Dystopian Novel Countdown: Day 8

Day 8 of the Dystopian Novel Countdown

featuring:

The Giver Trilogy,  by Lois Lowry

The Giver Description (via GoodReads):
In the "ideal" world into which Jonas was born, everybody has sensibly agreed that well-matched married couples will raise exactly two offspring, one boy and one girl. These children's adolescent sexual impulses will be stifled with specially prescribed drugs; at age 12 they will receive an appropriate career assignment, sensibly chosen by the community's Elders.
This is a world in which the old live in group homes and are "released"--to great celebration--at the proper time; the few infants who do not develop according to schedule are also "released," but with no fanfare.

Lowry's development of this civilization is so deft that her readers, like the community's citizens, will be easily seduced by the chimera of this ordered, pain-free society. Until the time that Jonas begins training for his job assignment--the rigorous and prestigious position of Receiver of Memory--he, too, is a complacent model citizen. But as his near-mystical training progresses, and he is weighed down and enriched with society's collective memories of a world as stimulating as it was flawed, Jonas grows increasingly aware of the hypocrisy that rules his world.

With a storyline that hints at Christian allegory and an eerie futuristic setting, this intriguing novel calls to mind John Christopher's Tripods trilogy and Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. Lowry is once again in top form--raising many questions while answering few, and unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers. Ages 12-14.


Lois Lowry Website
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This was a really interesting series.  I really enjoyed The Giver, but I was not too happy with the ambiguous ending.  I really wanted to know exactly what happened with Jonas and Gabe. I was excited to know the series continued with Gathering Blue and Messenger. Gathering Blue and Messenger are from new character point of views, but the stories all intertwine together. If you haven't read this series yet you should! Each novel is small, but packs a punch and they are a great trilogy for day 8 of our Dystopian countdown...