The Giver by Lois Lowry

Note: after this book, read Gathering Blue, and then The Messenger

Plot: a young boy is growing up in a futuristic society completely different from ours. There are rules for everything, and secrets hidden everywhere. Jonas is excited for his 12th birthday, because then he'll be given a job to contribute to the community. But what Jonas is to be trained for is not what he expected. Will Jonas accept his new role as the most important person in the entire village?

Comments: this book is good for fantasy readers, but I don't necessarily consider it a fantasy novel. Also good for reading bits of whenever you can. This book has a very interesting concept. It shows a different view of things, what the world would be like if we were always polite, always did what we were told, and everything was the same. Now, at first I thought "That's such a stupid idea! I would hate not having differences and individuality!" But I eventually acknowledged the logic of the idea. I still stand by my claim that everyone should be unique, and everyone should be able to make some choices, but I also think some things were good. For example, there was no such thing as drugs or alcohol in this world. Anyways, I really like that this novel makes you ask yourself questions like "what is really important?"

The characters weren't described very well, but in this story, they didn't really need to be. The book was written skillfully, so that you really don't need to know what people look like or how they act. Everything about everyone is reflected in all that they do. One thing I didn't like about this book is that it felt like the plot started towards the end of the book. It felt like most of the book was just introducing you to the story.

Rating: I rate this book a six out of ten.