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novelinsights 's review for:
Messenger
by Lois Lowry
My video review for this series can be found here: https://youtu.be/o-qn6wy81L0
This book helped to connect the characters in the first two books of the series together, though it definitely felt more related to Gathering Blue than it did The Giver. It follows Matty (Matt from Gathering Blue) several years after we last saw him.
This book, despite being over a decade old, felt eerily relevant to life today in 2019. The entire plot revolves around letting people in need enter a village and a subset of the population wanting to keep them out (partly by building a wall). It was a good read on the subject, if a little simplistic, and I found it a little more compelling than the series' previous installment.
That said, there were some serious flaws with the way the book was structured. Primarily, the ending.
Another major problem I had was with the character of Trademaster and the Trade Mart; specifically, that none of that got explained.
Right now, my feelings on this series as a whole stand to veer greatly in one direction or the other, depending on what the final book contains. I'm going to need Son to explain why everything that happened in this novel happened and to also go back and address what happened to the society from the first book. Otherwise, this series as a whole will just feel a bit sloppy and directionless.
This book helped to connect the characters in the first two books of the series together, though it definitely felt more related to Gathering Blue than it did The Giver. It follows Matty (Matt from Gathering Blue) several years after we last saw him.
This book, despite being over a decade old, felt eerily relevant to life today in 2019. The entire plot revolves around letting people in need enter a village and a subset of the population wanting to keep them out (partly by building a wall). It was a good read on the subject, if a little simplistic, and I found it a little more compelling than the series' previous installment.
That said, there were some serious flaws with the way the book was structured. Primarily, the ending.
Spoiler
I figured out pretty early on that Matty would probably need to heal the villagers and possibly all of Forest, and that was fine. I appreciated being given the clues needed to figure it out. My problem was that there was no compelling explanation for why Matty couldn't have just done this healing immediately. Why would Leader tell him to save his power and then wait until everyone was on death's door before advising him to use it? Why didn't he see immediately what Matty could do and have him do it right then and there without ever having to leave Village? There is no reason--aside from perhaps that neither Matty nor Leader thought of it. I don't really believe that "I didn't think of it" is a good excuse for why something should be drawn out that significantly in a book.Another major problem I had was with the character of Trademaster and the Trade Mart; specifically, that
Spoiler
he basically seemed like the source of all the evil in this book andRight now, my feelings on this series as a whole stand to veer greatly in one direction or the other, depending on what the final book contains. I'm going to need Son to explain why everything that happened in this novel happened and to also go back and address what happened to the society from the first book. Otherwise, this series as a whole will just feel a bit sloppy and directionless.