Book Review: Messenger (The Giver Quartet, #3) by Lois Lowry

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BOOK review

Started on: 20.July.2014
Finished on: 22.July.2014

Messenger (The Giver Quartet, #3) by Lois Lowry

Title : Messenger (The Giver Quartet, #3)
Author : Lois Lowry

Publisher : HMH Books for Young Readers
Pages : 192 pages (e-book)
Year of Publication : 2004

Price : $ 6.34 (www.bookdepository.com/)

Rating: 5/5
*for those who haven't read the first/second book, this review may contain spoiler.
Review for The Giver (The Giver Quartet, #1) here.
Review for Gathering Blue (The Giver Quartet, #2) here. 
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"But now he knew that there were communities everywhere, sprinkled across the vast landscape of the known world, in which people suffered. Not always from beatings and hunger, the way he had. But from ignorance. From not knowing. From being kept from knowledge."

Matt, who's now Matty, came along to live in a community called Village; a place that accepts people with disability and welcomes strangers from different places. From his previous community, Matty went with a blind man named Christopher - Kira's father, whose true name is Seer - to Village, where he's accepted and educated to become a better person. Village has been a rather peaceful and happy place with the guidance of Leader, who came to Village eight years ago with a sled. But it seems the peacefulness of the Village is beginning to change; the people are changing and people wanted the Village to be closed from outsiders. And so Matty needed to do something important before the Village is closed - which required him to go through the dangerous and thickening Forest.

"But somehow the small red-painted sled had become a symbol of courage and hope. Leader was young but he represented those things. He had never tried to go back, never wanted to. This was home now, these his people. As he did every afternoon, he stood at the window and watched. His eyes were a pale, piercing blue."

With the news of Village closing down, the Seer is worried about Kira - who planned to come live in the Village when the time is right. The Seer asked Matty to go to his previous community to persuade Kira and bring her back with him to the Village before it's too late. When Matty consult this matter with Leader, he sensed the Forest is thickening, and it might be a dangerous journey for Matty - even when he already went through the Forest numerous times.

"He had the thing that troubled him - the power, he thought of it - and perhaps there were those who would want it. Maybe he should find a way to trade it away. But the thought made him nervous. He turned his thoughts to other, less worrying things."

Another thing that bothered Matty's mind is a special power that he possess. Just like how the Leader is able to see things beyond, Matty realized he also had a power which he only started to understand. And when Matty finally reunited with his old friend, Kira, he found out that she also had a special gift with her threads. As they went on a journey through the Forest, and Kira with her crippled leg, they are faced with great difficulties and obstacles. Even though Matty knows that his power will be of great help, he remembered Leader's message to not spend the gift - that he have to wait for the true need. For a long time, Matty wanted to receive his true name - he wanted to be called the Messenger. However, that is not who he will truly become.

"He could see, but did not tell the blind man, that now Forest was attacking Matty instead.
And he could see as well that they had not yet approached the worst of it."

"He saw Forest and understood what Seer had meant. It was an illusion. It was a tangled knot of fears and deceits and dark struggles for power that had disguised itself and almost destroyed everything."

image source: here. edited by me.

I absolutely love love love this book! I finally get to see what happened to Jonas (who's now called Leader) and got a glimpse at how the previous communities turned out for the better. Compared to the previous two books in the series, I feel like this one is the most exciting - because of all the thrill and intensity happening in the story. I also love the characters a lot more in this book (because I didn't get to have a favorite character in The Giver and Gathering Blue) ♥♥ And of course, the story is still beautifully written in this book - it's just perfect for me, from beginning to end.

Messenger is set in the time about 7 years after The Giver, and 6 years after Gathering Blue. Written in third person POV, the story begins by introducing Matty's life with the Seer - which is really adorable. Since the story is set in yet another different community, the beginning of the book introduced how the community works and how kind they were before. Then the first-half of the story continues with the conflict about the people of the Village and their intention to close the Village from outsiders. Besides that, there's also Matty's worries about his power; which wasn't described right from the start - so there's some kind of mystery that made me super curious about what Matty could actually do. The story started to get a lot more intense in the second-half of the book, when Matty started his journey through the Forest. Since I grow to love Matty's character, I was constantly worried and scared about what's going to happen to him ㅠㅠ The way the story is told made me anxious and can't wait to reach the end of the book. I won't get into detail about the ending, but even though it's so heartbreaking and sad for me, I think it's a really beautiful way to wrap up the story. It was a really poignant scene, and I was full of feels when I reached the final page :')) Oh, and I also love how this book connected The Giver and Gathering Blue, bringing together both main characters in one whole story.

Since this book displayed another different community than the previous two books, of course there's a difference in how they live. The one thing that interests me - and plays a big part in the story as well - is an event called Trade Mart. During this event, the people who want to trade gathers and went up to the Trademaster to declare what he wanted to trade for, and whispered what he will trade with. In this book, the Trade Mart has become something wicked. People would trade unimaginable things for what they want; which destroyed the peacefulness of the Village.

"Yes,... He has traded his deepest self.... For Stocktender's widow," she said, weeping. "He wanted her to love him, so he traded. He's becoming taller and straighten. The bald spot at the back of his head has grown over with hair, Matty. His birthmark has disappeared."

I think what made me love and enjoy this book the most is the characters. I like Matt's character in Gathering Blue, because he's a sincere friend and also very brave. But in this book he appears much more mature as Matty, and I can feel his deep affection towards the Seer. In one way or another, Matty kind of sees the Seer as the father he never had :') Their interactions are the most adorable thing - because Matty kept forgetting that the Seer is blind, and kept asking him to see things. I laughed so hard at this particular scene when Matty is training his new dog:

"Look! He sits now when I tell him to." Then Matty groaned and said, "Oh, sorry."
When would he ever learn to stop saying "Look" to a man who had no eyes.

Not only do I love Matty and the Seer, I also love seeing Jonas again in this book! He's become such a wise young man, and he finally get to use his gift of seeing beyond. I also love Kira's character better in this book rather than in Gathering Blue. In this book she displayed such a strong characteristic and her gift of threading the future is super amazing. In Gathering Blue, I kind of shipped her with Thomas the Carver, but I guess we have a new candidate for Kira ;) I was most impressed at Kira when she rejected Matty's offer to fix her crippled leg. I think at that point she displayed how tough she is even though she has a disability that made her seem weak. Which is awesomeness.

At this point, I'm already in love with The Giver Quartet as a whole, because everything started coming together as a whole in this book - and I can't wait to see what's going to happen in the last companion book, Son. I love this book; it's heartwarming and heartbreaking in one package. I'm currently reading Son, already about 30% into it, and so far it's amazing. Hopefully the ending to the series won't be disappointing :))

  by.stefaniesugia♥ .