Messenger
Written by Lois Lowry
Originally published in 2004
169 pages
Rate: 8/10
My summary of Messenger
Matty comes from a family that never really knew how to take care of each other. So after discovering a secret village, he decides to stay and live with one of his friend's parents. In this new village he learns how to take care of himself and others. This village is not like other places, it's more welcoming and people look out for one another. That is until people become fixated on the trading market. People look different after they make a trade, they start to act differently too. Matty notices the change and seeks help from the Leader and the Seer of the village.
The villagers want to close off entry to everyone because they are concerned about supplies. However, Seer's daughter is in another village and he won't be able to hear from her ever again if this happens. Matty is sent out to deliver the message of the closing village to everyone, however, the forest around them has a mind of its own.
My opinion on Messenger
This is the third book of The Giver series and it tied all of the previous books together. That is why I have it at such a high rating. I absolutely loved how some of the characters from The Giver were in this book, however some of the names weren't explicitly stated. I liked the way The Giver ended, but having the characters be in this was also fun. Also the main character from Gathering Blue was in this as well, and a few other characters from the book.
Plot-wise lot of time was spent on tying in the other two books at the beginning of this book. However at the end of the book there still wasn't a lot of answers. The ending was powerful, similar to the ending of The Giver. However, I would like to read more so I can get some answers about what's going on with the gifts.
Quotes
"He was young but he represented those things. He had never tired to go back, never wanted to. This was his home now, these his people. As he did every afternoon, he stood at the window and watched."
"He knew that there were communities everywhere, sprinkles across the vast landscape of the known world, in which people suffered. Not always from beatings and hunger, the way he had. But from the ignorance. From not knowing. From being kept from knowledge."
"He perceived the young woman behind all those superficial things."
"It was important to him, and he made it important to me: poetry, and language, and how we use it to remind ourselves of how our lives should be lived."
"It was an illusion. It was tangled of fears and deceit and dark struggles for power that had disguised itself and almost destroyed everything. Now it was unfolding, like a flower coming into bloom, radiant with possibility."
More information
Want to read Messenger? Here's a link to Barnes & Noble: Messenger