The Giver (The Giver, #1) in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Jan 11, 2009 CrystalIsReading on StoryGraph rated it liked it

Shelves: audio, young-adult, dystopian

I know this is a modern classic, beloved by friends, and a dystopian, one of my favorite genres. Also, it was on audio book when I needed one to listen to. Perfect, right? Sort of.
In the beginning, this book blew me away. I was drawn into Jonah's life, and the descriptions of the community. In some ways, Jonah's world was appealing. The comfort of peaceful lives and certainty that you live where and do what is right. No doubts or worries. Then, as the story developed, there was growing horror a I know this is a modern classic, beloved by friends, and a dystopian, one of my favorite genres. Also, it was on audio book when I needed one to listen to. Perfect, right? Sort of.
In the beginning, this book blew me away. I was drawn into Jonah's life, and the descriptions of the community. In some ways, Jonah's world was appealing. The comfort of peaceful lives and certainty that you live where and do what is right. No doubts or worries. Then, as the story developed, there was growing horror at what was developing. I figured out most of the twists before they were actually revealed, but they were still disturbing to imagine.
The audio narrator had a voice that could be annoying sometimes, but he was certainly expressive and knew how to differentiate between characters, so I could easily follow who was speaking.
For me, the biggest flaw was what Rae Carson calls a "world-building fail". I am not sure that it was a fail, in the sense that Lowry's world was inconsistent within itself as that, unless read as a total fantasy, in another world, where the same laws of science don't apply, there were just too many holes in the story. Too many times where I was distracted from the events of the story by that nagging question, "But how could that happen?" I'm all about dystopian writing. I read a lot of YA and children's literature. That wasn't the problem. It was just that much of the developments and secrets of the world (view spoiler) didn't make sense to me, even with my limited knowledge and understanding of basic science. I just didn't see how they were possible, and that was very distracting for me. (So was the method of the Giver's transmission of memories to Jonas, but maybe that's just my own personal issues: an older adult non-family member telling an adolescent boy to remove his clothes, lay down, and be touched just creeped me out incessantly, no matter how much I liked the Giver otherwise.)
These issues might not be a distraction for the target audience. I don't know. It's certainly seems like a good book for provoking thought and conversation in kids, about freedom of speech and thought, censorship, the right to life vs euthanasia, and the value of art and beauty. It just didn't work as well for me as I'd like, given the distractions. I'm unsure if I'll read the rest of the series or not (although I would like to know how things turn out for Jonas and those he loves). ...more

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