This is a powerful book on many levels. Any parent will relate to it deeply because of the strong parental themes, but any child will be swept up in the mystery and adventure of Claire's quest to regain what once was hers: Her son. Claire was born in the futuristic and utopian/dystopian village that was the setting of The Giver and its sequels: The Messenger and Gathering Blue. Unlike these three, this fourth and last book of the series takes its characters on long, fantastical journeys, into new and mysterious lands, and places them in harms way again and again. Although it is a fitting end to the series, you could easily read this book on its own without ever having heard of The Giver.
This is an amazing, surprising, hair-raising, emotionally touching book. It has elements of the movie Rocky, especially the training scenes as Rocky builds strength to take on that Russian powerhouse. At the same time, it is reminiscent of the best Harry vs. Voldemort battle scenes in the Harry Potter books. Yes, there is adventure and action, though sometimes you have to wait for it... wait for it... though it is worth the wait.
Not at all what I expected, but so much better!
2 comments:
Welcome back Mr K. I am very keen to read this book. One of my students told me about Messenger. I had read The Giver years ago and then Gathering blue but oddly I had not linked them so I went back a re-read the first three. I saw recently that the fourth had been published and now the wonderful Mr K has reviewed it and rated it 5! I will add it to my shopping list. I have some catching up to do after a whole year away from my school library.
Welcome back Mr K. I loved The Giver then one of my students told me it was connected to the third book Messenger. I had always loved Gathering Blue (the second book) but had not connected it so then I re-read all three in order and WOW! now there is a fourth so that is on my shopping list.
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