Review: The Giver (Giver Quartet #1) by Lois Lowry

5 stars for The Giver (Giver Quartet book 1) by Lois Lowry.

This is a remarkable coming-of-age story. The lessons that Jonas - the protagonist boy of eleven years of age going on twelve - learn throughout the book are applicable to all human beings. It is especially of importance for adolescents to know what they are facing when growing up and to overcome those difficulties and fears by themselves.

The Giver is a novel that intrigues me right from the start. One chapter into the book, I find that there are strange goings-on in the story. Everything is normal. But yet, nothing is. The setting, the community, the family unit, the adults, the children, the behaviour. Something is amiss.

And then, my suspicions are confirmed as I read on to find out more. The community is meticulously ordered, and choices are carefully made. Any infringement on the community's sense of order and success is frowned upon. Everything in the community is performed with ceremony to mark the event. To name but a few, there is the Ceremony of Age (from One right up to Twelve), Ceremony of Loss, Ceremony of Release, Ceremony of Murmur-of-Replacement. To quote "The first Ceremony began right on time, and Jonas watched as one after another each newchild was given a name and handed by the Nurturers to its new family unit." Yes, everything has its place in the community. But too orderly to a fault.

The world building is unusual and unnatural, so much so that I am absolutely riveted to the story. For a book that is written more than a quarter of a century ago, it is certainly ingeniously crafted with no lack of originality. I can never know for certain what to expect except my own emotions that play out as I read on. Emotion and memory play a major part of everything in our world. It is hard to fathom a world where people are conditioned not to know what these are.

The Giver, book 1 of the Giver Quartet series, starts off incredibly well and hit all the right notes with "what's going on" and "what's next" that it lures me to keep the pages turning until I gobble the story up in two days' time. It is so good that I am not sure if the next book in line will be able to match up to my expectations. Well, I guess there is only one way to find out.


Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers; Media tie-in edition
Publication date: 1 Jul 2014

*** Favourite Quote ***

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

~ The Giver
Lois Lowry

@}--->>--->>-----

“It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened.”

Thus opens this haunting novel in which a boy inhabits a seemingly ideal world: a world without conflict, poverty, unemployment, divorce, injustice, or inequality. It is a time in which family values are paramount, teenage rebellion is unheard of, and even good manners are a way of life.

December is the time of the annual Ceremony at which each twelve year old receives a life assignment determined by the Elders. Jonas watches his friend Fiona named Caretaker of the Old and his cheerful pal Asher labeled the Assistant Director of Recreation. But Jonas has been chosen for something special. When his selection leads him to an unnamed man -the man called only the Giver -he begins to sense the dark secrets that underlie the fragile perfection of his world.

Told with deceptive simplicity, this is the provocative story of a boy who experiences something incredible and undertakes something impossible. In the telling it questions every value we have taken for granted and reexamines our most deeply held beliefs.

*Blurb from author's website*

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