Son: Great for Mother's Day Gifting―A Thrilling Story about a Mother's Sacrifice in a Utopian Society (Giver Quartet, 4)

Enjoyed reading several of Lois Lowery books in my free time . I like how they are the 4 books linked together in the end .

Lowis Lowry has done it again! This book perfectly portrayed the story we know and love. A perfect end to a classic.

Lois Lowry does not disappoint with this conclusion to The Giver Quartet. Although it does not live up to my high standards of The Giver, it is my second favorite of the four-book series. The style of it is very different that The Giver. The book is separated into three sections. Each of these sections could almost be its own contained story. If these had been released as smaller separate books or enovellas, they would have worked well. This book is much longer than The Giver. The first part introduces us to Claire, a young girl in the community from The Giver, who has been chosen to conceive children for the community. She has complications during birth and is not the same after. I really liked being back in this community. The timeline coincides with events in The Giver, so it was fun to remember the original story and see events from a different perspective. I won't go into details of the second and third parts, as to not spoil you. I will say, though, that they each take place in different communities and one of them may be a community from the second or third books. The third part of the book does a good job connecting all four books together. It makes me want to reread all four books in order to have each character fresh in my mind. Some of the gifts that characters possess in the latter three books in this series feel very different than The Giver. After reading the first book, I didn't think these characters lived in a world of magic. There is also an unusual personification near the end that didn't feel right to me. Since this book takes place over many years, many interesting characters are introduced. Lowry did an excellent job with making unique characters in all three communities. This book is not The Giver, but if you have read the other books in the series you will in no way be disappointed. Don't expect a short, simple story going into this. The story is not simple, nor linear. Its a complex life story of a very interesting character. I give this conclusion to The Giver Quartet a 4/5.

Read one...bought the series! Written for adolescents. I'm old and I loved it!

Wow is all I cam say! I have read this series to my granddaughter and it has had a hold on me this hole time. Each book giving a different time line and threading them all together. This author is amazing.

To be fair, I'd really give it 3.5 stars, but you can't give half stars on here. In order to explain my opinion on this book, I need to start by explaining my view on the rest of the series: I've considered The Giver my favorite book ever since I read it in 8th grade. I still love it even after teaching it for years as a novel study in my own classes (It never gets old for me). Gathering Blue was a nice companion book as well (I liked seeing another type of community in this world of the future). However, I despised The Messenger, & I like to pretend it doesn't exist (the feel of that book was completely different from the other two, and it added this "magical" element that I didn't see in the others; don't get me wrong, I love magic & fantasy, but it doesn't make sense for me in this world [which I see as just a possible future of our own world]. Jonas' "gift" didn't seem magical to me, just an evolution, a way to look beyond the conrol the community created, like he wasn't affected by their technology. The Messenger changed all of that and seemed choppy & incomplete to me, so I was really excited to learn that it wasn't, in fact, the conclusion of this series. I went into Son with high hopes, & was pretty satisfied with the beginning (which takes us back to Jonas' community). I liked seeing that community from a different perspective (some aspects of it, didn't mesh with my reality of it, but I still really enjoyed this part of the book). The second section of the book was interesting as well (though I preferred seeing things in Jonas' community). I like learning about all the different ways of life in this world, & it was interesting seeing how Claire began to make sense of the world she knew & the one she was learing to see as a home (and became more of a home than she ever had in Jonas' community). The 3rd section is where I was frustratingly thrust back into the world of The Messenger. Everything I didn't like about that book was back again. I wanted to see Jonas, Gabe, & Kira again (& I liked the idea of Claire being thrown into their mix), but not like that. Magic was back, the Trademaster was back, and it was incredibly choppy to boot. The battle at the end left a lot to be desired, seemed simple, convenient, and unrealistic. Son is still worth reading, but don't expect it to have the same feel as The Giver (or Gathering Blue).

Easily the best sequel in series...and I liked both Gathering Blue and Messenger! I have read and re-read The Giver several times since I first read it is a child. It was always one of my favorite books, and I loved the intentionally ambiguous ending. This being said, I was thrilled to be transported back to the community that Jonas and Gabe escaped from. Seeing the community from the perspective of Claire made the effect of the society that much more chilling. I was actually a little sad when this first part of the book ended. The second part of the book was nearly as good. Claire's gradual recovering of her memories is heart-wrenching to read. The friendship and tension between Claire and Einar is another strong point of this section, as is watching her strengthen herself for the coming climb. I would have to agree with another reviewer, though, that once Claire reached the top and met Trademaster, that there was a let-down. I was disappointed in the trade that Claire made, because she had worked so incredibly hard to get up to this point. In part three, the pacing of the book seems to slow down. I would have liked to have read more of Claire's perspective in this section. Gabe's development and realization of his power and the secret of Claire seemed to be a bit rushed at the end. I guess I had hoped that Gabe would veer into Claire and feel her love for him. The ending of the book was fabulous, though! It surprised me, in a way, but it was a good surprise. The ending paragraphs were poignant and really resolved the entire series for me. Even with a few gripes, I loved this book!

Son. I struggle to find a place to begin. For starters, it's much longer than its predecessors. Which was a much welcomed attribute considering how fast I read the others. That being said, I found it the most unsatisfying of the quartet. Does that mean I didn't enjoy it? Absolutely not. On the contrary, with the exception of the incredible first book "The Giver," it was the most enjoyable of the 4 books I'd have to say. Maybe it's because, this being the conclusion to the series, I won't be getting anymore information about the world Ms. Lowry created. I won't be able to spend anymore time with the characters she so wonderfully realized. In the end, that's really no fault of hers. Everything that has a beginning, has an end. And that brings me to the last thing I want to address: the ending. I am fully aware that too much exposition can ultimately ruin a book. Part of the charm in "Son" is the ambiguity surrounding certain aspects of the story. The history of the world and how it came to be in the state it's in now. The mysterious "gifts" that each of the protagonists in these books possess. All of these serve to generate a yearning in the reader to discover more about the world and its secrets. But...there is also such a thing as too little explanation as well. This book ends very abruptly. There is almost no time between the climax and the conclusion. You spend an entire book, maybe more depending on how you look at it, waiting for the payoff and it never comes. The payoff being Claire`s reunion with her son Gabriel of course. It's very frustrating and extremely unsatisfying. That's the only thing holding me back from giving this book a 5 star rating. All books have a goal. Whether it be to get across an ideal to the reader by enveloping you in a universe, or simply to tell you the events of a particular slice of time. In the case of "Son," it's the former. There are many themes covered over the course of 3 sections it's divided into, but in my opinion, the dominant one is determination. And I'd say it succeeds in getting that theme across. It's more about the journey, rather than the destination. When you realize that, you'll come to peace with your want for a more satisfying end. I did at least.

Bought the whole set The Giver was read a school novel, bought the rest to read and they are great fit an adult read , interesting dystopian story, books are separate but stores meld together in the end

Story mainly describes a mothers love and search for her separated son. This book is the conclusion to the stories of Jonas (in Giver), Gabe (in Giver), Kira ( in Gathering blue) and Claire (in Son). Readers are left to wonder the many things that the books suggest, about a nearly dystopian society that discards it's weak and is governed by strict rules, where people are almost living lives almost mechanically. 'Son' will probably be appropriate for age 12+ children. Interesting conclusion to stories

シリーズの4冊目です。全部読みました。異なる不思議な４社会を描いています。この４冊目は皆が公平に平和に暮らす社会ですがそこに不穏な影が忍び寄りますが最後は人間の真心が不穏な影を払うという物語です。子供向けの本ですが８３歳の私が読んでも考えさせられるシリーズでした。

Great book. Good quality.

I liked so much the three other books that my disappointment has been important. The reason ? The second part is... well... boring ! Long descriptions (the physical training, the climbing) with no real interest. On the good side, I was happy to meet again characters from the other books. And the spirit, the values put forward are still remarkable. So, if you liked the series, read this one, but don't expect too much.