Son (Giver Quartet, 4)

Fabulous book! Fabulous quarter of books. The stories are wonderful and the characters are beautiful. Part of me wishes there were more, but what a gorgeous way to end the stories!!

I just finished this book and feel the need to get some closure about it.FIRST OFF, I absoluately loved it and way it tied everything together.There was a moment was Claire relays her life in the community to Jonas that gave me the chills because it seems so long ago and so sad this completely other life of Claire. Also her life was so lonely and the very idea of love for child is an unknown to the community and to Claire and discovers it in herself, it's a fascinating idea.I have some questions though on parts wish she expanded a little more....and also I think mY notion of the trademaster is kind of ruined because it reminded me too much of a charcter in Robert McCannon's Swan Song. The friend charecter. Basically the devil and basically too the same as Trademaster. But I guess that isn't her fault.1) what's the deal with the cliff and have to climb out like the island community is trapped on a size area? I never got the sense that they feel stuck.2) I wish she explained the journey from the top of the cliff to the village.What kind of distant are we talking about? I think it would of been cool to describe her journey into the community village.3) I always want to learn more about how the world was before in the distant past. It's that kinda of a big part of dystopian fiction?4) it seemed at so piont that the mentor told Gade he was gonna have to die, and the idea of willful sacrifice of a young boy and especially the main character seemed seriously out of place....but I think I misread the tune of the character I hope?5) last couple chapters - it was never really explained why Jonas couldn't help him in the battle, I get that he had to spend his strength on viewing but the lines about how is was his battle seemed out of place if he can't really give good reason to mke a young kid face alone someone ow is the most evil person alive.6) last couple charpters - the details of the last battle seemed rushed and co.fusing with the weapons and the out of place sudden merkness of the trademaster.In hindsight though I guess the only real issue was that the last 2-3 chapters did seem rushed and confusing. And in that you lose the full feeling of closure because you the read book all the way to the end and it fizzles out a little bit....But Hey, Screw it! It's amazing way beyond all its few short coming.Great Book! I seriously love it a lot!

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.