her!

- The rest of the show will be spent on the IMDb topic that we had to postpone a couple of weeks ago. Remember when we found Trexler Hoverhound and other similarly mysterious characters on the Hunger Games IMDb page last year? Now it’s time to take a look at the Catching Fire IMDb page! Who is “Gamekeeper Disciple”? What about “District 4 Family Member”? Does the presence of a “District 11 Rioter” mean we’re going to see another D11 riot scene? While these roles are all clearly background/extra roles added to the page by the actors themselves, they may shed some light on what we can expect to see in November. (Thanks to Satsuma for this suggestion!)

You can chat with other listeners throughout the live show by using our hashtag #HGFiresideChat on Twitter! We recommend TweetChat to easily follow along with the conversation.

(If you missed our last episode, click here to listen!)

And click here for an index of all of our archived episodes.

Follow this week’s participants on Twitter:
Adam (Host): @AdamSpunberg
Savanna (Co-Host/Producer): @MlleNouveau
Down with the Capitol: @HungerGamesDWTC
Crystal: @pikko / @mockingjaynet / @FictionalFood
Courtney: @WtoD12
Kait: @VictorsVillage
Ashley: @DivergentNation

In an interview with USA Today’s Happily Ever After Blog, Lauren Oliver gave an insight to what her future holds after Delirium, discusses the Delirium TV show and gives her thoughts on Dystopian Novels.

Here’s two of the questions asked and Lauren’s answer given;

Joyce: Since there’s going to be a TV series, do you have any plans to write more books in the Delirium world?

Lauren: As Justin Bieber infamously said, Never say never. : ) But right now, the series is done for me. I have other projects in the works that are equally exciting (at least, to me!).

Joyce: What can readers expect to see from you next?

Lauren: Next up is a realistic stand-alone novel called Panic. It’s a real departure from the Delirium series, and I’m super excited about it. It tells the story of a small Upstate New York town where the teens play a very dangerous game every summer. And in the fall of 2014 my first adult novel, Rooms, will be released.

The full interview can be read here where you can read Lauren’s thoughts on the TV pilot and on dystopian novels!

The highlights:

X-Men, Gary Ross, and Production Schedules

Fireside Recs: The Matched Trilogy

Remember, to hear the rest of our discussions, listen to the full episode!

Miss Episode 84 live? No worries! Click here to listen to the recording OR simply use the embedded player below.

We’ll be back to our regular Monday episodes next week.

Episode 84 of Hunger Games Fireside Chat will air live this TUESDAY, November 13, at 10pm ET/7pm PT! This week, our panel of experts will include Flo and Ellie from Down with the Capitol, Rebekah from Victor’s Village, and Kelsey from My Hunger Games!

- We’ll kick things off by touching on an interesting bit of news that broke last week: The new X-Men movie, which was due to start filming in January, has now pushed production back to April. Will this give Catching Fire some more breathing room? Does this mean that Gary Ross could have directed Catching Fire? Will this interfere with the filming of the Mockingjay movies?

- We’ll also weigh in on a recent article published by io9.com: “Could The Hunger Games Get Published Today?”

- Now for an exciting announcement! We’re launching a new, recurring segment on the show called Fireside Recs. Every month-ish, we’ll feature a book, series of books, or movie that Hunger Games fans like YOU are sure to enjoy. Our first pick, as you could probably tell by the title of this episode, is the Matched trilogy by Ally Condie. The last book in the trilogy — Reached — was just published, so we thought it would make a fitting inaugural choice. Our promo image this week features the cover artwork for Reached.

If you haven’t read the Matched trilogy yet and would like to purchase copies of the books for your very own, Amazon links can be found below!

Matched Trilogy Box Set (Hardcover) – $34
Matched (Paperback) – $9.99
Crossed (Hardcover) – $11.98
Reached (Hardcover) – $10.52

You can chat with other listeners throughout the live show by using our hashtag #HGFiresideChat on Twitter! We recommend TweetChat to easily follow along with the conversation.

(If you missed last week’s episode, click here to listen!)

And click here for an index of all of our archived episodes.

Follow this week’s participants on Twitter:
Adam (Host): @AdamSpunberg
Savanna (Co-Host/Producer): @MlleNouveau
Flo: @FloeticFlo / @HungerGamesDWTC
Ellie: @MuchMoreMacho / @HungerGamesDWTC
Rebekah: @Rebekahdg / @VictorsVillage
Kelsey: @kelsey_jean / @MyHungerGames

I’ll tell you another secret, this one for your own good. You may think the past has something to tell you. You may think that you should listen, should strain to make out its whispers, should bend over backward, stoop down low to hear its voice breathed up from the ground, from the dead places. You may think there’s something in it for you, something to understand or make sense of. But I know the truth: I know from the nights of Coldness. I know the past will drag you backward and down, have you snatching at whispers of wind and the gibberish of trees rubbing together, trying to decipher some code, trying to piece together what was broken. It’s hopeless. The past is nothing but a weight. It will build inside of you like a stone. Take it from me: If you hear the past speaking to you, feel it tugging at your back and running its fingers up your spine, the best thing to do—the only thing—is run.

Oliver, Lauren (2011-08-02). Delirium: The Special Edition (pp. 157-158). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

In this quote, Lena is adamant that dwelling on the past will only hurt you and your future. At this point in the novel, she has just learned that Alex is an Invalid, an uncured from the Wilds. Lena tells the reader that “the past is nothing but a weight” because she doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s uncured footsteps.

Is Lena right? Does the past just bog you down? More after the jump.

Lena’s past is ridden with dark secrets: her mother’s forbidden love, her father’s death, her sister’s deliria, and her aunt’s sympathies with the resistance. So it is natural that Lena would offer advice to the reader urging them to resist the past’s influence and focus solely on the present and the future. But George Orwell, author of the famed 1984, another dystopian novel, makes an excellent point:

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

George Orwell

What I understand from Orwell’s quote is that in order to be really in control of yourself, you must be in control of your present and your past. Only then can you ascertain the future you desire. Is Lena in full control of her life?

I think not.

To run away from something (her past) is not to control it. By avoiding dealing with the implications of her dark past and the actions of those around her, Lena gives up that control. She tries to run away from it. She even urges us that “the best thing to do—the only thing—is run.” Thus, instead of harnessing the past in light of a better future, Lena decides that the escapist’s route is the better one to take.

How does this factor into the bigger picture of Delirium? By reverse property of Orwell’s quote, if Lena does not control her past, she does not control her future nor her present. Essentially, she is handing off her fate into unknown hands. And who happens to be on the receiving end of her offer? Why, none other than Alex Sheathes. Lena’s story (for the majority of Delirium) is a happy one, a tale of love and discovery. But what would have happened had Alex not miraculously come along? Surely, Lena would have undergone the cure and spent the rest of her days silently haunted by the darkness she never conquered.

I don’t think that Lena’s avoidance of her past makes her weak, however. I think it is natural, something that each of us has done at one point or another. And it is important to remember that by the end of Delirium, and clearly throughout Pandemonium, Lena does take control of her past. She goes to the Crypts and accepts her mother for who she really was. When she is caught at 37 Brooks and brought back to her aunt Carol, she recognizes Carol and her sister for the lifeless drones they have really become under the cure. Once she does this, she accepts her past and chooses her own future: a future in the Wilds, a future of freedom and of love.

Discussing how Lena’s past affects her in Pandemonium would be a whole other article, perhaps one I will write in the near future. Or perhaps you will draw your own conclusions. But one thing we can all agree on is this: Lena has a colorful past filled with valleys and crevices of hopes and dreams and reality. What comes in Requiem will be a manifestation of her past, indeed.

*breaking the fourth wall: to address the reader/viewer directly, thus shattering her suspension of disbelief

Note: Here’s the first of my op ed pieces about the Delirium trilogy by Lauren Oliver. All opinion expressed in this article is mine alone and does not reflect the official views of this site, Ms. Oliver, or any affiliated party. With that in mind, I hope you enjoy! xo Anna

Of love, Lena Haloway fears one thing above the rest. It is “the deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don’t.”

Lena never wanted to fall in love. In her world, love is a dangerous even deadly condition, one which must be eradicated in order to shape an orderly, productive society. Lena fully supports this dogma, so much so she even counts down the days until she can undergo the procedure that cures citizens of amor deliria nervosa, the medical term for love.

Of course, as is with all fiction, when would we ever want to see a character get what they want on page one? Literature is best served on top of a heaping pile of conflict. And so, against her wishes and despite her resistance, Lena falls in love with the mysterious and intriguing Alex. And even worse- she finds she’s happy that she’s acquired the deadly deliria.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver proves the old adage that love conquers all. But at what cost?

After I finished reading Delirium, my head was a woozy cocktail of emotions. I all but stumbled and tripped my way over to my friend, who had read the book previously. “Oh my God, Cora,” was all I could say about the book. Cora smiled and replied, “I know, right?” Oliver has written one of those books that makes you laugh, cry, scream, and gnaw on its pages in hopes that you’ll ingest some of the genius behind the novel. Wait, that’s just me? Um… moving on.

My first thoughts upon finishing Delirium (without giving away any spoilers, of course) had me considering just how powerful love can be. Now, full disclaimer, at the age of 20 I’ve never been romantically in love (well, except maybe with Lena’s beaux Alex, but we’ll discuss that in a different setting.) So I can’t (and wouldn’t want to) definitively prove what I’m about to say is true, I only hope to impart to you how Delirium has affected my perspective on true, heart-wrenching, mind-numbing love.

Halfway through the book, I would have been confident that I knew the message that the story was trying to give. I would have said that, in the words of the timeless Beatles, “all you need is love.” What I didn’t realize then, and what I realize now, having finished the book, is that while you need love, love also needs you.

Why? Because love is fickle. Love is cruel. Love will take your heart, twist it, rip it in half, throw it on the ground and do a little tap dance on it. Love needs you to be strong enough to withstand the abuse. Lena’s story isn’t just a love story, it is a story of her strength. She can take a hit and stay standing. At the climax of the book, she takes a huge hit and still manages to keep fighting. If she had let love take over completely, would she have had the will to reject her fate and forge a new path? In the end, love saved her. But courage, determination, strength of character, and compassion saved her, too.

By no means do I claim that what I think about Delirium is what Oliver intended to impart to her readers. But what I learned from Delirium is this: love is too powerful. We need to conquer it by embracing it, saddling it, controlling it, and bending it to our will. As the saying goes, love can destroy you, but it can also set you free. The choice is up to you.

With this in mind, I’d like to send out my own message. As I said before, I’ve never been romantically in love. And for a long while, I’d mope, I’d whine, and I’d sulk because I had not yet found love. I know there are many others out there like me. To them I say: we can’t let the idea of love take over us. Love needs us to be strong in order for us to withstand its triumphs and tragedies.

Don’t give up, but don’t give in, either.

Lena leaves us in Delirium in quite a different situation than the one she started out in. And it was with eager hands that I grabbed Oliver’s next book in the trilogy, Pandemonium. Oliver’s work gives us something rare and precious: they give us time to examine ourselves, our love, and how the two go together. I highly recommend the series to any reader, young or old, in or out of love, who wants to get to know a smart, strong young woman who feared love, but ended up conquering it, anyway.

The third installment of the trilogy, Requiem, will be released in 2013.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

(Note: What you’re seeing to the left is actually the German cover of Delirium — how cool is that? Image credit goes to Fictional Distraction.)

Savanna – Hunger Games Fireside Chat – Delirium Trilogy
Can mankind live without love? Is a life without love even worth living? These questions lie at the heart of Lauren Oliver’s Delirium, the first book in a dystopian trilogy that was recently optioned by Fox 2000 Pictures. Set in Portland, Maine, Delirium depicts a “happy and safe” society in which love – a.k.a. amor deliria nervosa – is considered a dangerous disease and has been almost entirely eradicated. At the age of 18, all citizens undergo a government-mandated surgical cure, and Lena – our protagonist – is scheduled to have her procedure in exactly 95 days. While Lena is understandably nervous about the operation, she doesn’t question it; in fact, she looks forward to it…until, that is, she meets Alex, a mysterious young man who changes everything. Delirium is, without a doubt, one of the most beautifully written pieces of YA literature that I’ve ever had the privilege of reading. The story does unfold a bit slowly, but Oliver’s prose is so lovely and descriptive that every moment spent with this book is completely worth it. Trust me! And for those of you who prefer faster-paced narratives, the sequel, Pandemonium, is much more energetic and action-packed.

Adam – Hunger Games Fireside Chat – His Dark Materials
I took some liberty by choosing His Dark Materials, since The Golden Compass has already been made into a film, but any great lover of this extraordinary trilogy knows that first attempt at a movie – though featuring an excellent cast – failed miserably in its goal of appealing to a broader audience and satisfying ravenous fans. With a lower budget and a much more faithful script, a second go-around could be extremely successful and very much beloved. Pullman’s masterpieces are adventurous but also profoundly dark – a timbre The Golden Compass movie disregarded. Give us the real thing! Fancy special effects aren’t needed, nor are big-name actors. Lyra deserves better, and her full story deserves to be on screen.

Shylah – Down With The Capitol – Matched Trilogy
Imagine living a life where all of your decisions are made for you, from what you eat to where you work to who you love. There are no mistakes, no accidents; as long as you follow the Society’s rules, you’ll live a long, productive life. At least that’s what Cassia believes until her Match Ceremony when she finds out that the boy she is destined to marry, Xander, is not the boy whose face flashes past on her dossier – the mysterious Ky. As Cassia explores her feelings, she delves deeper into the warped structure of the Society, learning with each passing day that her life of privilege comes at a cost. Armed with a desire for truth, and to simply make her own decisions for once, will Cassia choose to abandon the path laid out for love? Hunger Games fans will find lots of similarities in the Matched series- from a strong heroine in Cassia to a corrupt government in the Society – and with the third book set to come out this fall, there is still time to get hooked before the grand finale!

Kait – Victor’s Village – Divergent Trilogy
The city of Chicago has been barred off from the rest of the world, the government absolved. What lies in its place are five factions dedicated to holding up the virtues they hold dearest: Abnegation (The Selfless), Amity (The Kind), Candor (The Honest), Dauntless (The Brave), and Erudite (The Intelligent). At age 16, every individual must choose their own faction. The decision should be easy for Tris Prior until she finds out some shocking news about herself. When Tris joins the most dangerous of all the factions, she finds herself facing the destruction of everything she loves. Divergent is a refreshingly original book filled with almost non-stop action. The characters are a perfect combination of charming, flawed, and badass without getting totally unrealistic. As Tris transforms from a meek nobody to a leader, you can’t help but be enthralled by her, even at the times when her decisions are outrageous.

Click here to continue reading!

Source: Movies.com