Son

This is the conclusion of The Giver quartet. What a wonderful finish or wrap-up to this story. I really enjoyed the first book, The Giver, and was slightly confused how book two fit with it as there was nothing about The Giver characters in it. Then book three slightly tied the first two books together. But this one brought them all to a great conclusion and also answered several questions. What happened to Jonas, what happened to Gabe, and who was the Trade master. Very beautifully written, this book kept my attention and pulled me into the story. When Claire did her trade with the Trade Master I was yelling at her not to do it. But she needed to in order for the ending to happen. She needed to so that events would fall into place to end Trade Master's evil. This is a wonderful series of books. Great as audio book entertainment in the car.

This book started out stronger than the second and third of the Giver series. As I read the first section, I was amazed at how much it reminded me of The Giver - and not just because it was set in the original community. It seemed to me that Lowry's writing style was different in the second and third books, but was back in stride for Son. The Giver will always be my favorite because it was the first, but I really think Son rivals that book in strength of both writing and story. It could be argued that all four of the books are a little depressing considering the subject matter, but in my opinion the second and third were very dark, and it was hard for me to be swept away by them because they seemed hopeless from the beginning. Son, however, has many obstacles to tackle, but there is hope above it all. I really loved how it wrapped everything up so nicely, and can appreciate the second and third books now for the necessary stepping stones they were to bring everything together for this ending.

These books have been a strange combination of YA dystopian and fairy tale. The last one brings most of the characters together and makes a full circle when Gabe's mother gets her own story and comes looking for him.

I really liked this, but I didn't love it.

The Writing and World-Building

I really liked how this book goes into some more mature themes, like motherhood, apathy, abuse, and depression, but found that in the third part, where it should have climaxed and been at its literary peak, I found it somewhat lacking. There were some characters whose arcs weren't really completed. I did, though, really appreciate the return of the Trademaster, though he did feel rather stereotypical and cliché.

The Characters

Claire: I really loved Claire. She made an excellent protagonist for the majority of the book.

Einar: I seriously freaking love Einar. I only want the best for him! I just want him to be happy and loved! ❤❤❤

Gabe: He was a bit too similar to Matty to really feel like anything special, though I did like him.

Alys and Benedikt: They were so cute!!!

The Trademaster: A little tropey, a little Trumpy...

Conclusion

I liked it enough, and it worked as a suitable conclusion to the Giver, but I was still rather disappointed.

The story of Claire from the same world as Jonas, (The Giver). She was assigned birthmother, but something goes wrong. She's re-assigned and then goes to the fish hatchery. But she has a longing to be with her child.
I don't want to go into detail of what happens, because her journey is the story.
In the end she makes a trade with the Trademaster from Messenger and her son Gabe has a longing to find his mother.
This book is a little more advanced in emotions and relationships that may not be for elementary, but middle school and high school for sure. The word choices are not difficult and the story is woven well.

I love the way everything was tied together and ended well with this series. Sometimes, there's nothing wrong with a happy ending.

What a perfect And beautiful series. I loved them all!

Not my favorite Lois Lowry book. I could have done without the middle third, she took too much time expounding on Claire's time after she washed up. I really enjoyed seeing all the characters from other books together and understanding how the loose ends tie up. Claire's shock at the birds, animals, etc in her new environment is really quite interesting. This book could start discussions many topics including: reproduction outside of natural processes, controlling govts or societies, overcoming evil with love, sacrifice, etc.

3.5 stars

I liked this last installment in Lowry's "The Giver" quartet. I read The Giver over two years ago and it has stuck with me. When I read a fellow reader's review of one of the sequels, it sparked my interest in reading the other three. They were extremely easy to read and left me with a feeling of good-over-evil and a desire to read the next in the series.

I was pleasantly surprised by the layout of this last story, with three sections which addressed three characters that devotees have loved since The Giver was published to accolades in 1993. The sections flowed seamlessly into one another, but were all different stories with different trials and outcomes. It was like reading three novellas to make one large story arc. Brilliant.

Since these are YA books, I appreciate the tidy ending to each story, but feel that real life was addressed through aging, death, and a very real evil present in their lives. This is a very good series with an equally satisfying ending. The only thing lacking is the prospect of another in the series. I expect these books will become classics. It makes me want to go back to the first in the series for a re-read, and what can be better than that?

Highly recommended.

Summary: Claire never really had any plans for her future, but she was still disappointed when she was selected to be a Birth Mother at her Ceremony of Twelves - despite her parents' reassurances, everyone knows Birth Mother is not a particularly prestigious job. But when her first pregnancy goes wrong, and they have to cut the Product out of her, soon she doesn't even have that to hang onto. She's transferred to a new job, but she makes a secret vow that she will one day find her baby - her son. But that path is longer than even she could have realized, because her baby is Gabe, the infant that Jonas took with him when he fled the Community. Claire must leave as well, but how will she find her way in a world that's unlike anything she's ever experienced?Review: The action in this book takes place in three sections - one with Claire in the Community, as she's a young woman, one where she is living in a pre-industrial village and suffering from amnesia regarding her former life, and then the third where she has encountered the Tradesmaster and come to the town where Jonas and Kira and Gabe are now living. So this book echos the three books that came before, in a way, and my opinions about this book tally fairly well with my opinions about those books.Specifically, the first two parts were pretty enjoyable. It was interesting to see another side of the Community other than Jonas's, and although I still have issues with "how things got to be this way", I was able to suspend disbelief enough to just go with the story most of the time. The second part was equally interesting, nice to see Claire grow up and learn to interact with the people around her. However, a lot of this part is taken up by what, in the movie version of this book, would be condensed into a training montage, so I thought that could have been a little quicker.It's the third part where things went awry, much like the third book that I really didn't care for. In theory, I don't mend the melding of sci-fi and fantasy, but so much of this book (and the ones before it) is spent building this dystopian world (or worlds, in the various villages), that all of a sudden you toss in some magic, and some magical realism, and some woo-woo blathering about the human spirit or something, and that's where you lose me. This book, and the series as a whole, would have been so much better if the Trademaster didn't exist. But as is, I enjoyed the first two thirds of the book - they're not perfect, but they're enjoyable - and then I spent the last third rolling my eyes out of my head. 3.5 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: Better than I thought it was going to be (translation: better than Messenger), and fans of The Giver will enjoy it for sure. It needs to be read after The Giver for sure, but would probably be understandable without reading Gathering Blue or Messenger - it'd been years since I'd read them and I'd forgotten most of the details, and I still followed along just fine.

What a perfect ending to the world of the Giver. Lois Lowry ending the book with so much creativty. Nothing in this book was a let down and it was a great way to get the answers that we wanted for so long.

Son brings the reader back to the community of The Giver. This time we hear the story of Claire, a female just a few years older than Jonas. Their lives intersect in unexpected ways and ties the reader to her sad tale. The conclusion to The Giver quartet, though the longest of the series, was not as complete as I had imagined. The moral thread carried through the books was present, but I wish there had been as much detail in the third part, called Beyond, as there had been in the first two sections.
My own wish was that Ms. Lowry had done more explaining about how this world came to be, perhaps more about the gifts given to the main characters. So much was left open to interpretation and my own feeble hopes for characters I came to care about.

We meet Claire, who was selected at 12 to be a birth mother, and at 14 she is getting ready to "produce" her first "product." The stark language and descriptions add to our horror as we journey through the birth, which goes wrong, and Claire's subsequent shunning from the job of birth mother. We journey with her as she grieves for her loss, realizes who she is, and determines to find the child that was literally ripped from her womb. Lovers of Gathering Blue and The Messenger will enjoy the closure of this novel, but fans of The Giver will probably leave wanting something more. Children in Grade 5 and older will be capable of handling the philosophical debates presented, although they might need a trusted adult nearby for the questions about the relationships between mother and child.

Part 1: Loved it. Jonas' "hometown" always fascinated me. Getting to see it from another character's point of view was wonderful.Part 2: You don't notice it at first, but the author's voice changes in part two. Lois goes from short, almost terse, sentences to longer and more poetic imagery. Part 3: I kind of hated it, to be honest. I'm glad there was some closure and ending to the characters but the whole Trademaster plot was way out of left field.

 Claire lived in a community with strict rules and little to no freedom. The community takes pills to get rid of all their emotions, to keep the society 'safe'. Claire is a birth mother, and when something goes wrong when she is in labor, her job is reassigned. Claire, and the other birth mothers, didn't take the pills for their baby's health. Claire is informed that her child is fine, and her new job will be at the fish hatchery. At the fish hatchery, she still does not take her pills. Her emotions come back, and she starts to feel love and worry for her child. After finding his whereabouts, she visits her son, Gabe, at the child care center. She grows more love for her child, and visits him more often. When it is announced that Gabe will be killed (or as the community calls it, to be taken to beyond), she runs to save him. She learns that Jonas, a boy in the community, has stolen him to keep him safe. In attempts to find him, she boards a ship at the dock. During a storm, the ship is wrecked and she washes aboard a strange island. There, she loses her memory. With the help of her friends Alys and Lame Einar, she regains her memory and health, and goes to look for her child. She soon finds Trademaster, and he gives her the option of teleporting her to her child, in exchange for her youth. Disaster strikes soon after that, and her life becomes in danger, and its up to Gabe to save her. I did not enjoy The Son by Lois Lowry. The story followed a pattern for each setting in the story, the community, the island, and the village. The story starts slow and very boring. Nothing much happens and the building tension is almost impossible to identify. Then, a big change in the story happens in 3 sentences. This style made the story impossible to read, enjoy, and was hard to understand. The character development did explain Claire well, with her love and care for others. The other characters were poorly developed and described. Some characters however, were very well detailed, but had no purpose in the story, which confused me in their point in the story. The poor ordering and describing of the characters and plot of the story made me highly dislike the story and it was very confusing.

Intriguing and at times the writing is almost musical. I felt like there were missing pieces between the civilizations that were not explained.All in all a good book.

Fourth book of the Giver quartet. Claire was chosen to be a Birthmother at the Ceremony. She has a son, but in her world, babies live in the Nurturing Center and are assigned to parents as toddlers. When her son disappears with another child, Jonas, Claire also leaves her community to try to find him. A shipwreck leaves her trapped for years in an isolated village, yet Claire never loses her desire to find her son. It may require a sinister deal with the Trademaster to succeed, but the cost may be too high.

An amazing ending to the series. It seemed a bit rushed at the end, but the beginning and middle were captivating!

I was drawn to this book partially because I had really enjoyed "The Giver" in middle school, and because I had a conversation with an employee at The Children's bookstore. "The Giver" having been a Newberry Medal Book was extremely well thought out. As the 4th book in her thought process on the subject, there were "loose ends" for her to tie up. The main themes of the book are the ties and bonds of family. While I think the ties of family and motherly love were prominent themes, frequently I felt Lowry was throwing the concept in the reader's face.While I had really enjoyed the first book of the quartet, "The Giver" I just honestly felt the other three did not live up to Lowry's usual writing standards. While I enjoyed the prose and structure of the book, I feel like this book still fell short of the original. I have to say that I have mixed feelings about the book. Despite my overall discord for the book, I think Lowry's approach to Gabe and Claire are significant. Gabe, fits into Lowry's excellent character description and development. His constant need and desire for building a boat to go in search of himself is intriguing. A little mature for a young teenage boy, but angsty enough to be believable. While he has the constant need to want to be re-connected with his mother, the subject becomes relate-able for young readers. I also liked Claire's character. She is strong and determined to find her son and be a regular presence in his life. I found it a bit odd that after all she went through to find him that she waited another 5 years once she did before even mentioning her story. Her draw and desire and constant search for her son and build a lasting relationship, is something any reader is going to grapple with. I liked how she had the book in three sections, as well. This allowed for the story to continue to develop and build a variety of rising action. For example, once Claire was strong enough to scale the mountain and cliffs to find her son was empowering and served as a good plot driver. The downside is that with three sections, and being the final book of the quartet, there just seemed to be far more unnecessary details. For example, I did not think it was vital to have the trade-master return in the book. I also do not think it was fully necessary to have Kira and Jonas married.

Well, shoot, now how are English teachers going to assign their classes to write the rest of the ending to The Giver if Ms. Lowry answers a ton of the questions herself right in this book? (Heh).Anyway, this is the fourth book in the 'Giver' series. And it pulls together almost everything from the previous three books into the same story. It starts with Claire from the same community/town as Jonas, but who a couple years before Jo was picked as a birth mother. Claire had her child, #36 of that year, but something went wrong and she got reassigned to the Fish Hatchery. The story goes from there, mostly following her journey as she tries to reconnect with her son.It's an amazingly expansive story, and like with the other three stories in the Giver series, it never forgets about the characters or relationships also. We have Claire who with every chapter we find has new layers to her. Gabe who has quite grown up since the last books. Alysis a great supporting character who's quite the helper on Claire's journey. And then there's Einar. He turned into my favorite character in the whole book. Claire meets him once she gets out of the community where she grew up and like her he has many, many layers to him. And even as the book ends I felt like there could be another one just about him. That seems to be how Lowry writes. On the one hand the stories get well concluded while still being wicked open ended.But the part that I like most about this series' books, especially this one, is that it's always fun to try and figure out what these characters are talking about, what something like a fish as big as a boat really refers to. I like thinking of how Lowry's world fits (or doesn't fit) alongside our real world.

Emotions and relationships are major influences in our daily lives. Can you imagine a world where the very things that shape our lives are stripped away? In Lois Lowry’s book "Son", the reader is drawn into this strange new world where words like “love” and “joy” don’t exist. The main character, Claire, draws the reader into the story. It is her dissatisfaction and struggle with the way things are that allows a reader to enter into a world so controlled that not even emotions are allowed to exist. When Claire begins to fight against society’s ideal, the reader feels her struggle. Lowry uses Claire to evoke the very emotions in the reader that she has been prevented from feeling. And when Claire finally escapes into a different world, the reader breathes a sigh of relief; until, they see the cost of what it means to love.Claire begins searching for the son that she was refused to love. But just how far will this mother go to restore a relationship with the son she only got to know in secret; a son who probably doesn’t even remember her. Despite obstacles and many pains, both physical and emotional, Claire continues to search and yearn for the son she never got the chance to know. Eventually her journey brings her face to face with the Tradesmaster. Through Lowry’s descriptions of him the reader almost recoils at the look and smell of the foul man. And although this man is a fictional character, the reader can’t help but sense something familiar about the man who will give you what you truly want… but for a price. This novel explores what it’s really like to love, lose, fight and come face to face with our deepest fears. What lengths will Claire go to in order to reunite with a son she lost years ago, one who has little to no memory of ever having a mother? Is what Claire desires most worth the price she has to pay in order to get it? Just read Lois Lowry’s book, Son, to find out.

*sigh*.

I did not like this book.

Narrated by Bernadette Dunne. Whether it's grave dystopia or an outside community of simple living, Dunne captures the ambience of both worlds and its inhabitants. A satisfying close to the series that began with "The Giver."

I found this concluding book in the Giver Quartet mixedly satisfying, BUT that is possibly because I haven't read the third book. The novel's divided into three parts and I felt like the beginning of each new part dragged.

The Good Stuff Beautiful hopeful ending to a fabulous series Some honest truths and observations about life, love, sacrifice and family After meeting with Lois Lowry and hearing her speech at the Children's Breakfast, I can see her strength and her love for her deceased son throughout the book Claire is a intriguing character, I didn't always understand her actions, but they made sense for her Deals with the all consuming love you have for your children - as a mom this will impact you more Ties all of the books together and you are left with the overwhelming feeling of hope that their world will change for the better - but without it feeling too neat or tidy I still miss Matty - and when he is mentioned I teared up Nice to see Jonas happy Perfect book for class discussions and book clubs-The Not So Good Stuff I suggest reading the first three books before picking this up - otherwise you will be lost (I am glad I read the whole series very close together as it gave it much more of an impact) A little too much detail about Claire's journey down the mountain Favorite Quotes/Passages "She would not let them take that from her, that feeling. If someone in authority noticed the error, if they delivered a supply of pills to her, she thought defiantly, she would pretend. She would cheat. But she would never, under any circumstances, stifle the feelings she had discovered. She would die, Claire realized, before she would give up the love she felt for her son." "You won't ever know what that's like, to love someone, In a way I pity you."4 Dewey'sI picked this up at BEA (Book Expo America) last year and am finally getting to it

I'm struggling with getting my feelings about this on paper. As a child, I loved the Giver. As an adult, I still love the Giver. I feel like it was such an integral part of my growing up, that I can't fully put it into words. I think the reason why it was so important to me was party due to the ambiguous ending, and how it left it up to the reader as to if it was a positive or a negative. That said, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I loved the companion novels, Gathering Blue and Messenger. I will admit, I did see the religious parallels that other reviews have mentioned, and that may have turned me off a bit, but that's my own issue, and it is not overtly done. Well, Matty sacrificing himself at the end of the Messenger for the good of the community was a bit Messiah-esque. Especially considering he died in a crucifixion style pose in the dirt. Gabriel and his angel of God name, vanquishing Evil with compassion. Yeah, I see the allegory. I was excited to see how the stories all matched up in the end, with Gathering Blue seeming the most off topic of the three. I absolutely fell in love with the character Claire. She was lovingly fleshed out in the beginning, and I could easily relate to her - but maybe only because I am an adult; most teens aren't yearning for their children. Returning the story to the original community was a surprise to me- it took me a while to catch on, but it was a throwaway line about the aging ceremonies and how some children were graduating to jackets that buttoned in the front that finally clued me in.
I struggled with how everything was wrapped up so neatly at the end, and that seems to be a theme present in a lot of the reviews I've skimmed. I give this four stars for the reason that it serves as a satisfying conclusion. But the part of Lowry's writing that I enjoy is missing. She answers too many questions. She completes the thoughts for us. The reader has little to ask or wonder in the end. Too tidy. As a writer she allows for the questions to linger. I think that's the power in her writing. But it also felt so much like a long awaited reunion. It is a satisfying closure to a long journey. I will say, that out of all the books, the characters that I wanted to read more about were Einar and Claire. Einar... never have I been so in love with a character. My heart hurts thinking of him and his sheep, missing Claire and living out his lonely little life. I'm happy Claire and Gabe were reunited, but throw a dog a bone, will you?

Perhaps because this book finishes the series, too many details are provided, rather than being left to the reader to interpret. The narrator Bernadette Dunne had a whisper-like tone that I didn't care for. Despite these failings, I enjoyed the book. I will go back to reread The Giver now.

I loved the first 127 pages which explain Claire's life in the community, they had the clarity & starkness that I so loved in The Giver. But I was disappointed by the rest of the book.

Lois Lowry never intended to write a conclusion to 1993’s “The Giver”, but fast forward to 2012 and Lowry, now 75, closes the Giver series with “Son.” Readers who always wanted to know what happened to Jonas and Gabe will feel satisfied with this ending. Readers who were ok with the ambiguous ending of the Giver will enjoy her depiction of other communities as well as exploring human relations, good vs. evil and the powerful bond between a mother and a child. “Son”, is really the story of Claire, a 12 with Jonas, who became a birth mother, and Gabe, the baby who failed to thrive and was scheduled to be sent “away” before Jonas escaped with him at the end of The Giver.

A rather unnecessary conclusion to the Giver. I did really enjoy and maybe even "love" Gathering Blue & Messenger, even though it ruined The Giver's brilliant ambiguous ending. This was a simple, plot-driven story that seemed like a forced "ending" to the other 3, when with both books 1 & 3 the ending was settled and fine as-is. Son fails to provoke thought--I paused briefly at the end to ponder the possible truth of the concept that people who are miserable ("evil") thrive on seeing the pain and hurt they cause and that perhaps to really hurt them you can show them how happy and unaffected you are by their schemes.... but that was the only time I thought at all, save for the making connections to book 1 (plot-wise). I am barely glad I did read it for the sake of saying I did, nothing more.