The Giver (Giver Quartet, #1)

by Lois Lowry

In a perfect world, Jonas begins to see the flaws…

THE GIVER is the classic award-winning novel that inspired the dystopian genre and a major motion picture adaptation for 2014 starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes and Taylor Swift.

It is the future. There is no war, no hunger, no pain. No one in the community wants for anything. Everything needed is provided. And at twelve years old, each member of the community has their profession carefully chosen for them by the Committee of Elders.

Twelve-year old Jonas has never thought there was anything wrong with his world. But from the moment he is selected as the Receiver of Memory, Jonas discovers that their community is not as perfect as it seems.

It is only with the help of the Giver, that Jonas can find what has been lost. And it is only through his personal courage that Jonas finds the strength to do what is right…

The Giver is the award-winning classic of bravery and adventure that has inspired countless dystopian writers as the forerunner of this genre.

• ISBN13: 9780007263516
• Publish Date: 5 May 2008 (first published 26 April 1993)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperCollins
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 240
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[inlibrisveritas]

The Giver is one of those books I've heard about for years but avoided because everyone insisted that I needed to read it. (Seriously, that's the best way to make sure I don't ever pick up a book or watch a movie). It's not that I was actively avoiding it, it just became one of those "I know I'll enjoy it so I'll put it off till later" kind of things. I watched the movie and had the strong desire to try out the book and see what they changed. The answer is a lot, but that's not a bad thing because the book is vague in a lot of areas that the movie gives clarity.

It lost a star due to that vagueness, which I think would have worked for me if I had read it well before I started reading Dystopians all the time, but in a world where backstory has become a necessity for me I found myself with a ton of questions and almost no answers. So this is definitely on that I'll be reading the next books to see if anything is fleshed out.

I loved the concept of their society and the extreme lengths they've gone through to make sure everyone is the same as everyone else. It was even better to see Jonas become more and more self aware, as well as notice things he's seen his whole life in a completely different light. I liked that the memories were some tangible and could be passed on, but I kind of confused on the how. Jonas was a likeable character but it's safe to say we know just as much about him as he does, which isn't a lot given the situation.

Though I rarely ever say this I actually appreciated watching the movie first, because those things that I had so many questions about in the book had a bit of an explanation in the film.I didn't agree with the changes they made in Jonas' friends but given that a movie would be boring with such loose attachment like they have in the book it's understandable.

Overall it's a quick and addicting read that sucked me in and refused to let me go until I finished it. I can't wait to see what happens in the next three books!

[lovelybookshelf]

Finished my second book for #24in48 #readathon

[Kim Deister]

There is so much to love about this book, and so much that was deeply disturbing. It is a world that, on the surface, seems as uptopian as one could imagine. But is it really a utopia? There are so many aspects to the world of The Giver that, for me, are as far from utopia as humanly possible.

Much of it was reminiscent of Huxley's Brave New World. Key parts of humanity have been stripped away. Color, art, individuality, emotion. Even child birth is more of a manufactured process that is dehumanized. Social control is scary at best. But these very disturbing things are exactly what make our main character Jonas so unique and instantly sympathetic. This is a book about choices, about waking up and seeing things for what they truly are. It is about determining your own future and deciding for yourself what is the most important.

I love a book that makes me think, that makes me question my own reality. This is a book that does that. It makes you question what aspects of humanity are truly important. What would you be willing to sacrifice for a "better" world? And what would a "better" world look like? Is it worth lose wide emotional range that is an inherent part of humanity? Is it worth losing a traditional family structure?

Things to love...

--The depth of the messages.
--Jonas. He is one of the few characters that we, as readers, can truly understand.
--The world. The world of this book is intriguing.

Things I wanted more/less of...

--Resolution. What happens to Jonas? To Gabe? To the community itself?

My Recommendation: While this is technically a young adult novel, it has some rather deep themes that are just as intriguing to adults. This is an engaging read for fans of utopian/dystopian worlds.

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

I'm not sure why I waited so long to pick up the The Giver by Lois Lowry. However, I'm happy I made the time to read this short, but packed dystopian novel.

There's a lot going on in The Giver. The slim size of the novel original novel, clocking in at 179 pages, is a bit misleading. This book tells the story of a world without color and memories where conformity is the key to survival. I could see glimmers of where some of the more popular contemporary dystopian novels borrowed from Lowry's world. I can't be the only one who thought Lowry's colorless world (Abnegation, anyone?) with the role assignments (faction ceremony) sounded a bit like Roth's Divergent.

My first thought, after finishing the book in less than 1 day, was "Hollywood is going to ruin this one." I might purposefully avoid the movie. As a photographer, I started out with black and white film, developing it on my own before moving over to digital. I have this distinct vision of what Jonas's world looked like as he discovered the truth and I'm not sure I want that spoiled.

Don't let the size of The Giver or the age (it was published in 1993) lead you astray. Lowry could be seen as the mother (or grandmother?), perhaps, of the modern YA Dystopian fiction novels. The simple, straight forward nature of this novel is refreshing and applicable to today's world. There are hints of a deeper meaning and hidden story just beyond the edges of the story that keep you reading. With a bit of a cliffhanger at the end, I can understand why fans of the novel were clamoring for a sequel. The Giver receives a thumbs up from Second Run Reviews.This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews.

[tweetybugshouse]

First of all i like to say I read this book purely because the movie is coming out. That being said that gets me excited some books i only discover because of the hype of a movie coming out. This book is thought provoking, it did tug at my heart strings a bit at the end. I think the movie will probably take it beyond what we are offered in the book which is okay the book not that big a jumping off point is okay as well. I am interested to read the other stories that are part of the quartet.

[shannonmiz]

I must confess that I just read this book. Like, as in last week. I know, I know, late to the party. The odd thing is, I was a huge Lois Lowry fan at the time this book was released (I was pretty sure that I was Anastasia Krupnik), so how this book got past me, I'll never know. But it did. And while people encouraged me to read this book, arguably the beginning of all YA dystopia, I just never did. Part of it was that the cover super turned me off. Another was that I was worried that it was too middle-grade for my liking. But then there was buzz about the movie (which, incidentally, releases today. Nice timing, no?) so I decided to go ahead and give it a shot.

The first thing that struck me about the book was how small it was. Only 179 pages, lightweight. The opposite of the hardcover, 750 page monstrosity I was also reading, it seemed like a good call. I finished it in two days, definitely needing to know what was going to happen.

Some things surprised me about this book. While Jonas was supposed to be eleven, turning twelve, this book was definitely not a middle-grade situation. This book was seriously dark. I know dystopian books aren't exactly lighthearted and fluffy, but I was mildly horrified by most of the book. Which is kind of hard to do, since I read a lot of dystopian.

The setting of this book is vague, perhaps intentionally so, but the point is conveyed. Everyone is the same, everyone follows the rules, no one thinks or feels for themselves. It sounds horrifying, but I suppose if it's all you know, it makes sense. Would I have liked more world-building? Yes, definitely. But in the context of this particular book, I can live with it.

As for the characters, the only ones that we get any real insight into is Jonas and The Giver. To me, this makes perfect sense. In a world where everyone is supposed to be the same unfeeling specimens, other than a few minor differences, I wouldn't expect a lot of character development.

There were some parts that were, quite honestly, very difficult to read. But they illustrated the complete malfunction of this society, it wasn't just meaningless shock value. The end of this book left me with more questions than answers, and I will most definitely be reading the rest of the series, though I've read that the rest of the series isn't a continuation, but a companion.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who considers them a fan of dystopian, and really, for anyone who just likes a book that will make them think. I do wish I had more answers to some of my questions, and a bit more information about the society in general, but an overall great story, and equally groundbreaking.

[Stephanie]

I had never read The Giver before (I know, you don't have to say anything) and people who recommended it were worried that I wouldn't like it because it held some sentimental value of reading it while they were young. That is a bold faced lie, and this was better than most books I have read. Ever.

[mrs_mander_reads]

The 7th grade at my middle school reads this book every year, and the kids love it, so I was excited to read it. It's a fast read; I completed it in about three good-length settings. The story moves quickly. There is a lot of description, but it isn't weighty. I like the story, and the idea of a society where memories are non-transferable and do not move from generation to generation. The only thing I will take issue with is the abrupt ending, and what I feel is the incompleteness of the novel. I'm going to read the companion novels, in the hopes that Jonas' story is fleshed out more.

[clementine]

I loved The Giver the first time I read it at age 10 or 11, and again when we read it in school at age 13. I think it's the first dystopian I ever read, and it does have a lot of the quintessential qualities I look for in a good dystopian. I've always loved how the characters perceive their society to be perfect (and, indeed, the only possible way to live), when it's rather obvious to the reader that it's disturbingly devoid of so many of the things we consider fundamentally important as humans.

This book brings up a lot of really interesting questions, questions that I grappled with as a kid and that I'm still thinking about. I think the most interesting thing to me is whether it's worth sacrificing love, emotion, and meaning for order and stability. I think no, but in the world of The Giver, society obviously moved away from this mindset. This question is echoed in Lauren Oliver's Delirium series, where the feeling of love is eliminated from society in order to create some sense of order. It's an interesting concept to explore, and one that is deeply tied to our sense of humanity.

My biggest issue with this book is that the characters are just not old enough. It's not believable to me that a twelve-year-old child would be given such responsibility or even behave in the way that he does. My cousin is coming up to that age, and she's very mature for her age, and, NO, I cannot imagine her in this role. It would make so much more sense all around for this society's coming of age to be at sixteen, for so many reasons. This is the thing that trips me up with this book. I also think some of the ideas could have been explored more fully, but in general I think it's a book that's both conceptually really strong and interesting in terms of plot, characters, etc.

[CrowNoYami]

an interesting and enthralling novel. While I have yet to see the movie, I really enjoyed the book and hope that it does the novel justice.