The Giver by Lois Lowry

Ever since I saw the trailer for the film adaptation of The Giver, I knew I wanted to see it, but the one thing I didn't know was that it would be based on a best selling book. So I eventually went to get myself a copy of the book.

Jonas has spent every year of his life going through the different stages of the Ceremony, an event that takes place every December. Jonas will be joining the Twelves, which is the most nerve wrecking stage as the Elders assign you to your career. However Jonas gets assigned to the rarest career of all, the Receiver of Memory, the Elders selected Jonas for the most honourable assignment, one that has deadly secrets no one wants to admit.

I must say it took me about half of the book, which was probably 100 pages in, to actually feel somewhat connected to the storyline. Butt it wasn't until after the Ceremony that intrigued me and of course by then I was starting to fly through the pages.

The setup of the Community was so sterile and controlling, the fact that the Community choses everything for you, that you don't get a say in the matter really irritated me. For instance the 'family unit' setup is so stiff, Jonas' Mother and Father were both assigned to each other as partners to raise a family which includes Jonas and his sister Lily. However all the children in the Community are adopted and again are assigned to their family unit, all these assignments must be applied for and accepted by the hierarchy of the Community. I'm quite surprised that the children of the Community weren't interested about finding their birth parents, though I guess any information about them would be classified or they'd have some sort of full on rebellion on hand.

I'm glad Jonas figured out that there was something sinister going on behind the scenes while he was doing his training, the fact that the Receiver can ask for anything he or she wants is a good way to source out information. Though I think the ending could of been considerably better as it was suddenly thrown upon us and then just stopped with a very flatlined ending, so I have mixed feelings about the whole point of the story.

The only likeable characters were the Giver and Lily, both were humorous and spoke their mind, unlike Jonas who only ever wanted to please his parents and obey every rule he was given, I guess he only ever wanted acceptance. I felt that Asher and Fiona were only ever background characters who were essentially forgotten towards the end as both had made their own paths who couldn't fathom the changes that Jonas was going through.

I really didn't like Jonas' Mother, she felt cold and unloving towards him and Lily and was more like an overseer in their household. Though Jonas' Father didn't have some great qualities especially around the children meant he was more likeable, though he did hide a dark secret that eventually made Jonas question everything he was made to believe. So in the end both his parents were deceiving him from the truth about their Community, a factor that forced Jonas to make a very difficult but certain decision that would change everything they had ever known.

One thing I did not realise is that The Giver is part of a quartet, a four book series, so I'm not sure I'll be reading the rest of the series as the sequels continue with new characters. Overall I think this is a good book for younger readers which is the current target audience, I think its due to the characters being twelve and under that maybe I couldn't relate as well as I should have. I would definitely recommend to readers of Divergent as both have their similarities.

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You can get The Giver online or at your nearest available bookstore.
I brought my copy from Asda.