Recom-Monday-tions – The Giver by Lois Lowry

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”

The Giver is a dystopian novel set in a world where every aspect of every persons life is carefully controlled in order to maintain the peace in the society. Everyone in the society is stripped of their emotions (and anything that could incite and emotional response) and given a family unit and a nice peaceful job. Their lives are peaceful… but utterly dull.

Jonas, our protagonist is chosen to become The Receiver, meaning that he will inherit all of the human race’s collective memories from The Giver. His life becomes a lot more complex as he begins to experience the entire range of human emotions.

For a book set in a society that is so devoid of colour and feeling, this is absolutely a book that is
all about the feels. I think what I like best about it is it’s subtlety. It never hits you over the head with its philosophy. It presents you with it’s information, but it is more left up to the reader to really interpret it. It is also absolutely beautifully written.

The Giver is a series of four books (called The Giver Quartet – why? It should be The Giver Tetralogy! This really annoys me. Does it annoy anyone else?), but I have only read the first book, as with so many series. I believe that although the books are connected, each is a separate story.

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You can find The Giver here:

Goodreads. The Book Depository: my pretty edition (pictured), the regular edition, the boxset. Amazon. Kobo.

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