The giver quartet book oneAvailable nowwww.harpercollins.co.uk
What's it about?Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear of pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. When Jonas turns 12 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 is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.
My review
The Giver was actually first bought to my attention when I saw the trailer for the movie as soon as I saw it was based on a book, I knew I had to read it, even more so when I found out it was being described as the first dystopia book, a genre that I love!
Considering the book was originally published in 1993, because of the setting, it doesn't feel dated at all, I really enjoyed it. Jonas lives in a seemingly perfect world, where everyone gets on and is happy, or so it seems until it occurs to him to look closer and he realises that actually, no one has a choice, there's no colour or feelings to his world, people almost act like robots in the way they are controlled without realising it. I really felt connected to Jonas as we see the world as he first perceives it when the story starts and then as he discovers the hidden depths and what could be, I felt his outrage and dismay at feeling like he couldn't do anything about it but needed to.
While I enjoyed delving into this world, I wish the book had been longer because there was room for more, particularly when Jonas starts his training with The Giver, I'd really have liked to have seen some more of that and had a bit more explanation on how its possible, but a year is passed along in a few chapters, presumably to hurry the book along to its exciting ending.
That aside though, The giver was a gripping read with some great world building, a lead character I'm looking forward to seeing more of as I feel he has a lot more growing to do and its started off a series with promise, thankfully the other three books are out for me to get my hands on as soon as possible so I can find out what Jonas does next.
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I've heard good things about this book and, of course, more people are talking about it now because of the movie. It's on my list. Hopefully I'll get to it this summer. Thanks for sharing.
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