The Giver Quartet

They called her Water Claire. When she washed up on their shore, no one knew that she came from a society where emotions and colors didn't exist.

That she had become a Vessel at age thirteen. That she had carried a Product at age fourteen. That it had been stolen from her body. Claire had a son. But what became of him she never knew. What was his name? Was he even alive? She was supposed to forget him, but that was impossible.

Now Claire will stop at nothing to find her child, even if it means making an unimaginable sacrifice.

I've been making a point to go back and read classics or required books from junior high and high school because I can understand them better AND appreciate them much more than when I was a teenager.

The Giver has always been one of those books where even if I didn't remember details or what I felt when reading it 15 years ago, something about it stuck with me and made me want to read it again to see if I still got the same feeling.

I have read the Giver before (for school-required reading), but never the sequels, and once I made the decision to give the Giver a try this year, I ended up reading through all 4 books in 4 days because I couldn't put them down!

Though there are recurring characters in each book, Lois Lowry does an excellent show more job of keeping the focus on the current story and the characters it revolves around. The theme of human adaption to survival stays the same throughout the series, with each book showing a different take on what communities will do to survive and how their adaption adjusts with greed and power involved. It was fascinating to see how different groups of people responded, how different the technologies were and how extreme those differences can be even though the communities were close enough to each other to travel and all were living in the same time period.

The only con or downside I can think of for the series is that the fantasy aspect of the story shifted a bit more to the superpower focus of the characters, which took a bit away from the themes of suppressed creativity.

But overall I enjoyed it and wished there was more to this series, even though it ended at a good point. show less

The Giver Quartet (The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son) by Lois Lowry is a compilation of four books written over almost a decade. The books beautifully capture dystopian societies, describing the menacing reality underneath a seemingly serene and utopian surface. I love the ethical and philosophical questions the books raise, and I love the open endings. Both leave the reader – even an adult reader – with a lot to think about.

Read my complete review at: http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2014/12/the-giver-quartet-giver-gathering-blue....

The Giver Quartet is a series of short stories about different dystopian societies. It begins with Jonas who lives in a society where pain and suffering is no longer known. But the price paid for a life without pain is a life without love, a life without happiness. Everyone in the community is a follower of Sameness; and they live by many strict rules. Precision of language is important. It doesn't do to use words with abstract definitions; if the definition is too broad, how will you ever understand the meaning behind the spoken word?

In December, Jonas becomes a Twelve. It's the start of their last days as a child; it'll be the start of the rest of his life. At the ceremony, Twelves are assigned a job to keep for the rest of their show more lives. There's caretakers, and teachers and any title that helps keep the community going like it always has. But Jonas isn't assigned anything like that. No, Jonas is to be the new Receiver of Memory.

His job is to carry all the memories from the past. To keep the community without pain; it's his job to carry the bad memories of pain and hurt. But he soon realises there's so much more to it. There's good memories too. Memories of what a snowflake feels on your nose, or what it is like to love. It's a feeling hard to forget – and he has a hard time letting go of the thought that there must be more to life than Sameness.

Oh, wow. The first short story, The Giver, completely blew me away. It hit me quite hard on a personal level. It was just as beautiful and empowering as it was sad. I don't necessarily agree with the whole ”if you don't know sadness, you can't know happiness” point of view but the story definitely made me think my own experiences over; both good and bad. I feel like the point is that all the memories and experiences make us who we are.

I didn't like the second story as much. I feel like I would've liked it if it hadn't dragged out the beginning so much – I would've loved it not to end as soon as it did but rather that the first half became more like the first half of the first half. It was slow and ended just as it got interesting. The same more or less goes for the third one; it feels forced and unnecessary. Like it was mostly done to link The Giver and Gathering Blue together.

But the fourth one? I do have some issues with what parts the author decided to give more pages but over all, the plot is just as beautiful and painful as The Giver. I'm sad it's last in the series because I have a feeling the quality of Gathering Blue and The Messenger will cause a lot of people to give up reading; which means they are missing out big time. It was definitely worth to get through those stories to get to this one. It's going to be hard to ever forget it. show less

I really liked this series. I'm ashamed to have not picked it up earlier. The only downfall that I didn't like was that it had similar circumstances to other distopians I've read. This isn't really an issue because it was published prior to those other books. I liked it and I liked how it all tied together across the series!

The Giver
As Jonas approaches the end of his year as an Eleven he becomes apprehensive about what the assignment (the work for which he will train)he will be given at the end of the year will be. In his new role he finds out the secrets behind his community's idyllic lifestyle.

Gathering Blue
After Kira's mother's death, some of the women in her considerably less idyllic community try to steal the land she inherited but when Kira appeals to the Council of Guardians she is given an enhanced position in the community as the weaver who will restore the robe worn by the Singer who keeps the story of the community's history.

Messenger
All is not well in Village, the refuge where some characters from "The Giver" and "Gathering Blue" now live. The show more inhabitants are busy trading for desirable objects, but what are they giving up in exchange? Forest is changing to reflect the changes in Village.

Son
This fourth volume of the quartet takes an almost invisible character from "The Giver" and follows her in her journey to Village and then updates us on various characters from the earlier books.

I think I should have just read "The Giver" by itself. As a stand alone it's an interesting utopia that turns out to be a dystopia (though I suspect human nature is not as malleable as the author makes it out to be), but expanding the story out into the rest of the world just raises too many questions as to how this world actually works.

Why can't the people in The Giver's community see colours there but can see them outside? How can that community have weather control and have removed all animal life from their community but the other communities not? Where do the gifts come from? Why don't the people in the inaccessible fishing village have to worry about inbreeding? And on and on. show less

I watched the movie WAY before I ever got the book. I had high expectations going into it because everyone I know said they LOVE this book.

I will say, I couldn't stop myself from drawing comparisons to the movie, but the more I read, the more the movie did NOT give this book any justice. Once of the better dystopian books I have read.