The Best Moments In Reading Are When You Come Across Something- A Thought, A Feeling, A Way At Looking At Things- Which You Had Thought Special And Particular To You. And Now, Here It Is, Set Down By Someone Else, A Person You Have Never Met, Someone Who Is Even Long Dead. And It Is As If A Hand Has Come Out, And Taken Yours.

Alan Bennett

The History Boys

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

The Giver

Title: The Giver
Author: Lois Lowry
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: 1993
Genre: YA, dystopian, science fiction.
Length: 179 pages
Where you can get yours: Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, and Waterstones.
Back cover: 
Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community.
When Jonas turns twelve he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now it's time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back. 

This book was one of the most brutally honest Dystopian novels I have ever read. It was fascinating and somehow a realistic caution like most dystopian novels are. However what what was memorable and what made it stand out from the other Dystopian books was that the truth was hidden so well, that only a single person actually knew the truth about the world he was living in. In other dystopian books the imperfections are clear (I am looking at you Suzanne Collins), but it seems like no one can do anything until a brave heroine/hero saves her/his people and changes the community to the better(still looking at you Suzanne Collins). The giver is about a world were there is no hunger, no pain, no fear. There is only one person who has to keep and take care of these often very painful memories, he is the only one who knows about these problems. There however is a problem. The giver also keeps all the "un-efficient" memories of real emotions, of happiness... of freedom. Also people are assigned what they are allowed to be like, and what they are allowed to think, which is crazy. Their jobs, their husband/wife, even their kids are assigned like objects, and no one even considers it wrong. It is not until a boy called Jonas becomes the giver that he sees the flaws in his community and world, and he knows he must do something, except that no one believes or listens to him since they are all lost in their own fake world full of fake ideas. It is fascinating (at least for me)how someone can consider something like feelings and emotions to be so useless. 
 
I highly recommed this as it is an amazing dystopian classic, and I will also look onto the other books in the series in which I believe there are three more.

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