Gathering Blue and Messenger: Two books reviewed at once! What?

We continue our literary journey in books that are follow-ups to a very famous book called "The Giver" whose success may have inspired author Lois Lowry to bother making the 3 books that came after. Given the 7 year break taken between the 1st and 2nd installment and the fact that all books after the first take on a very different sort of theme, suggests that the other 3 might not have even been something that was in the author's mind until the pressure of publishers got to her and she was compelled to make a story there.

I'm here to say that while they are still good, the story in these next two books, both of which are very readable, well the stories just aren't as good.

Being able to easily access both of these books on my very old second-generation Kindle has been a good thing because if it weren't for that, it is almost certain that I wouldn't have access to these books at all. Books aren't terribly popular anywhere and they aren't in Vietnam either, especially not in English. So I read both of these on that Kindle.

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The 2nd book in the "Giver Quartet" is Gathering Blue and although it doesn't specifically state that it is the case and there is zero overlap in characters from the first book, it is hinted at that this is an extension of the book "The Giver" and that it is told from the perspective of someone that lives in a dystopian society not similar to the one in "The Giver" but clearly taking place in a similar time period.

In Gathering Blue we are introduced to a group of people what would be the poor people that we never encountered or even knew they existed in "The Giver." They are similar in the sense that they are completely controlled by whoever is governing them and for the most part the people do not question this or even try to change it. If a certain ability is detected by the overseers, the person with the talent is beckoned by the people in power and placed in a new position. This is the case with "Kira", who is physically disfigured by is an expert seamstress who is selected because not only can she sew anything, but she almost seems to do it in some sort of magical way.

one of the things that upsets Kira as she moves along in her new and comparatively luxurious life as the official seamstress for the state, is that there is no method of creating the color blue and hence, the name of our novel begins to take shape.

The point of this book remains unclear and if there is a message there it isn't too preachy and I like that. It isn't trying to indoctrinate anyone but if there is a warning there, I suppose it would be that the government can trick the populace into believing there is an existential threat to convince the population into believing that the governance is needed for their own safety, and also the leaving the community would be dangerous and this is discussed at some level in regards to "beasts" that are meant to exist beyond the little area that Kira and the people she is around throughout the book live amongst.

Gathering Blue is a bit of a letdown compared to The Giver because we seem to be traveling back in time or at least technology in this one, even though it appears as though it is meant to be in the same time period as the first book or thereabouts. This almost seems medieval in comparison and while it is not directly addressed, perhaps some sort of view of social class and control is an underlying theme here.

The book is short enough that even if you are disappointed compared to the first one as I was, that you will have no difficulty finishing it anyway.

Just like the first book this one ends on a bit of a mysterious cliffhanger that appears as though it could continue or maybe it wont. In this case though Lois Lowry decided to publish the 3rd book called "Messenger" just 4 years later.

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In book 3 we end up doing something that Lowry hasn't done in the first 2 books up to this point in that we have a character directly lifted from the previous book and carry on the story from there. While I didn't mention him on purpose, there is a side-character in Gathering Blue that if it was a film, would have been a supporting actor and Messenger carries on from mostly his perspective in yet another dystopian village somewhere on earth. We are also reintroduced to another character that while it isn't explicitly stated, is very suspicious of being the main character in the first book The Giver.

So things are "kind of" coming together at this point but in a way the books are becoming less and less dystopian, and becoming more and more magical. I had a sort of Harry Potter feeling going on in this book as more and more people are given sorts of magical powers whereas in the first book, only one person, The Giver, had any semblance of magic about him.

In a way I would say that the magical aspect of it starts to get a bit out of control in this one and perhaps Lois was starting to feel the pressure to write more rather than actually having material to make that happen.

There is a story there about how the new village is better off than the last one, but perhaps not as well off as the first one. They are sort of the "middle class" in all of this and they have the highest level of freedom of all 3 societies out of all of them. In something that might be considered the first politically "preachy" aspect of any of the books up to this point, the villagers become aware of outside villagers arriving and with each new arrival they start to become a lot more careful about their possessions and not wanting to share as each new additions seems to bring down the overall living quality of everyone that is already there. Therefore, people vote to wall off the village and not allow anyone else in moving forward. The attitude and even the appearance of the villagers starts to change to more "evil" once this decision is made.

It must have struck a nerve though, because this book was also banned in certain parts of the United States and this to me is a bit amusing because this book is extremely tame and in order to even "get" the anti-consumerism messaging you really have to be analyzing it. The Texas school district didn't really offer any reasons for why they banned the book so perhaps this is just like a sport for them.

The main character "Matty" was in Gathering Blue as a minor character with some level of importance. His animalistic personality in the previous novel has been replaced with intelligence and understanding, thanks to the fact that his new village is less oppressive and seeks to help members of the community evolve rather than just serve a very specific role for the betterment of the mysterious folks that most people never even get to see. This could be a reflection of democracy over socialism or something like that and part of what makes these books good is that you have to figure that out.

For me, the magical nature of this one and the previous Gathering Blue wasn't something I wanted to have happen but perhaps Lois Lowry wanted some of that Harry Potter money. As far as I know this has never been offered the opportunity to become a majestic billion-dollar big screen empire and honestly, I hope it never is because I don't think it would really work. It's too serious and the metaphors are too direct.

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So all in all I would say that these two additions to The Giver are still pretty good and they are both really easy reads. The chapters are short, the number of characters are limited and nothing is terribly complicated leaving you wondering what they are talking about and necessitating going back a few pages to figure it out. I like this a lot about all of these books and it is especially true on my Kindle because the "back" button no longer functions so if I end up confused, going back to re-read something literally is not an option.

A dedicated reader could finish one of these in a day. I casually read this one in about 3 evenings and now am about to venture onto the last book of the quartet, which is entitled "Son." It will be interesting to see how and if Lowry brings the few characters that have existed in the previous 3 books together again, which I suspect she will.

These books do make you think because it isn't always really clear what the real message here is. honestly, if done well all of these books would probably make for good television but at the same time I am kind of hopeful that they don't try because they will almost certainly not be given the right level of funding to do it properly. It is better for you to just read them and then, like Nadi pictured above, just think about it for a while and come to your own conclusions.

All of these books are quite famous and if you are in a city with a library, I would bet that they probably have them there for you to borrow for free. Do so if you can.