欧宝娱乐

This book was terrible. And stupid.

It pains me to say so, because (as everyone likely knows by now) The Giver is one of my most favorite books of all time. In this book, we get to see Jonas again (and even Gabe, for a moment) so I thought for sure it would tie things together and give me some emotional resolution. And while it was good to see what happened to Jonas (even though he is never called by that name in this book, it's clearly Jonas) there were too many other major flaws for me to enjoy the story.

Major spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk.

First of all, I was more than a little confused to learn that Jonas literally arrived in Village (also, this trend of capitalizing nouns and not putting "the" in front of them--annoying as fuck) on a sled. The sled is now in Museum in Village. (SEE?! Annoying!) Because the ending of The Giver is so open ended, I kind of thought maybe the sled was a metaphor, or a hallucination, or something. Why was there randomly a sled? He literally rode a sled into town? All right. Okay. I'll pretend to buy that. BUT...Jonas is around 20-21 in this story. He has already been named the leader of this new community (his name is now Leader) and apparently has been for some time. Really? A thirteen-year-old shows up one day on a sled, with an infant, and in a few years he's the leader of the community? This is kind of explained by saying that Leader has a gift, the ability to "see beyond." Yes, I've heard that before. Jonas could see colors when the other genetically engineered people in his childhood community could not. But wait--this is not the same "seeing beyond" that we know from before. Adult Jonas can actually see...beyond...what normal people can see. Like, he can stand in his study and focus really hard on the forest and "see" to the other side. But it makes him really tired. Hmmmm. When did he discover/master this particular skill? We never find out.

At one point Matty, the main character in this story, is hanging out with Leader and admiring his many books. Leader says that they arrived one day (when he was about 15) on a river barge--just a bunch of wooden crates filled with books. We are led to understand that these were the books that the Giver had owned, sent down the river to Jonas as a token of forgiveness for leaving them and making them deal with memories and colors. So, what happened in his old community? Is the Giver still there? Did they sort themselves out? Again, we never find out. Jonas has never gone back to his old community, never regained contact with his family, nothing. No juicy tidbits for a Giver fan to hold on to.

Apart from the frustrating lack of information about Jonas, we have a strange subplot involving trading pieces of your soul (or your family's health) for things like slot machines that give you candy. There's this shady fellow called Trademaster who is apparently magical in some way, because he's collecting "the deepest self" of many of the people in Village and trading them for these slot machines. This is making many of the people in Village turn into hostile assholes who are mean to each other, and want to close the borders to prevent additional refugees from coming in. So, you would think that this Trademaster fellow would be the Big Bad of the story. Who is he? What does he want? What on earth is he doing? Guess what? We see him once, and then...we. Never. Find. Out.

Somehow related to this "close the borders" subplot is the fact that Forest (not THE forest, but proper noun Forest) is thickening, decaying, and killing people who try to enter it. Like, Forest is literally attacking people with vines and sharp sticks when they try to pass through. This obviously has something to do with why people in Village are becoming so mean, and also probably with Trademaster, but none of it is ever explained. Zip, zero, zilch, nothing. The book ends with Matty sacrificing himself by using up all of his healing power to "heal" the forest, which then heals the people in Village (by restoring their deepest selves) and Jonas and Kira (oh, she's here too) traipse out of the woods together. That's the end. The main character dies stopping this malevolent evil that is completely unexplained. Where was it coming from? Why is Forest trying to kill everyone? Are the slot machines evil? Who is Trademaster? What exactly were people trading? WHY IS THIS BOOK SO TERRIBLE?!

We never find out.

So, if you're looking for a completely nonsensical and frustrating read, I highly recommend this book. Otherwise, if you've read The Giver and are thinking about continuing the series, I strongly suggest that you do not, because you will be sorely disappointed.

And yes, I'm still going to read Son. Glutton for punishment, I guess.