Thursday, May 5, 2011

The Messenger by Lois Lowry


Title: The Messenger
Author: Lois Lowry
Reviewer: Stephanie
Genre: Teen Science Fiction
Rating: Love
Alerts/Warnings: There is an overall feeling to this book of a darkness coming, but there isn't anything specific that I would warn against.
Premise: Newbery medalist Lois Lowry once again ushers readers into the hypnotic, disconcerting fantasy world she made familiar in her award-winning The Giver and its sequel, Gathering Blue, introducing us to young Matty, a boy whose role for Village is more profound than he thinks. Fraught with the same tension and subtle complexities of the previous novels, Lowry's third episode follows Matty -- who lives with Seer and doesn't yet have his true name -- as he keeps busy running errands through Forest and otherwise lives a youthful, carefree life. But Matty also has a power he can't explain, and when he understands that local attitudes are becoming intolerant and aggressive due to mysterious happenings at Trade Mart, the boy sets out to bring back Kira (Seer's daughter and the main character in Gathering Blue) before Village barricades itself entirely against outsiders. (goodreads.com)

Opinions: This is easily my favorite book in the trilogy. I was lucky enough to get an advanced reader of this book years ago and I was so excited I read the whole thing in one sitting. It is a compelling conclusion to the trilogy. Again we are in a different society in the same world and time as "The Giver" and "Gathering Blue". But this time there are many of the same characters. We get to see what happens to some of the characters that we loved in the first two books. The imagery in this book is amazing. Even now thinking about some of the images it literally gives me goosebumps. It is well down and, for me, the perfect ending to a very interesting and thought provoking trilogy.

1 comment:

Janelle said...

Every book has it's reader, and I was not the one for this book. I liked it fine, but loved the other two much more.