A Review of 'The Giver' by Lois Lowry

“Jonas’s world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community.

When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now it’s time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.”

Probably one of the first dystopian novels everyone reads. I know I had to read it for school, and from there, I went on to the sequel and so forth.

It’s always interesting to remove yourself from the life you know and replace yourself in a, for all intents and purposes, perfect world. What I’ve come to learn from dystopian novels is just how cold perfection really is. We strive for it, but once we hit it, then what do we do? There’s nothing to improve, nothing to shoot off of… it’s been completely solved.

What was really interesting to read about was how Jonas was put back into a world that we, the readers, are used to. His reactions to the little things that we take for granted—sled rides—and then the different kinds of pain that we feel—sadness, physical pain, for instance—they were eye opening. We’re so used to these things that we don’t notice them as much as we should.

The part that was really giving me reason to cringe and cry was when one of the birth mothers had twins and they had to decide which was stronger. The stronger baby got to live, but the other baby was taken away and euthanized, for lack of a better word. It scared the crap out of me and that was the most horrendous scene I’ve ever had to read in a book.

I give ‘The Giver’:

"Jude, why have you been posting so many reviews lately? I'm kind of buried right now." Well, I had some written out before, so I thought that I would get those posted. I haven't posted anything for several days, so there's just been an explosion of reviews. I'm sorry if you haven't been able to keep up very easily. I think this is my last one for a while. Of course I'll still keep writing them, they just won't be posted the same day that I write them is all.

For those of you that celebrate, Happy Christmas (Eve!). Happy belated Hanukkah! I think I completely missed wishing those people happy Hanukkah... and I know for sure that I missed Ede (is that the proper spelling?), so Happy belated Ede as well! Happy Kwanzaa too :)

So summarize, Happy Holidays (belated or otherwise) and have a safe weekend. Especially if you're traveling.

Thanks for reading!

--Jude