The Giver (The Giver, #1) in 101 Books to Read Before You Die

Jul 12, 2013 Jennifer rated it really liked it

Shelves: children-and-young-readers

Four Stars

I want to preface this review by stating that I would have loved this book as a child. Unfortunately, I was already grown up when Lowry published it and will only ever experience the book as an adult. Interestingly, however, I discovered while reviewing the inside jacket of the book that Lowry did in fact write a book that I owned and read several times as a young girl. After discovering that Lowry wrote A Summer to Die, I was even more excited to read this book.

This book is the story ...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Kressel Housman rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, fiction, young-adult, fantasy, science-fiction, dystopian-fiction

Dystopian youth novels aren’t a particular favorite of mine, but this one was really well done. It’s sort of like Brave New World for the younger set. It’s about an orderly society that offers its inhabitants peace and security, but at terrible costs. Those costs are only revealed very gradually through the novel, and though we understand them because of their contrast to our own reality, the inhabitants of this world are so naïve, they don’t understand what they are missing. Though not as p Dystopian youth novels aren’t a particular favorite of mine, but this one was really well done. It’s sort of like Brave New World for the younger set. It’s about an orderly society that offers its inhabitants peace and security, but at terrible costs. Those costs are only revealed very gradually through the novel, and though we understand them because of their contrast to our own reality, the inhabitants of this world are so naïve, they don’t understand what they are missing. Though not as page-turning as the present day dystopian blockbuster The Hunger Games, it really is masterful storytelling. It’s easy to see why this book was an award-winner.

One of the most intriguing statements in the book is the Giver’s observation that he has plenty of honor, but hardly any power. When the protagonist, Jonas, experiences his own powerlessness, you see what a shabby substitute honor is, which is funny because many more people crave honor than they do power. In contrast, the book depicts motherhood as a “job” that’s important, but has no prestige, so I suppose that’s neither power nor honor. This leads me to conclude that the Elders, the powerful elite, control the people with how honor is bestowed because that way, they control their aspirations. But I’ve said that in the context of our own reality. In schools, where they cannot award money, they give praise to reinforce behaviors they like and shame to punish what they don’t. That’s part of why most of us crave honor so much, though I think schools tend more to ignore people and fail to reward them than they actually shame people outright.

Power, on the other hand, is all about control. Controlling others is an unjust use of power, but control of oneself is legitimate. The Giver wants the power to restore power to others, so that’s legitimate. He sees his opportunity with Jonas. Unfortunately, the book doesn’t really tell you how Jonas succeeded. The last line would have been great as the ending of a chapter, but it was unsatisfying as the ending of a book. Of course, it was meant to make the reader want to read the sequel, and it worked on me. I’m not burning with curiosity like I was with The Hunger Games, but I definitely expect to be reading the next book some time in the future.
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Mar 06, 2012 Alana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-to-film, political, fantasy, in-a-series, classics, dystopian-post-apocalyptic, young-adult, newberry-medal, 1001-children-s-books

This was a re-read after many, many years. I loved this book the first time I read it as a freshman in high school and it's still wonderful now. It would seem more unoriginal, given the slew of young adult post-apocalyptic dystopian novels that have hit the shelves recently, were it not for the fact that it was one of the first I ever read, and I know that it is one of the first ideas of its kind.

Some of its presented questions seem trite and obvious: what if choice were removed and we all accep ...more

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Jun 04, 2019 Kate rated it liked it

I don’t know what I expected when I started reading this book, but it wasn’t this... given all the high ratings and numerous reviews. I didn’t think it was a dystopian book. It was an interesting concept, that of “sameness” and “release”. It’s not a book I will read again.

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Feb 26, 2014 kaotickitten rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio

I have been wanting to read this for awhile. It was worth the wait. If you like dystopia than you should like this.

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Oct 14, 2016 Sue rated it it was amazing

Shelves: childrens, young-adult, fantasy

Jonas is a definitely a character that is eager for change, challenge, a completely new way of seeing the world once he gets a little taste of the things that once were and wants to find out what is out there in the world that he never new about before he accepted his Honor. It is indeed a book worth reading. It show how our uniqueness is beautiful and if we were all the same... everything and everyone pretty boring. The take the author took on this is definitely interesting.

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