Yes, I am that weird girl who takes pictures of her books on the back deck… *sighs.
I read The Giver back in January, and I loved it! I don’t typically like sad books, but this… this! Everyone should read it. It has a few graphic descriptions and it’s (as aforementioned) very sad, so I would only recommend it to mature readers.
But that ending! If you’ve read this book, you know what I’m talking about, and if you haven’t, go read it. (Kidding. Sorta.)
I had to read the next ones.
Had to.
Because that story ended in one of the worst places ever. Five stars.
Thus, I checked all of the sequels out the next time we went to the library. I started with Gathering Blue, and was sadly disappointed.
My number one question: where is Jonas?
My number two question: where is the awesome dystopian world from The Giver?
My number three, four, and five questions: Why? Why? Why?
Jonas wasn’t there, which was mostly apparent from the inside cover of the book. His world wasn’t there, which was quite evident by the time I got a few chapters in.
For me, the new world Ms. Lowry created just didn’t cut it. It was okay, it just wasn’t spectacular, like it was in the Giver. And a few of the accents started getting on my nerves.
Also, that ending! She seems as if she doesn’t know how to finish her books, because this one was totally unresolved – and (SPOILER) several things are totally unresolved even after reading the third and fourth books.
Oh dear. Two and a half stars.
On to Messenger.
This one was slightly better, although not much. It was still in the same setting as Gathering Blue, but with a different protagonist.
The only thing this one has going for it is that we FINALLY (SPOILER) get to know what happened to Jonas and certain other characters of importance! It’s about time.
Other than that, meh. I could’ve done without most of it. Three stars.
Son was by far the best post-Giver book.
It’s so good. And so sweet. And mostly resolved. (That was the best thing about it!) Again, this one is graphic/sad/occasionally scary, so I recommend it for mature readers.
I loved Claire. She was definitely the best main character besides Jonas. Of course there were some unanswered questions, but that’s to be expected with every series.
Even though I thoroughly enjoyed this one, it was still overshadowed by the awesomeness of The Giver. Definitely four stars, but The Giver was so much better.
All in all. if I could only recommend you one book in the series, I would say The Giver for sure. But don’t blame me if you can’t stop after that…
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments please leave them below.
