planetshannon 's review for:

Son by Lois Lowry

4.0

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3.5 Stars, but marking here as 4 so it's clear I enjoyed it more than Messenger.

This really wasn't what I expected and I feel pretty complicated about this book, and the series as a whole. I loved The Giver but the additional books felt like they had such a different spirit and message to them, and I feel unresolved about the disconnect.

I did find a few inspiring things in this story, and moments did touch me

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like Claire's determination, her friendship with Einar and the learning and acceptance she had though Alys

, but it wasn't what I was hoping for. It also used a few writing devices I'm not a fan of (

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including telling the same story from a different perspective, which can often feel like revisionist history

). I was also sad that the

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only place that had gender equality was the original community, where men and women could have any job or position. Every other place we see men with jobs, and women being wives/mothers/girls-who-play-house. The only women who actually do things are Alys and Kira, both of whom were deemed "unsuitable for marriage". It's sad to only see equality in the dystopia community of book 1

.

I will continue to think on this book as well as the series, and will likely do video reviews of all the books.

Side note: I am really happy to have been able to accomplish the goal of reading the entire series in one month. That felt like a big win, and this was a good series to do that with. Each book was easy to read and mostly had good pacing. Son did have a big of a long part in the middle, but other than that I flew through the books and was engaged and always interested to know what would happen next.