Messenger

I think Messenger had a promising beginning, and interesting plot, but the ending was kind of...blah...for me. I don't know how to elaborate on that without giving it away, so I'll just leave it at that.

While the plot issues with Gathering Blue weren't resolved in this one, it stood on it's own better as a story. I loved Matty in this, and all the other characters too, like Seer, Leader (who's totally Jonas), Jean, and Kira from Gathering Blue. The themes of immigration and acceptance, of social sickness reflecting in nature were very well done and relevant. I wished there had been a bit more in some areas, but found myself deeply engrossed throughout and read it all in one sitting (it is very short though, so that isn't exactly a bragging point). I'm excited to read Son now, which is considerably longer than Gathering Blue and Messenger, possibly even combined.

Matty has gone to live with Kira's father Christopher, known as Seer in Village, even though he is blind.
Matty is the Messenger and he's coming to age where he will receive his given name by Leader. He hopes it will be Messenger.
However, Village is changing and something is happening in Trade Mart. People are changing and want to block anyone new from coming to Village.
Before the changed people in Village build a fence Matty goes to Kira to bring her to live with her father.
This book follows Gathering Blue which was better than The Giver and this book, was better than Gathering Blue.

Definitely my least favorite book of the three. I felt Gathering Blue and The Giver had more to offer than The Messenger. Lowry is still a great author and brought the characters together well, however the book didn't capture me as the others did.

beautifully amazing. The fight "village" is having with whether or not to continue to accept outsiders is so similar to many times in life, and now currently.

I think Messenger had a promising beginning, and interesting plot, but the ending was kind of...blah...for me. I don't know how to elaborate on that without giving it away, so I'll just leave it at that.

"Messenger" is the tale of Matty, the wayward village tyke from "Gathering Blue" who is, in fact, the person who "gathers the blue" and takes it to Kira. He does this by finding his way through the forest, to…another place, another village, which has a couple of VERY interesting residents, and I dare not expound on this too much for fear of giving secrets away which you should uncover for yourself. I will note that this is a far better place for Matty than his previous home, even if he does have to stay clean (most of the time, anyway.) He remembers fondly his friend Kira though, and her strange talent for weaving, and when he discovers that he has a peculiar talent too, he's off on a journey of his own, perhaps to reunite a family. Or perhaps to save his faltering village. Or perhaps there's more at stake than just the Village…

There. Another obscure synopsis. I really don't want to give anything away.

This is the third book in Lois Lowry's "Giver" quartet, and really ties the series thus far together. Again, at fear of giving too much away, I won't go too much in-depth, but I will note that, at least to this point, this is my favorite of the series. That might change as I tear into "Son", the fourth book, but "Messenger" definitely left me in tears.

Dig it. Five stars.

Definitely my least favorite book of the three. I felt Gathering Blue and The Giver had more to offer than The Messenger. Lowry is still a great author and brought the characters together well, however the book didn't capture me as the others did.

Not as good as the first or second... this is so short, and so allegorical, it reads like an outline, rather than a completed book.

The part with the gaming machine was pretty bizarre- how would it create those special candies? I understand Mattie's gift and what became of it, but I wasn't happy with the ending. I'm definitely curious about the final book in The Giver Series.

Setting: 2/5

In Gathering Blue there were two villages that were separated via a forest. The main character lived in a village where the hurt, the deformed and the handicapped were seen as invaluable and were typically left to die in the field. The village discovered at the end of the tale is comprised of all the deformed and less valued members of that first village and their offspring. Messenger takes place in this same spot of the planet but the focus has shifted to the deformed village. All of a sudden the forest is alive and it's evil, which is never really explained. Honestly, I had a really hard time picturing this village, which wasn't the case with the last book, Gathering Blue. The other thing that has been really bothering me concerning the setting is the fact that in The Giver the setting seemed to take place in a time and place where there was technology and I couldn't help but picture it as a time similar to our own. Then Gathering Blue comes along and all of a sudden it's like their in the middle ages with no technology whatsoever. I just assumed that this must be the location Jonas went on to discover. His cameo in Messenger proves that it isn't. I'm just not buying this rapid decline in technology. The setting is really confusing.

Characters: 4/5

I'm very happy that there really weren't too many new characters introduced in this novel. One of the things that had bothered me most about Gathering Blue was the fact that there were no characters from The Giver. That is extremely disappointing when the reason you even bothered to read more was because of the fact that you had enjoyed the characters and story from The Giver. Messenger's cast is comprised of characters from both novels with a focus on Kira's father and Matty. This was especially great as a reader because you are able to see how these characters have evolved and progressed as the series has continued. I really think the characters were the best part of Messenger.

Plot: 2/5

Here is the plot in a nutshell: The deformed village has been letting people hop the border whenever because they all understand how awful things were and have gotten in the original village. Well one day, all of a sudden, the community of the deformed village is completely against this and they want to build a wall to help control their immigration problems. (Sound familiar?) The reason they are so against this is because during their weekly trades some people have begun selling their souls to fix themselves. (Wall street anyone?) Nature has an agenda too and the forest is getting ticked off at the whole thing and has decided it will just kill anyone who decides to venture in. Matty needs to get Kira because after she discovered that her father lived in the deformed village she realized that she needed to help fix the old village, but she promised she would come back someday. Obviously her time is running out and she needs to be warned which takes place in the last ten percent of the novel. The resolution is rushed and feels a tad unfinished since none of this strange sudden paranormalness is ever even explained.

Writing: 3/5

This was not Lowry's best work. There seemed to be serious issues with pacing. I think it took way too long to establish much of anything in way of plot and setting. The main conflict doesn't even seem to come into the picture until the end of the book and then everything just ends. Basically about 90 percent of the book reminded me of that chapter in The Grapes of Wrath where the turtle is crossing the road. I still think Lowry has proved herself as a good writer via The Giver, this just isn't up to par for me.

So so sad. Reminiscent of the multitudes of young people who give their lives, their true selves, to the fight for freedom and good. Immensely satisfying third book in this quarter, the pieces all flowing together.

a disapointing end to a trilogy that i didn't even realize was a trilogy. the first two are fine as stand alones.

When I read Gathering Blue, I couldn't figure out why it was part of the Giver series because the two worlds seemed vastly different. Messenger brings the characters from both books together and now it all makes sense. The series ending was disappointing. I was hoping for a more solid conclusion, but I understand why the author handled things in the manner she did.

I read a lot of the reviews for this book before finishing, so I expected an abrupt ending. But after reading it, I felt like the author gave ample preparation for what was to come. I do feel like the last few pages had a different pace than the rest of the book, so maybe that's where this frustration is coming from. But I didn't have any problem with it. I'm assuming the next book in the series, "Son", will be able to fill in my curiosity about how Village is doing after the change.

When I started reading this book, I hadn't realized that this was the third book in a series. But it is a compelling stand-alone book, which never left the reader feeling confused or out of the loop. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series.

Good edition to The Giver series. I enjoyed reading about Matty's story and what he does for everyone. I'm interested to see what happens in the last book.

Lowry ties together the stories in The Giver and Gathering Blue, giving us more insight into this world she has created and teaching the reader more important lessons.

A beautiful, sad tale about how we fight and overcome ugliness in the world. Lowry ties threads from both The Giver and Gathering Blue, so you'll want to have read them both before you start this one.

Back to world of Gathering Blue. A little sadder, a little more bittersweet, but I was really happy to see these characters again. Mattie's story in the post-apocalyptic villages.

This addition to the Giver series felt more heavy-handed and preachy than the other two; I felt uncomfortable rather than intrigued or entranced while reading it.

The third book in Lowry's Giver quartet continues the story from Gathering Blue and starts to add in elements from The Giver. As in all of these books, Lowry leaves a lot to the individual reader's imagination. I like this - especially in a YA novel. By leaving a lot unsaid, the reader thinks a little more deeply and is forced to do some analyzing in order to really appreciate the book.I'm looking forward to reading the last in the series.

I love this series so much! There is so much to think about. I've been reading these with my son.

It's been so long since I read Gathering Blue that I'm coming to this book with a tabula rasa.I really enjoyed the interactions of Matty and Seer, and could identify with his level of comfort and familiarity in the forest. And then the ending came, and it was much too soon, and not at all what I expected or wanted. How could that happen to the main protagonist? No fair.

This one has a sad ending that doesn't completely resolve questions, but the story is still interesting and I'm looking forward to the next book.

There are some genuine problems with Messenger. Chief among them is Lowry's decision to sell out the open ending of her series' first book (The Giver) and, even more bizarre, to cut the lingering questions of the second (Gathering Blue) off at the knees. What was symbolic before is frustratingly literal now, and in a really trippy move, the characters we've followed up to this point have gone from having slightly exaggerated natural talents to actual magical abilities. Remember Jonas in The Giver and how he could "see beyond"? Meaning, of course, that he was more attuned to the world around him, more capable of empathy? Well, now he can literally "see beyond," psychically, with a mental version of Ozma's magic picture. How do ya like them apples? It's all a bit of a shame, because in just over 150 pages, Lowry crams some really interesting ideas into the story. Once again we have a community with something cancerous at its center, but this time it's the community Jonas himself leads, and the cancer is...well, pretty literal. What was meant to be a socialistic haven for outcasts is hit by a wave of selfish, nationalistic behavior - externalized through illict trades with a "Trademaster," which is both pleasingly Faustian and several dozen levels more intriguing than anything in the previous book, Gathering Blue. Unfortunately, just as it seems to be reaching a fever and the reader starts speculating where it's going to go - will we see Jonas himself the creator of a worse society than he escaped as a child? - Lowry abruptly drops the entire plot and never discusses it again. It's bizarre. I've almost never read anything like it. That's far from the only issue. Matty, the protagonist first introduced as Matt in the previous book, doesn't really talk or act anything like he used - but that's forgivable, as he's gone from child to teen. What's less forgivable is that we left his friend Kira in a pretty nasty "closed contract" situation, in the style of a Twilight Zone episode with a bleak twist - and now, here she is in this book, having not only solved her problems but somehow changed her entire community to erase any threat left over from that book. Since nothing was really resolved in Gathering Blue, this feels like a massive "I don't care!" from the author, and we can only wonder if she had a tight deadline, a contract to finish, a large paycheck, or all three in symphony. Seriously, there has never been a book in a single-author series that more poorly resolves another.These issues, combined with a misjudged attempt to "outdo" The Giver's famous ending, leave Messenger a real mess. That's too bad because, as I said, it's certainly not boring. Lowry has one more chance - in the extra-long Son to tie this all together and have it all make some kind of sense. I sincerely hope that's what happens, but I certainly don't have to "see beyond" to know not to expect anything of the kind.

I liked that she pulled together the characters from the previous books, but she also left too much unexplained about the gifts and the bad things that were happening to the people of village along with a preachy storyline about materialism and immigration.

This book starts out more hopeful than Gathering Blue, and that outlook was enough to suck me into the story. Matty, the tyke from the second book, is back and is one syllable older. He lives in a new village with Kira's father, Seer. Their village takes in those who escape other communities and need a place to feel welcome. But even this village can't stay perfect: people begin trading parts of their inner selves for petty or materialistic things, which makes the community very inhospitable. The citizens vote to close off the village to any more newcomers, but Matty and Seer know that Kira needs to come soon if she is going to live with them like she promised. Matty, who is on a quest to become Messenger, travels to lead Kira back, but the forest, like the community, has become very angry towards others. There is only one way Matty can help the community and those he loves within it.

This is the third of a quartet of stories that start with the Giver. From other reviews, it sounds like this series started as a trilogy and the author threw in a fourth to tie everything together. In the Giver we met Jonas and his sterilized community where people really didn’t have feelings and didn’t really experience loss. That is also where we met Gabe. Then we met Kira and Matty in Gathering Blue where everything needed to be perfect. People who had something wrong with them were sent to the fields where the ‘beasts’ killed them. We saw levels of society. We find out that Kira is destined to be the weaver of stories into the gown. Now we meet Matty again six years later and he lives in Village of the Broken, the place where the castoffs have gone to live a peaceful existence, where everyone is kind to each other and helpful. We also meet Kira’s Dad who she was told was killed on a hunt by a beast in Gathering Blue but is alive and blind.
Things begin to change in Village. At the Trade Mart, people trade material things for newer items but soon people are going to Trade Mart carrying nothing in but coming out changed, and not for the better. Greed, selfishness, ridicule is starting to creep into Village changing Village to an unpleasant place to live. Soon some of the residence want to put up a wall around Village and not let anyone else in. So Matty sets off to retrieve Kira even though he knows Forest is changing and not for the better.
This book is a good lesson on greed, how people can change, become more selfish when they sell their souls. When I read Gathering Blue, I wasn’t quite sure how it even related to The Giver. The Messenger has now tied them together a little bit more as Jonas is now Leader in Village and his sled is in a museum. I listened to the audio version of this book and I found myself being pulled into the story. I found myself sitting in my car wanting to hear more even though I should go inside. I do want to know more about Trade Mart and where the Trade Master came from. Was he a resident or did he visit the village. How did he switch from trading for material items to people’s souls and what did he need them for? Was he the devil? How did Jonas become Leader in such a short time? Why did Forest become so angry? I think there are some metaphors here. What does Forest represent? What does Trade Master Represent? What about the gifts that Kira, Jonas and Matty have? I’m really enjoying this quartet and can’t wait to see how Son ties all three of them together and hopefully wraps things up.

This is the third book in the "Giver" trilogy. This book takes the first took books and finally brings them together. At the beginning of the book it appears Lowry doesn't want you to fully understand that we are dealing with the characters from the first books and then she suddenly opens it up that these are those characters. This story focuses largely on Matt (Matty here) from the 2nd book in the series. This book is my favorite of the three because of how Lowry blends the three characters from the books together. She does so seamlessly. There is no moment in this book that you feel that she is trying to force characters into actions that make no sense, which sometimes happens in a book that is part of a trilogy because the author wants certain characters to end up somewhere together. Lowry is able to make it seem organic that they all meet because of the stories that she has told in the previous volumes.

I admire the social commentary aspect of these books because Lowry is able to tell the reader that as a society we need to care for each other without necessarily beating us over the head with it. She does so in a subtle fashion that makes you almost think it is your idea to want to change the world while reading this book. Lowry often in the series shows us that we have to have our feelings, skills, and desires, but that we should use these things to help other people that we come across. She does all this while creating a fantastical world that one wishes that they could explore. I admire Lowry for creating a book series that can teach young readers that values are important and that each life has an importance regardless of age or ability.

wow. you do really need to read the 4 book series to get the full impact