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hickorynut 's review for:
The Giver Quartet
by Lois Lowry
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The Giver - 4.5 - I read this in middle school but truly had no recollection of any of the plot. Reading it now almost 20 years later was fascinating and thought provoking. It shows what happens when humanity strives for perfection, eliminating as many flaws and biases as they can to create a supposed functional, orderly society. Citizens have no memory of history, no genetic lineage, no culture, no understanding of the natural world - even down to being able to perceive color - and are allowed no opinions, pushing boundaries, or breaking rules. Contentment is all they know and the ability to think and perceive and feel otherwise is limited to one single person, the Receiver, the holder of all histories and memories. Jonas has been selected to be trained as the next Receiver, and he quickly learns that there is so much he does not know and cannot ever share with those around him. His predecessor, now known as the Giver, gifts Jonas memories of humanity's history, and together they realize they have an opportunity to try to make a change for their entire community.
Gathering Blue - 4.25 - Kira is a disabled girl whose community lets her live only due to her mother's insistence and advocacy. When her mother passes away, Kira is brought into a new position of honor where she must dye and mend threads for a sacred historical robe. There she learns that her community's corruption runs deeper than she imagined, and she must work alongside her peers of varying classes to set a new plan in motion. Given an opportunity to leave, ultimately she chooses to stay and promote change from within.
The Messenger - 4.25 - Six years have passed and Matty is flourishing, living freely among the village that accepts outcasts and unwanted people. He lives with Kira's father, the blinded seer, and works as a messenger traveling between people and communities. But when the village community begins turning upon itself, individuals forming selfish habits that promote competitive egotistical values, the surrounded forest also begins to turn on them. Matty must embark on his most important journey yet to try to bring Kira home with him, despite the formerly friendly forest and community turning on and attacking them both. We also begin to see how all the major characters from the previous books have settled into their lives and roles in new communities.
Son - 4.5 - We return to the original community from book one, in which birthmothers are chosen at a young age and produce newchildren to be matched to the waiting population. After difficulties with her first birth, Claire is reassigned to a new position, but finds herself drawn back to visit her son, despite love and generational familial care being forbidden and unrealistic in her community. This follows Claire's story from giving her first birth to her escape the confines of her home community, settling into her new life in another more accepting yet distant community, her planning and preparation for the quest of retrieving her son, and the journey to find her son. It ends with her son's perspective as he pulls together threads from all of the previous books to help conclude the series.
Overall it was an intriguing series that I would recommend for most adult readers who weren't able to read the series in full while younger. It was thought provoking about society and the different aspects of surveillance, citizsn control, coerced cooperation, lack of individualism, effects of isolation, and more.
Gathering Blue - 4.25 - Kira is a disabled girl whose community lets her live only due to her mother's insistence and advocacy. When her mother passes away, Kira is brought into a new position of honor where she must dye and mend threads for a sacred historical robe. There she learns that her community's corruption runs deeper than she imagined, and she must work alongside her peers of varying classes to set a new plan in motion. Given an opportunity to leave, ultimately she chooses to stay and promote change from within.
The Messenger - 4.25 - Six years have passed and Matty is flourishing, living freely among the village that accepts outcasts and unwanted people. He lives with Kira's father, the blinded seer, and works as a messenger traveling between people and communities. But when the village community begins turning upon itself, individuals forming selfish habits that promote competitive egotistical values, the surrounded forest also begins to turn on them. Matty must embark on his most important journey yet to try to bring Kira home with him, despite the formerly friendly forest and community turning on and attacking them both. We also begin to see how all the major characters from the previous books have settled into their lives and roles in new communities.
Son - 4.5 - We return to the original community from book one, in which birthmothers are chosen at a young age and produce newchildren to be matched to the waiting population. After difficulties with her first birth, Claire is reassigned to a new position, but finds herself drawn back to visit her son, despite love and generational familial care being forbidden and unrealistic in her community. This follows Claire's story from giving her first birth to her escape the confines of her home community, settling into her new life in another more accepting yet distant community, her planning and preparation for the quest of retrieving her son, and the journey to find her son. It ends with her son's perspective as he pulls together threads from all of the previous books to help conclude the series.
Overall it was an intriguing series that I would recommend for most adult readers who weren't able to read the series in full while younger. It was thought provoking about society and the different aspects of surveillance, citizsn control, coerced cooperation, lack of individualism, effects of isolation, and more.