The Giver

Hmmm.... I'm a bit in two minds about this book. We have plenty of reviews here explaning the plot etc, so I think I will just make a few minor points. Its difficult as a mature(67!) adult to be fair to a YA book. I can see how this book would be stunning to a 12-16 year old reader. A stark dystopian world, all in shades of beige, till a fairly shocking event late in the book. I knew nothing of the book so as I was reading the story the language seemed excruciatingly simplistic, aimed at maybe 8 year olds whilst the themes were definitely for more mature readers. It was only three quarters of the way through after a climactic event that the pace became headlong, the style more vivid and exciting. It was only near the end that I understood the authors reasons for the style, so I sadly spent a lot of the book being irritated by the very simplistic writng, I only got it late on.

Again the whole world setting had holes big enough to drive a bus through. How could such a society be viable? Why couldnt people see colours? Hoew could no one recognise a hill, or have no knowledge of weather, seasons, animalsand birds etc?? It was all so improbable. After finishing the book and thinking about this I thought about how we easily accept magic in stories - speaking animals, strange magical abilities that would normally be accepted. We take for grnted almost anything in such a context - Aslan, Oz, Wind in the Willowsetc. But in the science fiction arena we tend to at least have plausibility of a setting, even if set in the future or on anothr world, a good reason for suspension of disbelief. As a result of SF expectations I found the whole setting very implausible.full of holes, generally a bit ridiculous, and that ruined the tale to some extent. However, looking at it from a youngster's point of view this book could seem amazing, spectacularly strange and exotic, and with a shocking plot development and a n ambiguous ending that would be enthralling to a young person. So, from a young person's point of view this is a stunning exciting, shocking read. For an older reading more well read in the dystopian genre, not so outstanding. Still, a short and interesting read, marred for me at the start by the stilted, simplistuic style, but saved by the plot development and ambiguous ending. Worth its awards from the youngsters' point of view.