The One, Kiera Cass

Ok, so very, VERY rarely do trilogies keep getting BETTER as they go. But As you may or may not recall, the first book, The Selection I gave a 3.5 star rating. The second book, The Elite I rated closer to a 4. THIS one? The One...I'm giving in 4.5.

Why? Because I believe the message this book was sending was not about a romance. It wasn't about which boy she was going to choose to love, it became an overwhelming message of "choosing to do the right thing no matter what the consequences of that choice may be." There are SO many times when doing the right thing SHOULD have gotten America kicked out of the palace whether or not the Prince wanted her there. Doing the right thing made her an enemy to the King basically. Finding ways around doing what she was supposed to and still following orders, but by doing the right thing, not by following verbatim.

Another message that I liked was that there are two sides to every story. And behind ever bully is a person who is probably very insecure about something and until you can see them for that vulnerability, and they by chance let you in can you begin to see them as a person rather than mean actions. One character in particular has been horrible the entire time, but when caught in a moment of insecurity releases everything about how she's felt and how she really doesn't LIKE being the mean girl, she just doesn't really know how to react or how else to manipulate circumstances to her advantage. She has such a change of heart from letting this out that she eventually apologizes to EVERYONE she's wronged.

And the final message I was much appreciative us is that America doesn't end up "choosing" one guy over another. She realizes what love really is-and that it's not just physical passion (although there is plenty of wanting going on), and it's not just getting along. It's about finding someone who makes you feel like your authentic self. It's also about letting go of someone you loved once and how it's OK that they will ALWAYS be a part of who you are. A part of your heart will ALWAYS belong to the people you gave it to in the past. I mean, I bet all of us can think back to the first time we thought we were "in love" and even if we don't feel that way about that specific person anymore, there's still a place in your heart for them. And that's ok. It's not betraying your current love. It's just a part of you. And it's about how no relationship is "happily ever after" as the last line of the book says "It's so much more." That you WILL fight. You WILL have disagreements. You WILL have misunderstandings. But you absolutely cannot make rash decisions in the heat of the moment when you are angry. You don't just jump to break up/divorce when you have a spat in the heat of the moment and move on to someone else because of it. You work it out. At the end of the day, the person you absolutely cannot live without, the one you'd take a bullet for, the one you want to be happy more than you want your own happiness is worth a few arguments, disagreements and misunderstandings. They are worth finding out THEIR side to the story. And I liked that message. Especially since you know how I feel about love triangles and how they give that false sense to be a beautiful leading lady, you need to have 2 men vying for you being completely unrealistic. I'm glad that it was spun in such a way that you can realize that people you grew to love romantically can be put in different positions and you CAN grow apart. I also enjoyed the happy ending for everyone. No one was left out or settled. Well, at least as far as main, main characters go.

The other happy ending (although it comes about in a sad way) is that the society is going to change and attitudes are going to shift. The caste system is going to come down, although they're not sure how. Since it's become such a huge part of people's identities, they know it's going to take a lot of time (in my opinion, it's going to take a generational shift over at least 1-2 generations to full eradicate former perceptions), but they're dedicated to do so. And with that, people will inherently gain more freedoms.

But all in all, the thing I was most satisfied with was that first message of doing what is right no matter what the outcome. America Singer puts doing what is right ahead of her own desires, ahead of what would make HER life easier or what would make HER life happier. I think that's a message the YA audience needs to hear. If America was willing to give up EVERYTHING in order to do what she felt in her heart was right, then we too can stand up for what we feel is right. And you don't have to be mean or circumventive or shady in how you do it either. Even when you feel like you are backed into a corner, there is a way out that will keep your integrity intact.

So all in all, along with the fairly non-controversial ending that is 98% happy, I am very satisfied with this trilogy. Fast reading, entertaining and proves great points in this final installation. I also enjoyed the author's style and ability to weave the story get stronger and improve as it went along. I kinda wish the first book had been stronger, but c'est la vive, right? She made up for it in the end.

The Fault in Our Stars, John Green

This was a very touching novel. I used to read books by Lurlene McDaniels. All protagonists grappling with a terminal or potentially terminal illness, usually dying at the end. This was NOTHING like those books. This book was real, it was sarcastic, it was metaphorical, philosophical, and fresh. I actually listened to this book on audio since I could get it faster that way. I'm not always a fan of audio books simply because if you get a bad narrator, you're stuck. And I am a fast reader, so it takes longer to listen. But the narrator for this audio book was absolutely fantastic.

Warnings for future readers (I had these warnings going into it, which did help me and I would want this information as a parent when deciding when my child is mature enough for this book).
There is a sex scene-though not explicit by any stretch of the imagination. There is some swearing-albeit not nearly as much as A Casual Vacancy (which as you may know I could not continue searching for literature doused in explicatives beyond 20 some odd pages).

That said, the characters don't have any strong religious beliefs about post-death existence, so they grapple with the subject philosophically and metaphorically as two very intelligent teens who have had to grow up too fast faced with cancer.

It's always hard to know how to treat people with terminal illness, because everyone doesn't appreciate being treated the same way. However, there was an interview with the author tacked onto the end of the audio book and his sentiment is to treat them as a regular person. This sentiment is shared by Hazel, the protagonist, at a funeral when she hears that the deceased (a peer who was an amputee below the knee due to cancer) was now in heaven and was made whole again and she as a thought something like "As if he wasn't whole before" and how just because he didn't have part of one of his legs did not make him less whole or less of a person. Another scene I remember candidly was that of Hazel being at a mall, I think, and she had lung cancer, so she wears a cannula and drags around an oxygen tank everywhere. In this scene, she is sitting down taking a break and a young girl comes up to her and asks what she's wearing on her face. She tells her it's her cannula that helps her to breathe. The little girl asks to try it, her mother scolds, Hazel says "No, it's ok" and slips it off to fit the little nubbins in the girl who says something like "That tickles!" and then Hazel politely asks for it back because she needs it to breathe. It doesn't help that people will react differently when approached in different ways (how you never know if offering to help someone physically handicapped will be welcomed with a smile or a scathing "I don't NEED help, I am self sufficient!") it does give me courage to at least try to be more candid and "normal" with anyone I come across. That curiosity is not always a bad thing. For me, anyways, asking what something is or what syndrome someone has does not mean I am searching for a box to shove them in a label to apply to their forehead, but a way to relate to their everyday vernacular (or lack thereof) or for me to go home and personally research what goes into the care of such an individual so I can further sympathize or maybe even be able to offer educated help-NOT in the form of advice, but as in, "I know how to do such and such a procedure now, if you want I could give you a break", or I've researched how to monitor someone with Dandy Walker syndrome so that the parents can feel more at ease when going out on a date. Those types of help. One thing I disagreed with was the being 'whole' thing. I don't feel like the sentiment that we'll be made whole after death implies that only certain people were less whole. I believe that we are ALL fractionated. I believe we are ALL broken. That NONE of us are completely "whole". And I don't feel it implies what Hazel feels it implies. But that is based on my belief system and I can respect her reasoning based on her belief system.

One thing is that Hazel is obsessed with finding out what happens to characters in a book she relates to after the main character dies from cancer. I don't think, though, that it's so much that she needs to know about her characters, but her need to know about her OWN life. The characters in HER life story after her life is over. Because she knows she has a finite number of days. She knows she's living on borrowed time and she knows more than we do that her death is inevitable, even though everyone's death is inevitable. She is an only child. She is extremely concerned with her parents welfare after she dies. She doesn't want them to be lost or to divorce because of her death (which, as a adolescent she believes that even though cancer is NOT her fault can't help but feel responsible for sadness caused by her death).

Another thing that is explored is social media and friendship. When a friend dies, Hazel looks on his wall, and she has been a part of this person's daily life for MONTHS and all these people memorialize this person on his wall. People she never met, never heard about, people who never bothered to actually be a part of his actual life but are now suddenly available in death. All these friends who show up when you don't actually need friends anymore. When people we actually care about have their daily life disrupted by illness that take them out of our daily circle of friends, we need to go out of our way to stay in contact. We need to be friends in LIFE. Hazel has exactly one friend in the story who is a "before diagnosis" friend. She is quite superficial, but to her credit, she ALWAYS checks in on a semi-regular basis. In a global community we have no excuse NOT to stay in semi-regular contact with people who matter. Thinking about someone? Wondering how they are doing? Send a quick text. Post to their wall. Send a message. An email. DO something. It's a little "Tuesday's with Morrie" but important nonetheless.

Hazel is fairly convinced that most other cancer survivors are going to out live her. She has friends obsessed with heroism and what it means. They want to DO something, BE something, be REMEMBERED for something. But in fact, sometimes NOT being remembered is being a greater hero because it might mean you've done less harm to the world in general than would happen in pursuit of fame. It was a nice ending thought to ponder upon.

The Elite, Kiera Cass

3.5 stars out of 5

The love triangle is still there, but the political plot is starting to come out more. The king has a dark streak to him, secrets prevail. Does Maxon know about the true history of Illea and the founding king? Or has he been kept in the dark too? Capital punishment-as a public display-still exists. America is NOT ok with this. She has a strong moral compass and does not want to be a part of a country that can't change. An Italian princess admits that the reason they do not want to be allies with Illea is because the country does not allow much personal freedom, but admits they like what they've seen in America and want her to have the crown-because a country can change. But America doubts her ability to make that change.

More attacks take place at the palace while she's there. Things seem increasingly upsetting and out of control with the rebels.

By the end of the book, the Elite, the top 6 is narrowed down to the top 4. Once it gets to 3 of them, the Prince is supposed to choose. He is facing greater pressure to make the decision more quickly and end the Selection process faster. Time is what America has needed, and she's running out of it. She goes back and forth quickly based on what's going on. Typical teenager, so it's only slightly annoying, but realistic to the age. For instance, when Maxon seems to distance himself from her, she's absolutely sure it means that he's changed his mind about her, when it seemed obvious to me that since he knew that he was keeping her, he needed to decide who to eliminate and therefore didn't need to invest as much time in someone he knew was secure. But thinking about how I felt as a teen myself in my memories, I could definitely see how insecure I was and how I could go down the same road of thought as America did.

One of the more mature themes (that gave it a higher rating than the first book) is that of history and who makes history and who decides what is truth-and the importance of the written word. The history of Illea is passed down orally. How easy it is to change something when there is no proof one way or another? A modern example of people questioning history is the Columbus story. Born in 1981, I learned about Columbus as this great explorer with an adventurous spirit. Now, there is a group demanding that kids be taught about what a tyrant he was, the fact that he was a criminal and the monarchy granted him permission to go on his quest largely because they thought there was no way in heck he'd actually succeed. History is one subject that has cold hard facts based on evidence on one side and human perspective on the other. Each World War looks different from each different country's perspective and position. And some deny the cold hard facts entirely. Sometimes I wonder if there is such a thing as complete truth when it comes to history, but one thing is for sure, it is easily manipulated. And part of what will help us to know a majority of truth is to have things written-even if we're not sure we can trust the authors to be authentic. So I guess history also relies on the trait of honesty in the people telling the story. So many different holocaust survivors independent of one another telling a similar story give more authenticity and more credibility. Add to that photographs before Photoshop came into being and things become fact. Unfortunately, the use of photoshop makes me less reliant on photographs, because it's easy to falsify images these days. But I did appreciate the complexity of the dilemma of finding true history and exposing tyrants this second book has.

It appears that one rebel group is looking for specific literature-perhaps Diaries of Gregory Illea where many horrific truths are learned by America as she gets to read one of the diaries. I am anxious to see what information is found and if it can be expounded to the public (or covered up). The other interesting thing is that Illea does not have newspapers or anything in print. They have a once a week broadcast "The Report" where the public is given the information the King feels they need to know. So right now, having a Free Press is also brought to light of its importance. However, if the Free Press is ever controlled (or biased completely) to things, we are in no better situation than not having one at all.....Benghazi anyone? Does anyone really know what happened? Has everything been published concerning it? And what we've heard sounds disturbing at best, but WHY isn't there an uproar or a cry for more and for justice? It's not being reported very much....is this due to bias, unseen control, or something completely different?

The third and final installment comes out on May 6 and I'm hoping to get it from the library fairly quickly so I can figure out where this is going. Sometimes I wonder if America will choose Maxon and the crown because it would give her the opportunity to change the country for better. I felt like at the beginning that she never truly loved Aspen, but was only lustfull of him, but I can admit that perhaps there was more than lust between them by the end of book 2, but that with Maxon she definitely feels chemistry and friendship, but she doesn't know yet if he's being honest with her or if he can be trusted. And with all his required secrets to keep, it's hard to know who he really is and who he is coerced into being at any given time.

The Great Gatsby Film Adaptations Review

When I went to my library, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I found a TV film adaptation of The Great Gatsby on the shelf. Then when I went to place a hold on the Leonardo DiCaprio version, I stumbled upon a 1974 version. So naturally I put a hold on that one and watched it too!

Review #1: 2000 Made for TV Mira Sorvino, Toby Stephens and Paul Rudd, 90 minutes

It was a really great adaptation. It lacked the great music of the time and had a sparse sound track, but the actors were great doppleganger's of my imagination as I had read it. Especially Wolfsheim! The only actor who didn't quite meet my imagination was of Gatsby himself. He seemed a little overdone and didn't quite pull off the "old sport" phrase as easily as I imagined it should have. But then, you COULD have interpreted it as Gatsby using the phrase in a more forced "I made this my catch phrase when I came into this new identity" which I could see and appreciate that. There was only one deviation from the book that was noticeable to me, and that's how he got the Gatsby name. I liked the flashbacks to when he first met Daisy. The accident with Myrtle was quite grotesque and detailed. Overall, I really liked it. Especially the actor who played Tom, he completely embodied everything in his air and countenance that I would have suspected in Tom as well as matching the physique. While it wasn't the most detailed and left out several minor details, Nick and Jordan's relationship was definitely one of the focuses, which I think is important.

Second: 1974 starring Mia Farrow as Daisy and Robert Redford as Gatsby. 143 minutes

LOVED Robert Redford's job of Gatsby. I thought he got the "old sport" just right and the really good balance between debonaire and incredulity of Daisy coming back into his life. I felt Daisy was a bit overdone. I know she seemed really over the top in the book, but the acting just was a bit too much for me. Jordan Baker and Nick's relationship wasn't really explored at all in this adaptation, which is weird because it contained more details from the book which I really liked. However, they also took more liberties with it as well. For instance, there are only supposed to be TWO gunshots heard at the end. In this one, Wilson shoots Gatsby several times before ending his own life. Totally unnecessary. There weren't any flashbacks to when Daisy and Gatsby first met (but there also wasn't a visualization flashback of the accident with Myrtle either). I thought that Tom was a little scrawny for what I imagined, but he definitely had the self absorbed conceited part down. The other thing is that all the guys were always so SWEATY. I mean, I KNOW in the book it talks often about how hot the summer was, but the girls were NEVER sweaty and the guys faces always seemed dripping with moisture. I didn't know how to take it. The music in this one was absolutely great! Although with all the great music of the roaring 20s, they seemed to only really feature one style-the Dixieland Band on the cusp of evolving to jazz. Likewise the soundtrack was better than the TV version. 

Third: 2013 Leonardo DiCaprio, Carrey Mulligan. 143 minutes

I have to say I was disappointed in this film adaptation. Being the LONGESt adaptation I thought for SURE they wouldn't leave ANYTHING out. Yet the Owl man was left out. Other than DiCaprio's remarkably good interpretation as Gatsby, and truly amazing music, and Macguire's VERY convincing role as Nick, I felt that the others interpreted the rolls differently than me. Also, there wasn't nearly as much development in the relationship between Nick and Jordan that I felt was important to the story and Nick's outcome. Oddly enough, if you're all about making the film mirror the literature as much as possible, the made for TV version-probably with the lowest budget-is my favorite version. If you're looking for pure entertainment while keeping MOST of the story's integrity, DiCaprio's is best. The only great thing about Robert Redford's adaptation is Redford himself.

The Selection/The Prince, Kiera Cass

3 out of 5 so far.

This is the Bachelor set in a post-apocalyptic America. After America was taken over by China (because we owed them too much and couldn't pay it back and after we were defeated by the Chinese and they realized we were beyond bankrupt, they became the American State of China and were puppeteered by China), Russia attempted to invade both China's mainland and the American State of China in which Gregory Illea was able to lead to our independence from China once again. Not wanting the tainted name of America, the land was re-Christianed Illea. A monarchy state. The way it works is that any princess born to the royal family would be married to another country for alliance purposes (very old fashioned for such a futuristic time), the Princes when they become of age, have a lottery drawing of 35 young women within a certain age range chosen at random to come to the palace to see if they could become the new princess of Illea.

The society is organized by birthright into castes One-Eight. These castes determine which professions you are allowed to pursue and how much monetary gain you will most likely attain. Ones are royalty (and clergy). Twos are military and celebrities, Threes are the inventors, thinkers, teachers, Fours farmers and business owners, Fives classical musicians, artists, sculptors, Sixes are maids and office clerks, Sevens manual laborers, Eights are orphans who can't verify birth caste, homeless, drug addicts, and physical and mentally handicapped (this detailed explanation is found in the deleted material edited out for one reason or another but found on Kiera Cass's website).

America Singer, our protagonist is a Five. She is an accomplished classical musician who sings beautifully and plays many different instruments with passion. I like this. I can relate-since I am a classical musician myself :-) She's already decided The Selection is bogus and the Prince is shallow, but her mom REALLY wants her to go. For one, every week America is away as part of the Selection, their family gets a check of compensation. That money is badly needed. And for anther, if she can become the Princess, her whole family is elevated to the status of a One. But there's one glitch. She's already in love with someone else.

*sigh* So this book predictable STARTS OUT having a love triangle. I am so OVER love triangles! But if that is the POINT of these stories, then maybe I can handle it. The Prince Novella is basically the beginning of The Selection from Prince Maxon's viewpoint. Much the same what Midnight Sun is to Twilight. Many interesting things are learned from being inside the palace. Like just how everyone has a hunch that the Selection isn't as random as they think? Well, they're right.

But I AM curious to see how things play out. There are two rebel groups against the Royal Family. One that seems to be constantly looking for something (breaking into the palace and ransacking things but never taking anything) and one who just keeps attempting to get in. We (the reader) don't know what either group wants yet. I assume we'll get to know more. But we DO find out that as Maxon cares for America, his eyes are opened to the society outside his walls that he's been sheltered from. Because America's caste is so low, she is aware of everyone even lower. She describes the hunger that drives a boy to steal food-and then be whipped for the crime. Based on that, Maxon creates a new policy for a Food Assistance program for anyone in castes Five, Six, Seven or Eight, where they may go to get at least one complete meal in the evenings. So good things are happening. And I hope MORE good things like this happen because he will become more aware of the "working class."

I have Book 2, The Elite (the top 10 Selected....although there is a slight change to that number at the end of Book 1) on hold at the library and will get it soon. There is another Novella (The Guard....cuz you know it wouldn't be a love triangle if America's Love Interest #1 didn't happen to show up at the Palace right smack dab in the middle of the Selection where she was SO determined NOT to like Prince Maxon but found in getting to know him that maybe he's not so bad after all) so I'm gonna assume it's from HIS point of view, which I'll probably read after The Elite, and the final book in the series is The One, which comes out in May.

Decent writing and likable characters, I just think I'm turned off by the whole Love Triangle thing. I feel like it gives girls false ideals of how their love lives should go. Growing up, I was ecstatic when finally ONE BOY showed romantic interest in me. But because I never seemed to manage to get anyone else (whom I was also attracted to) to be interested in me romantically, I had a false idea that the ONE guy who liked me would be the ONLY guy to EVER like me. So I clung to that. Probably too hard. Luckily I met my husband (who happens to be maybe the THIRD guy to show true interest in me that was more than fleeting). But it still sometimes haunts me, because literature like this (not to mention the other media outlets of tv shows and movies, etc et all), show that beautiful, likable, lovable women are desired and pursued by at LEAST two men at the same time. So OBVIOUSLY if I never found myself in such a predicament where I had to be the one to CHOOSE which guy to be with, something was lacking for me in the beautiful, likable or lovable part of me.

BUT if you look at this book from a strict entertainment value, I stand by my 3 out of 5 rating still. We will see where it goes politically....

Son, Lois Lowry

The final book in The Giver Quartet. I will describe this book in one word:

Beautiful.

I am amazed at my luck finishing this book on Good Friday. The banishment of Evil and the powers of Evil over mankind in this book mirror my Easter beliefs of Christ banishing the effects of Evil forever with the Atonement and Resurrection.

This book DOES bring everything and everyone full circle. I only have one big question that was left unanswered-but it was about the Community in which Jonas grew up in and not relevant to the characters we know and love from the series. So I understand why it's not there, but I do still wonder about them....

Anyhow, the time frame of this book is also different. The other three have been sequential and chronological. This one is different, but I don't want to say how, because the mind blowing event when I figured it out was incredible, and I want everyone else to figure that out too.

The other difference is that this one is in split narrative looking in at different characters from their vantage point. This was definitely necessary, but I became concerned with the characters that were NOT the current voice sometimes and felt like I needed to know what they were thinking but couldn't.

We meet one new "main" protagonist, and that is Claire. She opens the book with her experience in the Community, having been assigned "Birthmother" at her Ceremony of Twelve. And my hunch of conception being through artificial insemination was solidified. The Pills that everyone takes seems to take away any human nature characteristic towards caring for one another in any more than a superficial way, along with other tactics are how Birthmother's are prevented from becoming attached to their Product (the baby, is ALWAYS referred to as the Product, given a number and referred to as an It for the Birthmother's sake). Through a series of very unusual events, Claire ends up fleeing the Community, making her the 3rd person we're aware of who has left that particular populace, since we know Jonas fled with Gabe in The Giver. I can't say WHY Claire leaves without spoiling it, so I won't.

Claire leaves by boat, though, and somehow ends up washed ashore in a different community, a rather simple one without electricity or anything, and she has no memory of anything but her name. She meets Alys, an older woman who knows of medicinal herbs and does the midwifing for the women. She has never married or had children of her own and takes Claire in as a daughter until Claire remembers more and needs to move on.

Trademaster makes a re-appearance. He was banished from Jonas' new dwelling community-after Matty relinquished his life in order to heal the earth and all the people from the Evil that had taken over. But he makes a trade that is more cruel than any we've seen so far. The only person who can stop him is Gabe. Yay! Gabe is back in the picture! He's been thriving in the community Jonas brought him to, although growing up in a society where families love one another, he can't comprehend the society Jonas saved him from and feels incomplete not knowing anything about his mother. He too, has a gift, but his is one of empathy and understanding. He calls it "veering" when he veers into another, he sees and feels things as that person does. For instance, he recalls an instance when he veered into Mentor, the school teacher and upon feeling Mentor's passion of learning, knowledge, and love of his students and desire for them to succeed, and from that time forth put much better effort into his studies. Basically, Gabe could know and feel EXACTLY what you know and feel about anything and therefore have a PERFECT knowledge and understanding of what you are going through. Perfect empathy. Using this ability to gain understanding an insight, he is the only hope for permanently banishing Evil for his community and reversing any remaining damages.

Being Christian, I immediately drew parallels from Christ and Gabe. Whether this was intentional or not, on the part of the author, I don't know. But I do know that it was very meaningful for me and my belief set. Christ does not have to "veer" into us, but in the Garden of Gethsemane, he DID experience a similar process, although we cannot begin to comprehend how, where He experienced ALL of EVERY HUMAN BEINGS physical and emotional pains, sufferings, elations, happiness, sorrow, sins, guilt, success, embarrassment, adulation, depression, grief, any emotion you can think of, He experienced it there. Why? So He could have a perfect understanding and knowledge of what we have been, are going through, or ever will encounter. He even knew Evil-Satan, and understood the anguish of a damned soul, enough to pity him, but not enough to let him take over humankind. If we accept Christ as the vanquisher of Evil, then Evil will have no place in our hearts and "no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo" (Helaman 5:12) Through the power of the atonement, any thing Evil in our lives CAN be reversed. Leave no trace.  18 Come now, and let us ^areason together, saith the Lord: though your ^bsins be as scarlet, they shall be as ^cwhite as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)

I am more than satisfied with the ending. The people had vanquished Evil before and rebuilt a better community-and the most important part-they did so WILLINGLY and WITHOUT FORCE. You cannot force people to be good or to be charitable or giving or welcoming. It must be a choice. Otherwise it's not genuine. But sometimes we cannot vanquish Evil from our presence permenantly all on our own. We need someone else. Someone who is not only willing, but able. Someone with a gift and the purpose to do so.

While this book was longer than the others, and at times seemed frustrating and a bit slow, every bit in there was necessary to build the story, to make everything more poignant. There are parts that are horrifying and parts that are healing. It was absolutely beautiful and full of hope. Have a GOOD Good Friday to all!

Messenger, Lois Lowry

Book 3
SUPER fast read, I read it in a day, it's under 200 pages.

This story takes Matt-now Matty as protagonist. He is now living in Village instead of his birthplace (where Kira is still at) with Seer, a blind man. Apparently, Forest is not friendly to everyone and it has a life of its own. And a mind of its own too. It has been known to give Warnings to people-roots or sticks or rocks actually moving of their own accord to hit, trip or poke someone. If you get a Warning, you NEVER go back into Forest because Forest will strangle unwelcome people. Matty has never had a Warning and seems to be able to have a natural ability to navigate through Forest, and thus he becomes a messenger for Leader (the leader of the village) whenever communication is required.

Village is a great place to live, everyone helps everyone else, handicaps are revered and accepted. This is a town built of rejects from other harsh societies. However, something has been happening to change the people. The Trade Market is no longer a market where goods are traded back and forth so much, but people trade themselves for things or favors. I honestly think this doesn't mean prostitution in any way, but you are never truly sure. The only explanation is that they "trade their deepest self" which might be akin to "selling your soul"? Perhaps? It creates fighting and unwelcome attitudes. In fact, a group of people want to close the borders to Village and not allow anyone else to come in and be a part of their society.

So I wasn't sure if this was going to be an anti-immigration plot, which I suppose many could read it as such-and let me go on record here, I am NOT and never have been against immigration. I AM however, against ILLEGAL immigration. I understand we have a desirable country and things, but please do things right and be here legally. If I wanted to live in any other country, I'd have to have the necessary Visa's and paperwork and if I wanted to become a citizen of another country, I'd have to go through legal processes to do so. I expect to be required to do those things or be deported, so I expect people to be respectful of that here as well.

Anyhow, I don't think it was necessarily an anti-immigration plot, but an anti-SELFISHNESS plot. As the people grew more and more unwelcoming, so did Forest. It was proportionately more dangerous in relation to how the people viewed and treated one another. The people began to be vain, valuing physical appearances. People traded away pieces of themselves in exchange for their handicaps or deformations or birthmarks to disappear in order to catch others attentions or to be "better" when reality is who you are in on the inside and how you treat others is of greater worth. One family trades something unknown to get a Gaming Machine. Basically it's like a slot machine but instead of money, when your symbols match, you get a piece of candy. Getting things creates greed for MORE things, so much so that parents stop treating their children with love and care and treating them like an irritant or burden. This book was published in 2004 and I can definitely say that the themes resound with our society-and any first world society at that.

Matty has a gift that can heal, and in order to heal the people, he heals the Earth. I'm not sure what the message there is, maybe the Earth is more willing to be healed? Maybe how we treat Earth has a direct correlation with how we treat humanity? Or just that everything in our eco-system is intertwined in a way we can't even comprehend. So I'm not sure what the author intended for us to take from that. But the ending for me was quite unexpected, rather abrupt, and I'm still in shock. There is an ultimate sacrifice. I was ok with that type of sacrifice at the end of another book.....but with this one, I didn't. I really didn't. BUT, it can be a bit metaphoric from a Christian stand point. Christ shouldn't have had to pay an ultimate sacrifice, it wasn't fair, he wasn't part of the problem, but He did. Why? So He could heal us. He could help us turn ourselves around to learn to be kind to ALL of His creations. So maybe that's the lesson I can bring away from it.

One thing that bothered me quite a bit, though: ****SPOILER ALERT*****
Leader is Jonas from The Giver. It is obvious by his blue eyes, and by the story that he came to Village as a boy on a red sled which is displayed and revered. BUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BABY?? Gabriel, or Gabe, I think they called him. Jonas smuggled him out to prevent him from being Released. But we NEVER hear of him in this entire book! That bugs me. And I'm not entirely sure that the final book in the quartet is going to mention him at all either, because you're back in Jonas' old community and the protagonist is a Birthmother who-against the rules-becomes attached to her son. So I'm not sure, but I've got it on hold at the library and we shall see.