Friday 3 October 2014

The Giver by Lois Lowry - Review

**A note on my notes: This review is spoiler free.**

"The worse part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared."

The Giver is a young adult dystopian novel that seeks to question the importance of choice and freedom. The story follows Jonas, a young boy who lives within a perfect community, a community with no war, no hunger and no pain, and Jonas couldn't imagine it any other way. Until, of course, he can.

The Good
This world was fantastic! I was so intrigued about the world that I could read books upon books that just described it, because I'm still desperate to know more. The story was also extremely fast paced, and the book is short so I got through it very quickly. The overall concept of this novel is extremely interesting and thought-provoking. I really enjoyed this read!

The Bad
I loved this world so much that I wanted to hear more about it, and there was just so much left unexplained. I also think the ending was a little too ambiguous; however, there are two companion novels and one direct sequel which were written over a decade after The Giver's first publication. I found that the novel did jump ahead in time a lot more than I liked, especially towards the middle and ending... The first third of the novel follows almost every day of Jonas' life, but from the middle onwards chapters sometimes jumped weeks ahead, which I found annoying because I just wanted to know more.

The Recommendation 
Everyone should read this book. Absolutely everyone, because it raises important questions and values that everyone can learn from. I would especially recommend this book to someone who was new to the dystopian genre, or if you've been reading a lot of dystopians and you want something from that genre that is a lot less violent. 

Happy Reading! 

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