Messenger by Lois Lowry
Continuing on The Giver Quartet binge I have going lately, I just read the third book in the series, Messenger. I love how Lowry turned to the young boy from Gathering Blue, Matty, to continue telling her tale about the various communities and how they differ and interact with each other. Matty is a little older and a little wiser, and is starting to realize that he's more than the dirty, scruffy boy with bad grammar his old community abused and neglected. The fascinating part of this story is that... ***THAR BE SPOILERS AHEAD!***
... you get to learn of what became of Jonas (and to a lesser extend, baby Gabe) since that last scene in The Giver. While I loved the ambiguity of The Giver's ending (are they dead? Is that light "THE" light? Is he dreaming?), the bleeding heart in me loves knowing that Jonas and Gabe were safe, well loved and, eventually, respected and revered.
I'm kind of disappointed that I only have one more book to go in the quartet, which is pretty telling about how much I'm enjoying them.
Synposis:
Messenger is the masterful third novel in the Giver Quartet, which began with the dystopian bestseller The Giver, now a major motion picture. Matty has lived in Village and flourished under the guidance of Seer, a blind man known for his special sight. Village once welcomed newcomers, but something sinister has seeped into Village and the people have voted to close it to outsiders. Matty has been invaluable as a messenger. Now he must risk everything to make one last journey through the treacherous forest with his only weapon, a power he unexpectedly discovers within himself.