The Giver by Lois Lowry | Teen Ink

The Giver by Lois Lowry MAG

By Bapalapa2 ELITE, Brooklyn, New York
Bapalapa2 ELITE, Brooklyn, New York
1044 articles 0 photos 1 comment

After reading The Giver, I was left confused and disappointed. It seemed as if it would be interesting, but you can't judge a book by its cover. The contents were dull and predictable. Quite honestly, I wouldn't recommend it to any reader seeking a fine piece of literature. It just doesn't suffice.

The Giver is about a young boy named Jonas. He resides in a futuristic society in which each citizen is assigned a job, a spouse, and children. The children are born to mothers who will never get to see them. Trying not to give anymore away, I will only say that Jonas is assigned an important job and is challenged with the release of an innocent child. Jonas is left with the option of leaving his home, job, and family to save the child, or facing the harsh reality of his community and job, and enduring the release of the child.

This book was dreadful. I became more and more dissatisfied with each page. It was a waste of time and hardly made sense. I'll admit, there were a few interesting lines, but far too few to continue reading after the first chapter. Although I finished it, I regret doing so. It was, by far, the worst book I've ever picked up. It proved to be mediocre, no better than what the average person could conceive. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.


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This article has 587 comments.


Pea6898 said...
on Aug. 14 2012 at 4:33 pm
Pea6898, Toledo, Ohio
0 articles 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
Good friends are like stars, you don't always see them but you know there always there

 The giver was confusing book but only at the ending otherwise it was a wonderful story and i look forward to read the next one. Louis lowery is an awesome but confuseing auther a good one by louis is number the stars. I hope more readers like the giver.

on Aug. 13 2012 at 9:31 pm
malaikah SILVER, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
5 articles 0 photos 5 comments
Gathering Blue, The Messenger

on Jul. 5 2012 at 4:41 pm
Shahiro PLATINUM, Johnston, Iowa
20 articles 2 photos 262 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Soon we must all choose between what is right and what is easy." - Dumbledore (Goblet of Fire)

I really enjoyed The Giver, though i didn't like the ending because i wanted to know what would happen next, of course i hardly ever like the endings to books... it must be that humanistic characteristic of always wanting more...

ps. please check out my work....


on Jun. 25 2012 at 8:59 am
BreathingUpsideDown BRONZE, Cordova, Tennessee
1 article 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
"You know how people say to think outside the box? Well, with me there is no box: there's a rectangular pyramid, and I'm, like, way over here." -Me

I absolutely loved The Giver. Coming at it expecting an action-packed teen romance built to satisfy the attention deprived youth of today you will be dissappointed. But if you're looking for something with real insight and emotion and if you really want to have to read into the characters this is a wonderful book. You say it didn't make sense, I argue that you just didn't understand it. Though the ending did leave the reader wanting, overall I think it was a beautifly written peice and I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it.

on Jun. 20 2012 at 2:37 pm
Kaitlyn_Deann BRONZE, M, Texas
4 articles 0 photos 2 comments
I actually really liked The Giver, though I do admit it wasn't my favorite book. I probably won't read it again for years. The idea was amazing, but I wasn't a big fan of the style or ending. 

on Jun. 4 2012 at 9:38 pm
DreamingOutQuiet SILVER, Round Rock, Texas
7 articles 0 photos 78 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Time and the bell have buried the day,
The black cloud carries the sun away" - Elliot

Oh if life where made of moments, even now and then a bad one. Oh, if life where made of moments then we wouldn't know we had one. - Into the Woods

The giver never had a chance. Good idea: absolutely terrible writing and delivery. *shudder* (not to mention one dimensional characters) I hate when authors dumb down books this much. 

on May. 17 2012 at 3:59 pm
It was an amazing book but the ending was a little wierd. Also, If you could describe this book in one word, what would it be? I chose Ignorance

on May. 17 2012 at 10:55 am
mindless_dreaming BRONZE, Wyckoff, New Jersey
1 article 0 photos 43 comments

Favorite Quote:
"May make my heart as a millstone, set my face as a flint, Cheat and be cheated, and die: who knows? We are ashes and we are dust." -Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 'Maud'

I agree and disagree.  I think the idea of the book was wonderful, I think it was very creative, however I don't think the book was creatively written or well written.

on May. 17 2012 at 5:12 am
NaomiStatia GOLD, Oranjestad, Other
12 articles 2 photos 14 comments

Favorite Quote:
Too many to remember!

Well, I am going to have to disagree. I read it resently and found it very interesting. How Jonas learn from the "Giver" that this life is not what "life" is. Imagine having no color in your life? Imagine having a child and it being taken away from you? Imagine not being able to chose your husband/wife due to the "cousels" choice? But that is all that community has ever known. Running away was because Jonas was trying to help the community. Helping them move into a different life, letting them see another way to live.

schan GOLD said...
on May. 9 2012 at 1:23 am
schan GOLD, Taipei, Other
17 articles 0 photos 8 comments

Favorite Quote:
“Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.”
-Michel de Montaigne

Though the book was quite mundane at times, I have to say that the plot was superbly interesting, and not predictable at all...at least, when I read it. The ending leaves the reader hanging with the obscurely described ending, and though I was utterly frustrated by the ending, I thought the book overall was quite well done. Otherwise, why else would they tell us to read it in school? 

 


SensAtion said...
on May. 6 2012 at 2:42 pm
SensAtion, Orlando, Florida
0 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
"With their souls of patent leather, they come down the road. Hunched and nocturnal, where they breathe they impose, silence of dark rubber, and fear of fine sand."

To be candid, this book review could use some revision. I am not the greatest "Giver" fan either, but this post isn't so much of a well-rounded review as it is an opinion in three paragraphs. It's oozing with malcontent yet with no explanations at all except for the vague "dull" or "dreadful." There are numerous adjectives though minimal substance is present in this article. If you wish to be a writer you must realize that the quality of the writing is not in the selection of words, especially obscure adjectives that might just end up making a work too inaccessible to the public (eventhough I couldn't find this in you work you seem like you could be at risk for this as you mature), but the tone and mood and message within the content itself.  

on Apr. 15 2012 at 6:46 pm
i_am_so_very_large_and_towering SILVER, Mililani, Hawaii
5 articles 1 photo 114 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?"

good review. . . but i loved the book and thought it was one of the best i had ever read.

on Apr. 3 2012 at 11:42 am
maeugeniap BRONZE, ----, Other
3 articles 0 photos 7 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Albert Einstein

I read it when I was 10 or 9 years old. I enjoyed it, and loved the end. I do not understand why do you think it is a very dull book, because it is a piece of art. This book lets you decide how to imagine and see what is happening from different perspectives. This book really was what many had tried to achieve but never did it. 

on Apr. 3 2012 at 6:20 am
iamawesomeK SILVER, Wilmington, Delaware
6 articles 0 photos 27 comments

Favorite Quote:
I am sure I won't be able to fit that many quotes in here.

I definitely agree with owlover1. The book was a bit confusing but sad. It was set in a different world. but i must say I really liked it

on Apr. 1 2012 at 1:43 pm
Missy312 BRONZE, San Francisco, California
2 articles 1 photo 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me.
-- Charles Dickens

Hm... when I first read "The Giver," I was confused as well. I disliked it. But reading it years later, I realized that it's actually quite a deep book. In all fairness, I think this book means different things to people of varying stages in life. As a middle-school student, I couldn't relate to such a dismal world. As I've grown older, I can appreciate this book more. 

cutie pie said...
on Mar. 20 2012 at 12:13 pm
well i do agree i read this in six grade and in eighth grade. we even wrote to the author n she wrote back.i loved it. at the end it will have you confused.

cutie pie said...
on Mar. 20 2012 at 12:09 pm
i agree with you it is.

owlover1 said...
on Mar. 19 2012 at 4:47 pm
I actually think is is a great yet sad book. I am very suprised about what negative comments these people give about this book

on Mar. 19 2012 at 10:52 am
well to me i agree with what she saiid because you cant judge a book by it cover and on top of that i was left confused n maybe you would see what she talkin bout if you read the book again but slow.

on Mar. 17 2012 at 7:40 am
deus-ex-machina14 BRONZE, Stewartsville, New Jersey
1 article 0 photos 439 comments

Favorite Quote:
"There are two main tragedies in life. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it." -Oscar Wilde

I remember reading this book in sixth grade. I have to say, at the time, I was a little confused, as well. But after pondering the end for a while, I began to appreciate it more. It is a decent book in my view. I'm sorry to say, I disagree with this review.