Among the Hidden from the Shadow Children series is the first work of dystopian fiction that I remember reading. I thought that it was a fascinating book so I read several more of the series. This was around 2005 to 2006 when I was in 7th grade. I do not think that I finished this series because the library may not have had the final couple of books. In 9th grade, we read 1984 as a class requirement. In 12th grade, we had to read some dystopian fiction as a requirement for class. The works that I remember are The Handmaid’s Tale, Brave New World, and 1984 again. I became sick of dystopian fiction. I never became interested in the series that my peers liked such as The Hunger Games, The Selection, and Divergent. However, some time ago, I stumbled upon the Giver Quartet on Amazon. I decided to give the dystopia genre a retry. The only other book that I remember reading by Lois Lowry is Number the Stars in 6th grade.
Title: The Giver
Series: Giver Quartet
Serial: Book 1
Author: Lois Lowry
Published by Clarion Books; Reprint, Media Tie In edition
Year: 1993
Format Read: Kindle
Pages: 99
Language: English
ASIN: B003MC5N28
Dates Read 2023, March 7 to March 17
I loved the short chapters and easy to understand dialogue. At less than 100 pages, this is definitely the book to introduce someone to the dystopia genre. I thought that the worldbuilding was amazing. I was actually okay with the ambiguous ending, and I interpreted that the characters made it. This book was better than any dystopian fiction book that I have read, and I liked that it built suspense. In the back of the book, she explains why she ends the book like that because she wants readers to ponder for themselves; also, they can read the other books in the series to find out what happens to Jonas and the boy. In the back of the book, there is also the Newbery Award speech and information about the origins of this story.
Title: Gathering Blue
Series: Giver Quartet
Serial: Book 2
Author: Lois Lowry
Published by Clarion Books; Reprint edition (September 25, 2000)
Year: 2000
Format Read: Kindle
Pages: 225
Language: English
ASIN: B003JFJHRK
Dates Read 2023, March 30 to April 16
Wow, what a tough village! It seems like a place more Indigenous, spiritual, and ancient than the suburban community in The Giver. A new main character, Kira, lives in this village. Jealousies, arguing, rivalries, harshness, and hostility. We read about her journey and how she wants to change the community. However, this book seems to end abruptly. You do get a line or two about Jonas from the previous book. I felt like the book needed one more chapter to smooth out the ending. It’s a companion book and not a sequel, but it deals with similar themes. The book setting feels like it takes place 100 years before The Giver, but it’s actually the same time period.
Title: Messenger
Series: Giver Quartet
Serial: Book 3
Author: Lois Lowry
Published by Clarion Books (April 26, 2004)
Year: 2004
Format Read: Kindle
Pages: 194
Language: English
ASIN: B003JTHWKK
Dates Read 2023, April 16 to April 23
This book takes place after Gathering Blue. I liked the mention of Jonas and Gabe in the Village. This community is the more altruistic one that Kira finds out about in the previous novel from her friend Matty. Although Messenger is interesting and fast paced, once again the ending leaves something to be desired. The big things that are happening are not explained as well as I would have liked. I would have appreciated a deeper metaphysical explanation of the powers/gifts and the Trading.
Title: Son
Series: Giver Quartet
Serial: Book 4
Author: Lois Lowry
Published by
Year: 2012
Format Read: Kindle
Pages: 405
Language: English
ASIN: B008454X2Y
Dates Read 2023, April 23 to May 13
The book’s setting coincides with the events of the previous book and ends several years afterwards. Many of the main characters from the previous books are in this one. This one is focused on Gabe’s birth mother Claire. During the book, Claire ends up in a sea village untouched by modern conveniences. The names of the characters are very pretty- Alys, Bethan, Einar, Andras. A lot of interesting things take place during the book, and this novel also references back to the previous books. The author tries to better explain what happened in Messenger and tries to fill in the shoddy worldbuilding with explanations. Moreover, several parts of Son were too specific and made the book drag on. Despite tying everything up from the previous books for a final ending to the series/quartet, I still felt the ending was somewhat unsatisfactory. I’m glad that everything ended well for Kira, Jonas, and Gabe, and Claire, but I still wonder about the final fate of The Giver and the community that Jonas and Gabe originally left. I’m still confused about the mystery of how Claire got her youth back. Does this mean that all of the people got what they traded back since Gabe defeated the Trademaster? What about Einar? Was he restored.? I’m also not sure if I cared for the “deal with the devil” bad guy. I’m not sure if I like how this quartet jumped from fighting a dystopia to just battling Satan.
Overall Impressions and Other Comments
I now understand why the first book is considered a classic and the rest of the books are not mentioned as much. I also see why only a movie was made of the first book. The Giver is now my favorite dystopian book. It was more calm, contemplative, and clean than the dystopian fiction books that I have read in school. I get that books in this genre usually don’t have extremely happy endings, but I would have liked for the endings of the last three books in this quartet to have felt more satisfactory. In this series, it was a neat touch to give many of the characters powers and magical talents.
A Love So Wordy 