I chose to read The Giver to prepare for an upcoming performance by my favorite theater company. I’m thrilled that I took the time to experience the book first because there’s a lot to love here.

I’m not usually a fan of Young Adult novels as they tend to shy away from or at best gloss over more difficult situations, but Lowry doesn’t do that here. Being dystopian fiction, Lowry writes about a sterilized future in which everything has been cleansed of its uniqueness to become part of the “Sameness”. We take pills to get rid of any urges we may have. We no longer see color. We follow a strict regime of rules based upon our age group. We have our careers and spouses chosen for us. Households are limited to three children which they are given as long as the children pass certain marks. If they fail, they are “released” just like the elderly and those who fail to keep up to standards. What this means isn’t entirely clear in the beginning, but is something that will tug at you until the end.

In this future, even our memories are filed away with a single member of society who must bear the brunt of all the emotion that goes with it because it is too much for a sterile society to bear which is where our protagonist comes in. Jonas is the new Receiver of Memory and must take on the weight of this new burden, but as reality begins to hit home he realizes that his life has been changed forever.

The Giver isn’t anything new, necessarily. A lot of the same ideas are found in many other dystopian works of fiction and in more detail. However, Lowry writes with a clean, compelling hand that makes this an effortless read with emotional punch and enough detail to make it easily digestible for young audiences.

Worth the read.

4.5 out of 5.0 stars4.5