The Giver was a recent selection for a book club I’m in, and so when I picked up my copy I figured I might as well get the ‘quartet’ edition that also has the other three books that follow: Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son. I don’t read a ton of YA fiction, so these were nice quick palate cleansers after The Devourers. ;) THE GIVER (Book #1) The world that Jonas lives in is a carefully orchestrated and controlled society. Families are created in labs, […]
Son: A Beautiful End to a Beautiful Quartet
Having got a late start on The Giver, I decided to make up for lost time by reading the entire quartet. How beautifully wonderful it was! I don’t know what critics or readers think of it, but I thought it was the perfect ending to an original and piercing series. The story begins with a girl named Claire. A disappointing student, she is assigned the role of Birthmother. And then it all goes wrong. She feels things she cannot explain, things that no one else […]
Matty is now the Messenger
In happier news, I’m reading a different YA series that is well-plotted, well-characterized, and somehow…gentler…on the human spirit. I’d always heard of The Giver but never really knew about the sequence of novels that came later. I’m really glad to be reading them. Let’s talk about Messenger. Lowry weaves together plots from The Giver and Gathering Blue with the story of Matty, now a teenager and living in Village, a haven for broken/destitute/discarded people of outlying villages. Protected by Leader and mentored by Seer, a […]
The Gatherer, not the Hunter
I devoured The Giver last month and almost fainted when I heard that Lois Lowry wrote more books in the series. So of course it was off to my local library to put in a request because EVERYONE IS READING IT. I can see why–this book isn’t exactly a sequel, but it does provide some unusual counterpoint to the Stepfordian world Jonas inhabited in The Giver. Gathering Blue begins with Kira, who is mourning the sudden death of her mother. She is crippled with a […]