The Giver Quartet 04 - Son (original 2012; edition 2012)

I loved the first 127 pages which explain Claire's life in the community, they had the clarity & starkness that I so loved in The Giver. But I was disappointed by the rest of the book. ( )

As a huge fan of Lowry's The Giver, I was so excited to see "Son" at the book fair I hosted for the middle school in which I am the librarian. Eagerly snapping it up, I read it in a couple of days and was left feeling rather empty. Claire herself is an empty character, which may be a purposeful machination of Lowry. The plot is difficult, personally, as a mother to a 2-year-old; I could commiserate with Claire's unabating drive to be with her son and her willingness to sacrifice whatever necessary to do so. However, once Lowry started shifting the perspective to other characters, the story lost a bit of its luster. ( )

As a conclusion to The Giver, it was a conclusion, and somewhat satisfying, but it took a long time to get there, and I don't know if young adults will want to stay with it. The first 2/3 of the book are the birthmother, Claire's story. I found the first third, which takes place in the original dystopian community, to be interesting, as it showed the community from another angle. Claire is chosen as a birthmother because she is not smart enough to do something else (ooh, that ought to raise someone's hackles!). The middle portion of the book takes place in another location, and the third, when we finally meet up with Jonas and Gabe, is in yet another community. Lois Lowry's writing is so darn good, I enjoyed following Claire's journey. Maybe if I read the other two related books, I'll feel differently about this one. ( )

Finished Son yesterday. I had to re read The Giver even though I'd read it 1 year ago. My memory is failing me a lot lately)



Well, I loved that this book played out in the same community as did Jonas of the first book, he Giver.
That community where they have no feelings and no colours really interested me. I also enjoyed that there were a lot of ties to Jonas his story. The main character of this book also interested me so I really devoured the book.



The only let down to me was the end. if not for the end I would have given it 5 stars. All of a sudden it felt rushed to me.
The big problem where the main character struggled with, had to be solved, I felt. Not easy for me to explain but I'll try. Okay I think not all problems have to be solved and i did not expect it from Lois Lowry because she did not do that in her other books. Because of that I felt the end was more a YA ending, and the other 3/4th of the book was for YA and adults.

Hope I was able to express myself clearly?



Anyway. I highly recommend this series to any reader. I sometimes wonder why this series is not more popular. You hear so much about The Hunger Games, (of which book 1 is great, but the others not as good) and other YA dystopian books. I feel this series should be on top because all the books were great! ( )

A nice wrap-up to the Giver series--ties the other three books together. Highly recommended!