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Messenger (The Giver Quartet #3)

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 27,930 ratings · 2,663 reviews

Lois Lowry’s Messenger continues the quartet beginning with the quintessential dystopian novel, The Giver, and Gathering Blue, followed by Son.

For the past six years, Matty has lived in Village and flourished under the guidance of Seer, a blind man, known for his special sight. Village was a place that welcomed newcomers, but something sinister has seeped into Village and...more

Paperback, 176 pages

Published January 13th 2009 by Bantam Books for Young Readers (first published April 26th 2004)

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Feb 11, 2013 Tracy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I did love this book, I was so happy to find out what happened to Jonas and Gabe after the heartbreaking ending of The Giver. One criticism is that while I found the sub-plot of the Trademart to be very interesting it seemed to just fade off without any explanation. Where did the Trader come from? How was he able to take a persons inner-most self...was it magic? Kira, Leader and Matty all seem to have magical powers...where did their powers come from. Their world seems to be ours...there are ref...more

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Sep 15, 2007 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: all

Shelves: young-adult-lit

Messenger is the third book after The Giver and Gathering Blue. Readers who were dissatisfied by the vague ending of The Giver will appreciate the glimpse of Gabe and Jonas' important role as Leader of Village.

Matty, who befriended Kira in Gathering Blue, is the main character in Messenger. He is anticipating earning his true name, which he hopes will be Messenger. He knows all the paths of the mysterious forest, which becomes more and more sinister as the story progresses. Village, under Jonas...more

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May 02, 2008 Cortney rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Here's the second companion piece to The Giver. I liked this one better than the first, Gathering Blue. Actually, it had potential to be a great book, but it's like Lowry forgot her plot lines and things just fell off at the end of the book.

The first two books, The Giver and Gathering Blue deal with utopian societies. This book takes place in a village with all the outcasts from these utopian societies. It's called the village of the Broken, people with some deformity, disfigurement or handicap...more

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Apr 02, 2009 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is really good you finally find out what happened to Jonas and Gabe. The end is pretty good but you may be disapointed. The forest is finally at peace.

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Sep 17, 2010 Jinky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

Reference: The Giver (book #1), Gathering Blue (book #2), Messenger (book #3)

Let me begin to tell you that I had to re-align my thinking since book #2 because for some reason I had a wrong name in mind. I was quick to forget that the main character in book #1 was Jonas. For some reason when reading book #2 and saw the name Christopher, I pictured Jonas. So throughout book #2 and most of book #3 Christopher was Jonas to me. You can imagine how the story must have been different for me. I suppose...more Reference: The Giver (book #1), Gathering Blue (book #2), Messenger (book #3)

Let me begin to tell you that I had to re-align my thinking since book #2 because for some reason I had a wrong name in mind. I was quick to forget that the main character in book #1 was Jonas. For some reason when reading book #2 and saw the name Christopher, I pictured Jonas. So throughout book #2 and most of book #3 Christopher was Jonas to me. You can imagine how the story must have been different for me. I suppose knowing that now, I have two versions!! ~I think I need to take some Gingkoba 'cause I'm loosing it!!

Okay, now for Messenger. Well, Matt in book #2 is now Matty and speaker in this book He is six years older from where book #2 left off. We find that he ends up living in Christopher's village. There he learned manners and proper grammar. He found place as courier of messages between villages and does so going through the Forest with ease. Then Matty's new village started to change as the Trade Market comes to bloom. The kind-hearted people basically traded their souls for vanity and trivial amusements. The people changed so much that they got tired of welcoming in the damaged and voted to close their doors to newcomers. This charge compelled Matty to go back to his old town to get Kira to her father before the the closing. At this point, the Forest was not kind as well. In fact, it seemed to live to torture and kill those in its path, even fierce Matty. That said, Matty and Kira's journey back to Christopher became hell-like. In the mean time, Leader (with powers to see beyond) kept Christopher updated in his children's (Christopher had considered Matty his son) travel. When Leader saw that Matty and Kira was at death's door, he went after them. Kira with powers to depict what's ahead through her threading saw that Leader was on his way to meet them. But Leader too was at death's door. It became apparent that it was time to use Matty's power though he felt it wouldn't do much considering his condition. Then, ... you'll have to read the rest!

The whole trilogy was dark and dreary for most of it's story. It was painful to read but we find hope in the courage of it's amazing characters. We were reminded that a society can slowly and easily be corrupt. We are challenged to look around about us and know that individually we have power to help it to thrive well. We are all advocates to maintaining a civil society and securing that for our posterity. We are invited to discover and use our individual power for good. These are some of the things that I got out of these books.(less)

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Dec 10, 2012 Emilio rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: school-library-books, favorites, series

I am speechless. This book has literally blown my mind away. This is the third book written by Lois Lowry, after "The Giver" and "Gathering Blue". If you were dissatisfied with the end of The Giver, I highly recommend this book, as you'll realize what has truly happened to Jonas and Gabe.

The "Messenger" focuses on Matty, a character who briefly appeared in "Gathering Blue". We can see that everything is doing fine in the village he is currently living, but something ominous is approaching. Is n...more

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 04, 2009 Jillian McAdams rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: all-time-faves, dystopian

A book loosely related to The Giver and Gathering Blue, both of which I highly recommend. Unlike the Utopian societies in The Giver and Gathering Blue, Messenger deals with the outcasts of society. Through the main character Matty, the reader learns to embrace our unique gifts. Lowry does an amazing job of painting the three societies and connecting them all in the smallest ways.

Series:

The Giver
Gathering Blue
Messenger

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Nov 20, 2008 Caroline rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, read-in-2008, dystopia, post-apocalyptic

I'm a bit torn on this. I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the two previous novels in this "series," but it had such a powerful ending and the extreme geek in me was so excited that it united all three of the books together in such a good way... It's just hard for me.

Matty didn't appeal to me as much as Jonas or Kira had in the previous novels, and while his struggles were interesting I felt it focused entirely too much on the journey through the forest while I was really wanting to know more ab...more

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Nov 08, 2007 Suzanne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of The Giver

Shelves: youngadult-fiction, audio-books

The third (and final?) installment of The Giver books. The Giver was more uptopic/dystopic worlds, Gathering Blue had a Sci-Fi feel, and this one was more fantastical. I enjoyed it very much.

One complaint: if I met the reader on the street (I audio booked it) I would say, "Hey guy, SLOW DOWN! St. Elsewhere has been cancelled; what are your rushing off to?"

Addendum: The more I thought about this book since completing it, the more annoyed I became. It just ends so abruptly. What happened? I know w...more

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Mar 09, 2009 Peachy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopic-fiction, young-adult, allegory, inspirational, fantasy

Messenger is the last in the trilogy that commenced with the ever popular The Giver, and which then was followed by Gathering Blue. Unfortunately the first two novels proved to be difficult acts to follow successfully, in my opinion. This story seemed somewhat contrived, haphazard and written with less creative flow. I was left with a lot of unanswered questions by the end, and felt slightly ripped off and let down. Ultimately I feel the story had the potential to be so much more. Ah, well, I wo...more

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Jun 08, 2008 Phoebe added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantastic-kiddy-lit

This is clearly the weakest link in Lowry's loose trilogy of speculative YA novels. There's an air of unaccountable mysticism about--we receive no explanation for the Gifts of the main characters, the nature of the sinister Trade Market, or what, precisely, is going on in the Forest that leads our hero to eventually martyr himself. It's that ultimate sacrifice that leaves me mostly unsatisfied with the novel; if the Forest is an illusion, it's unnecessary for Matty to sacrifice himself, and the...more

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Jun 08, 2008 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kidlit

Arrrrrgh! (In the best way...)

I was 15 pages from the end and said to my husband, "I don't see how this is going to end!"

So when I get to the end, I moaned, and he asked whether it was a bad ending, to which I replied, "Really good--but bad."

And that is all I can tell you. This is one you really must read if you have not. I think I might even read it again to really "get" it.

If you can, start with The Giver and go right through to Gathering Blue and then Messenger. I have not enjoyed a related...more

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Aug 12, 2007 Shaylece rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone

This book is the third and final in the trilogoy of the future written by Lois Lowry. This is the book that ties The Giver and Gathering Blue together. This is where the two stories of self realization come together and connect with each other to form one more lesson of learning who you are and how you are supposed to use your own unique gifts. I have read this book more than once also, and I love it every time. Just like The Giver and a couple parts of Gathering Blue though, it made me cry a li...more

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Jun 27, 2007 Lara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This sequel is set in the same fictional-but-strangely-like-our-own world as The Giver and Gathering Blue. In it, in another lively and exciting story, Lowry continues to examine ideals and problems of socialism. She also brings in a heated immigration debate. I've really enjoyed the whole group of these books.

However, the very end of this one made me mad. I don't know what I expected, and I probably wouldn't have minded it, actually, except that she chose to include some hints earlier in the bo...more

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Feb 08, 2009 Katrina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This one is way up there with The Giver for me! So much potential for classroom discussion, writing activities, etc.--yes, the English teacher in me comes out sometimes. It can be understood on a few different levels, which is something I love in a book. And the allusion to and symbolism of Christ are powerful. I told Kirk if he doesn't read another novel all the way through in the next 5 years, he should read this one. (He and I read The Giver together during the beginning of our marriage and b...more

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Oct 05, 2008 Sella Thorne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 09, 2011 Cici rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The 3rd book of the Giver, but I am thinking they're all companion books and stand alone books, even though they're linked.

I'm thrilled Matt is the main character in this book, he did become a favorite of mine in the last one. And I already got a glimpse of Jonas and Gabe! YAY!

Finished! You definetly have to read this book if you've read the others to find out what happens to the characters. This was a good but also sad, nearing the end.

I really enjoy Lois Lowrys writing and can't wait to get my...more

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Aug 17, 2007 Ngoc rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Mario

Shelves: childrens-youngadult, favorites

I LOVED The Messenger! Now I finally understand how it is a companion novel to The Giver and Gathering Blue. It is just fantansic how Lois Lowry separates the three villages, showing how the flaws of Jonas and Kira's towns had flaws which can tear people apart and in Village where people are drawn together, caring for one another in community. What happens when selfishness, jealousy, vanity, greed, pretty much the seven deadly sins come into play: The Messenger is heart-wrenching and the ending...more

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May 22, 2009 Tracey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Messenger is the last of the trilogy and I loved it. I was quickly sucked into another place and time in the trilogy. My curiosity for what troubled them kept me interested. Lowry's ending, like the other two, took me by surprise where I expected a cliché ending to tie all of the loose ends for a "happily-ever-after" finish. Instead, the ending was perfect and it touched me. I think the first book in the series, The Giver, was my favorite, but the other two are still amazing. I highly recommend...more

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Mar 10, 2009 Preeti rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, utopia-dystopia

Maybe even 6 stars! You have to read The Giver, then Gathering Blue, before you even attempt to pick up this book. You could almost call it a trilogy, though I wouldn't. This last book basically ties the first two together in a simple, but amazing way.

It's an easy read, since it's written for Grades 6 and up. But trust me, a lot of times these YA (young adult) books are astounding, and carry great messages, even while being simple and easy to read.

As with the earlier two books, this one expands...more

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Feb 11, 2009 Ruhama rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: juvenile

Matty has gone to live with Kira’s father in Village—the all accepting, peace loving and healing place that is on the other side of the forest. Here everyone gets a new name when they are of age, and Matty hopes for “Messenger” when his time comes. He’s always been
good at going through the Forest, which is often inhospitable (adding a bit of a fantasy element to the story). But something is happening in Village, and Matty must go back to his home “town” and get Kira and bring her back to live wi...more

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Jan 24, 2009 GirlwiththeBraids rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Matty, six years after leaving his life of mischief and stealing, was living with the blind man in Village, a town where the handicapped and misfits have a place to stay. Matty had grown to be a fine young man, found love with the schoolteacher’s daughter, and was a devout messenger. When the town decided that no more wanderers would be allowed to live in Village, Leader sent Matty on a journey. To deliver the messages that Leader gave him and to get to the blind man’s daughter, Matty had to wal...more

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Dec 05, 2008 Denise rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book. I especially loved how it pieced together the previous two and gave away their endings. Matt was a fabulous character. It really made me take a second look at my life and what I was trading for worldly things.

Lines I loved:

Teasing’s part of the fun that comes before kissing.

He knew that there were communities everywhere, sprinkled across the vast landscape of the known world, in which people suffered. Not always from beatings and hunger, the way he had. But from ignorance. F...more

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May 19, 2013 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 18, 2013 Samantha rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have mixed feelings about Messenger. I love books that leave plenty of room for interpretation, but there is a difference between open-ended and vague. There are a few points of Messenger that I think could benefit from a little additional clarification, particularly with regard to Trading--what the citizens of Village traded in, the powers that allowed Trademaster to alter physical appearances, and what Trademaster stood to gain from these shady dealings, for instance. I wanted to know more a...more I have mixed feelings about Messenger. I love books that leave plenty of room for interpretation, but there is a difference between open-ended and vague. There are a few points of Messenger that I think could benefit from a little additional clarification, particularly with regard to Trading--what the citizens of Village traded in, the powers that allowed Trademaster to alter physical appearances, and what Trademaster stood to gain from these shady dealings, for instance. I wanted to know more about what went wrong in Village.

While it might seem contradictory, I didn't love the inclusion of Jonas among the cast of characters in Messenger. The Giver was a perfectly executed story, with enough detail to fully immerse the reader in Jonas's dystopian society. There was no vagueness present in The Giver, yet the open-ended final chapter allowed the reader to draw his or her own conclusions as to whether Jonas and Gabriel survived to make it to Elsewhere, or whether the village they sledded into was merely a peaceful passing into death when they could travel no further. This sequel takes The Giver's thought-provoking ending and spoonfeeds the answer.

I also found it a little unbelievable that the two societies portrayed in The Giver and Messenger could realistically exist within relative close proximity to one another. In The Giver there exists technology, airplanes, organized agriculture, and something resembling modern Western medicine. In Messenger (and likewise in the second book of the quartet, Gathering Blue), the society portrayed resembles a more rudimentary hunter-gatherer type of setup. Perhaps it speaks to the truly isolated nature of the settlements in question, but it feels unrealistic that two such drastically different places could exist at the same time and in the same general area.

Messenger is a story with some very important messages about immigration, helping those in need, community service, self-sacrifice, and the corruption of greed, but I found it to be paradoxically too vague and too conclusive all at once. (less)

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Apr 22, 2013 Carolina rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't know what book to read so I just chose a random one. I didn't know what it was about but, The title and the front cover of the book caught my eye. As I started reading the book it was very boring and took a while to get into the book. I would think this book is for younger people then myself. The Book "Messenger" written by Lois Lowry is about The main Character Matty was once a young troublemaker from a broken home. After arriving at Village, the community cared for Matty. The village...more

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Apr 20, 2013 Amy Snyder rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is the companion book to The Giver and Gathering Blue. I did not like Gathering Blue nearly as much as I did The Giver, primarily because I did not like the characters as much. Kira was okay, but I did not see her as the strong character I wanted her to be, and I did not like Matty very much at all, though I did love his dog, Branch. This book has Matty as our lead character. he now lives in a community that accepts people from all differnt villages, ones from where Matty came, where the pe...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Francis Gahren rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recap of the Trilogy

THE GIVER At the age of twelve, Jonas, a young boy from a seemingly utopian, futuristic world, is singled out to receive special training from The Giver, who alone holds the memories of the true joys and pain of life.

GATHERING BLUE In this speculation on the nature of the future of human society, life in Kira's community is nasty, brutish, and, for the ill or disabled, short.

MESSENGER In this novel that unites characters from "The Giver" and "Gathering Blue," Matty, a young...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Alaisse Amehana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

DA: http://labellaeilcavaliere.blogspot.i...

Ho appena finito di leggere questo libro e sono ancora attonita. Prima di tutto per il finale che non mi aspettavo assolutamente, e in secondo luogo per la rapidità con cui l’ho letto. Complice la brevità del romanzo ho impiegato meno di un giorno per finirlo e uscirne così presto mi ha un po’ scombussolata.

Ricordo che si tratta del terzo libro della serie iniziata con The Giver, perciò la trama è a rischio spoiler!

Sono passati alcuni anni dalla fine...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Baylee rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: distopici

Leggi la recensione su Lovely Dreams!

Questa serie continua a non appassionarmi particolarmente.
Ho trovato questo terzo volume allo stesso livello del secondo, La rivincita. Gathering blue. Cioè, con qualche elemento buono, ma nel complesso poco convincente.
Qui ritroviamo Jonas, Kira, Christopher e Matt (diventato Matty).
Jonas è diventato il Capo di una comunità fondata sull'uguaglianza e sull'aiuto reciproco. Ma qualcosa sta incrinando l'equilibrio e la solidarietà degli abitanti del Villaggio....more

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About Lois Lowry

Taken from Lowry's website:
"I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always...more Taken from Lowry's website:
"I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always seemed to have their heads under the raised hood of a car. That left me in-between, and exactly where I wanted most to be: on my own. I was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own vivid imagination.

Because my father was a career military officer - an Army dentist - I lived all over the world. I was born in Hawaii, moved from there to New York, spent the years of World War II in my mother’s hometown: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Tokyo when I was eleven. High school was back in New York City, but by the time I went to college (Brown University in Rhode Island), my family was living in Washington, D.C.

I married young. I had just turned nineteen - just finished my sophomore year in college - when I married a Naval officer and continued the odyssey that military life requires. California. Connecticut (a daughter born there). Florida (a son). South Carolina. Finally Cambridge, Massachusetts, when my husband left the service and entered Harvard Law School (another daughter; another son) and then to Maine - by now with four children under the age of five in tow. My children grew up in Maine. So did I. I returned to college at the University of Southern Maine, got my degree, went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally, the thing I had dreamed of doing since those childhood years when I had endlessly scribbled stories and poems in notebooks.

After my marriage ended in 1977, when I was forty, I settled into the life I have lived ever since. Today I am back in Cambridge, Massachusetts, living and writing in a house dominated by a very shaggy Tibetan Terrier named Bandit. For a change of scenery Martin and I spend time in Maine, where we have an old (it was built in 1768!) farmhouse on top of a hill. In Maine I garden, feed birds, entertain friends, and read...

My books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. A Summer to Die, my first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family. Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells the same story: that of the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.

The Giver - and Gathering Blue, and the newest in the trilogy: Messenger - take place against the background of very different cultures and times. Though all three are broader in scope than my earlier books, they nonetheless speak to the same concern: the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment.

My older son was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. His death in the cockpit of a warplane tore away a piece of my world. But it left me, too, with a wish to honor him by joining the many others trying to find a way to end conflict on this very fragile earth.
I am a grandmother now. For my own grandchildren - and for all those of their generation - I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another."(less)

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Quotes from Messenger

“Teasing's part of the fun that comes before kissing” — 102 people liked it

“He wept, and it felt as if the tears were cleansing him, as if his body needed to empty itself.” — 96 people liked it

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Messenger (The Giver Quartet #3)

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