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susanquilty 's review for:
Son
by Lois Lowry
Son is the final book in The Giver quartet, but don't expect it to answer all of your questions. That doesn't bother me too much, because I enjoyed reading the book and like thinking about why the story unfolded the way that it did. (Although, I do still wish I had some more answers about the end of Gathering Blue!)
The second book dragged for me. At first I thought the shipwreck/amnesia was trite, but then I liked the way it blurred Claire's confusion over animals and colors. I also liked seeing another area and thinking about how these different communities had become so separated and what was really keeping them apart. Although, training for the cliff, and climbing the cliff, went on rather long.
I liked that the final book was mainly told from Gabe's perspective, and I could understand why Claire had been content to watch him (not wanting to burden him with her story). I figured out pretty early on (immediately?) that Gabe would end up defeating the Trademaster to win back Claire's youth, but the "fight" wasn't want I expected. I liked the idea that Gabe's empathy let him see that he could "starve" evil by not letting it feed on the misery of others.
While I enjoyed it overall, I wish the middle book had been shorter and more time was given to setting up the Trademaster battle.
I can understand why some people didn't like the book and perhaps felt cheated because it didn't wrap up every storyline. For me, the entire series was more allegory than straight storytelling, and Son stayed to that theme.
Despite its supernatural aspects, I think the series is more true to real life than most fiction: We go through life not having all the answers, especially about other people, and we often have to read between the lines to make sense of what's happening around us.
Spoiler
The story is divided into three books (sections). The first book goes back to the community from The Giver and it was interesting to see the events from Claire's perspective--particularly Jonas' dad. Although, Claire left before seeing the effects of Jonas' memories returning to the rest of the community.The second book dragged for me. At first I thought the shipwreck/amnesia was trite, but then I liked the way it blurred Claire's confusion over animals and colors. I also liked seeing another area and thinking about how these different communities had become so separated and what was really keeping them apart. Although, training for the cliff, and climbing the cliff, went on rather long.
I liked that the final book was mainly told from Gabe's perspective, and I could understand why Claire had been content to watch him (not wanting to burden him with her story). I figured out pretty early on (immediately?) that Gabe would end up defeating the Trademaster to win back Claire's youth, but the "fight" wasn't want I expected. I liked the idea that Gabe's empathy let him see that he could "starve" evil by not letting it feed on the misery of others.
While I enjoyed it overall, I wish the middle book had been shorter and more time was given to setting up the Trademaster battle.
I can understand why some people didn't like the book and perhaps felt cheated because it didn't wrap up every storyline. For me, the entire series was more allegory than straight storytelling, and Son stayed to that theme.
Despite its supernatural aspects, I think the series is more true to real life than most fiction: We go through life not having all the answers, especially about other people, and we often have to read between the lines to make sense of what's happening around us.