Oliver, Lauren
Entry updated 28 September 2026. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym of US author Laura Schechter (1982- ). whose first novel, Before I Fall (2010), is fantasy, as is much of her other work including the Curiosity House sequence opening with The Shrunken Head (2015) with her father Harold Schechter, the latter writing as H C Chester. Of sf interest is the Delirium sequence of Young Adult tales, comprising Delirium (2011), Pandemonium (2012) and Requiem (2013) plus shorter works [see Checklist below], all set in a Dystopian Near Future America, where a medical cure for love is imposed on all citizens at the age of eighteen by a ruthless government. The main protagonist fights against this. Replica (2016 dos), another YA tale, deals with Cloning in another dystopian setting; in the book's two halves the same story is told by two such characters.
FKA USA (2019) as by Reed King is a gonzo distant Near Future tale set in a balkanized America and describing a road-trip from what was once Missouri, but is now Crunch, United Colonies, to California. In 2085, all the Climate-Change and Ecological disasters currently promulgated have indeed occurred: rising seas, intolerable temperatures, the loss of half of California to the long-expected Big One, die-out of most flora and fauna. But the protagonist, accompanied by a talking donkey and an Android along the Yellow Brick Road that leads West, is uncontrollably upbeat. It is easy to think that the author of FKA USA has worked on the assumption that readers may demur from its protagonist's cheer. [JC/DRL]
Laura Suzanne Schechter
born New York: 8 November 1982
works
series
Delirium
- Delirium (New York: HarperCollins, 2011) [Delirium: hb/]
- Hana: A Delirium Short Story (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2011) [novelette: ebook: Delirium: na/]
- Annabel: A Delirium Story (New York: Harper: 2011) [novelette: ebook: Delirium: na/]
- Pandemonium (New York: HarperCollins, 2012) [Delirium: hb/]
- Requiem (New York: HarperCollins, 2013) [Delirium: hb/]
- Raven: A Delirium Story (New York: Harper: 2013) [novelette: ebook: Delirium: na/]
- Delirium Stories: Hana, Annabel & Raven (New York: Turtleback Books, 2009) [coll: Delirium: hb/Michael Frost]
- Delirium: The Complete Collection (New York: HarperCollins, 2014) [omni of all the above excluding repetitions: Delirium: hb/]
- Delirium: The Complete Four Book Collection (London: Hodder Paperbacks, 2020) [vt of the above: Delirium: pb/]
- Delirium Stories: Hana, Annabel, Raven & Alex (New York: Turtleback Books, 2016) [coll: exp of the above coll with Alex below: Delirium: hb/]
- Delirium: The Complete Collection (New York: HarperCollins, 2014) [omni of all the above excluding repetitions: Delirium: hb/]
- Alex: A Delirium Story (New York: Harper: 2014) [novelette: ebook: Delirium: na/]
- The Book of SHHH (New York: Harper: 2014) ["nonfiction": ebook: Delirium: na/nonpictorial]
Curiosity House
- The Shrunken Head (New York: HarperCollins, 2015) with Harold Schechter writing as H C Chester [Curiosity House: hb/]
- The Screaming Statue (New York: HarperCollins, 2016) with Harold Schechter writing as H C Chester [Curiosity House: pb/]
- The Fearsome Firebird (New York: HarperCollins, 2015) with Harold Schechter writing as H C Chester [Curiosity House: hb/Benjamin Lacombe]
Replica
- Replica (New York: Harper, 2016) [dos: same story told by two characters: Replica: hb/]
- Ringer (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2017) [hb/]
individual titles
- Before I Fall (New York: HarperCollins, 2010) [hb/]
- Before I Fall (New York: HarperCollins, 2016) [exp of the above as coll: hb/]
- Liesl and Po (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2011) [hb/]
- The Spindlers (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2012) [hb/]
- Rooms (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2010) [hb/]
- Broken Things (New York: HarperCollins, 2018) [hb/]
- FKA USA (New York: Flatiron Books, 2019) as by Reed King [hb/]
- The Magnificent Monsters of Cedar Street (New York: HarperCollins, 2020) [hb/]
- The Girl in the Lake (Seattle, Washington: Thomas and Mercer, 2026) [pb/]
links
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