Some may not know that The Giver by Lois Lowry, written in 1993 and made into a motion picture in 2014, is actually the first book in a series. I didn't know until two years ago when I decided to reread the book from our bookshelf and Travis mentioned that there were more books in the series. Since then, we have collected all four books and I recently finished the last book called Son.

This will mostly be a review of the last book, but in order to properly review it I will allude to the other three books. There may be a few SPOILERS just to give you fair warning, but if you want to know what I think of the book and the series in general in a gist, just scroll down to the end.

While The Giver follows the story of Jonah who becomes The Receiver and how he eventually escapes the dystopian community he was brought up in with a baby Gabriel, who was going to be put to death because he did not meet the standards of perfection of the community, the story of Son is the culminating story where we learn about the mother of Gabriel.

Plot Summary: 

BEFORE

Her name is Claire and she was designated to be a Birth Mother, which was not a sought after position in the community. While no one ever said it out loud, it was always implied that being a Birth Mother had no prestige, honor, or intellectualism to it. When Claire is 14, she is deemed ready to be have a baby and is impregnated. She soon delivers her baby, but in a strange and scarring way.

They blindfold her during the process of labor and tie her hands to a bed so that she cannot move freely. She is in labor for awhile before they realize something is wrong with her, so they drug her and give her a C-section without telling her ANYTHING that is happening. She wakes up with a huge scar on her belly and never gets to see her baby. Soon after she recovers she is reassigned to work in the fish hatchery instead of having more children (typically each Birth Mother has 3 children and then is reassigned). She is confused and feels shame for wondering what she did wrong that her birth did not go well. Instead of getting answers from the Elders, she finds out the number her child was assigned and that he still lives.

After being at the fish hatchery for awhile, Claire decides to visit the newchildren wing in the childcare center in the community. Her baby (number 36) was there and Claire visited often and got to know him. She felt this bond with him that she could not explain and often dreamed of having him with her. Claire was confused by these dreams and desires because no one else seemed to feel them. You eventually learn that she was not taking "pills" that the rest of the community was taking that help mask emotions and desires.

Claire learns that her baby was not thriving because he was labeled as "difficult" and would not sleep through the night and had a hard time adjusting. He was going to be released to elsewhere (another term for being killed). On the other side, Jonas (from The Giver), had gotten to know the baby and knew his name (Gabriel). He realized what was going to happen to Gabe and decided to take him and run away. He does so and Claire tries to run after him when she realizes Gabe is gone with Jonas, but ends up running onto a supply boat, gets lost in a storm and washes up onto a beach into a completely different culture.

BETWEEN

She suffers from shock and amnesia for awhile, but stays with a kind woman in a hut named Alys. Slowly memories come back to her while she gets to know the people on the island and has experiences (she sees a birth, holds a baby, etc.) Word spreads that Claire had a baby but no husband, which was looked down on by the people of that culture. Claire does not care and realizes that her purpose in life is to try to find her son again, no matter the cost. She does not want to go back by water, but instead decides to climb a mountain and travel out that way.

She befriends the only person that has attempted to climb the mountain, a boy named Einar that lives at the bottom of the mountain as a shepherd. He attempted to climb the mountain before, but became lame and lost a foot on his travels. It is not revealed how this happened at first, but everyone assumes he fell. Claire is determined to not have this happen to her. She trains for years to make sure she is strong enough. Finally when she is ready, Einar reveals the way in which he lost his foot: at the top of the mountain a man approached him and offered to help him. Einar was stubborn and decided to reject his help. The man pulled out an ax and chopped off his foot, so Einar warns Claire to accept help from the man.

Claire makes the climb and encounters the man at the top. He offers to help her find her son at a steep price: Claire's youth. Claire agrees, remembering Einar's warning.

BEYOND

Claire is transported where Gabe is, but she is an old woman now and feels she cannot tell Gabe who she really is because it would be a burden to him. Gabe is a sprightly young man by now but he is confused about where he comes from and seeks for a family. Jonas is in the same village as Gabe and has his own family (he married Kira from the second book and has two children, one of whom is named Matthew after the hero of the third book), but Jonas watches out for Gabe.

Eventually Claire reveals her story to Jonas, who tells Gabe when Claire is on her deathbed. Jonas tells Gabe that he has to defeat the evil man who took Claire's youth from her. Gabe sets out to do so and finds him close by on the other side of the river from his village. He uses a special gift he has to realize that the man was no man at all but the embodiment of evil. He defeats evil by speaking of hope and happiness, which sucks the life out of evil and he kills himself.

Gabe returns to find that he has broken the spell and Claire is restored to her youthful self.

What I thought: 

I really liked some elements from this book and it was especially poignant to me as I have recently become a mother. Going through a labor like Claire's would have been frightening because she was not told anything and could not see or experience anything. It would be like experiencing all of the scary, weird parts of labor and not enjoying the best part: the baby!

I could also identify with the strong feelings Claire had for Gabe in the beginning. She was alone and could not understand the bond of mother and child, but it is a very deep, biological bond that is hard to explain unless experienced. I thought Lowry did a great job explaining how important these feelings were to Claire.

The book is divided into the three parts: Before, Between, and Beyond. I liked the Before part (what is mentioned above), however the Between part takes a sharp turn in the plot. I like the characters and that it is juxtaposition of two very different cultures and experiences. Claire learns about things like colors, animals, music, and plants. In a way she is still a child in a lot of experiences.

Probably my favorite part of the book is when she decides to look for her son and starts training to climb the mountain. The book talks in detail about the exercises that Claire does to get strong and prepare herself. I particularly enjoyed this part because it is what I am trying to do in my life as well. My motivation for working out and being healthy is my daughter. I want to be strong so that I can lift her in whatever way she needs (she is over 20 lbs, so I have my work cut out for me!), play with her, and just be a good, healthy mother. So I think of her when I lift weights or go running and it helps me try to take care of my body in a better way. Claire does the same thing in the story and it made me think how all parents make sacrifices and try to be motivated for their kids.

The Beyond chapters are interesting because they involve the man who took Claire's youth from her. It also builds up to the climax of Gabe finding out that Claire is his mother. The end where Gabe has to defeat the evil man I thought was a great build up to a rather lame way of defeat. Also, there is no resolution at the end of the story with Claire and Gabe, Claire and Einar (who she proclaimed her love for earlier in the book), or even between Jonas and Claire. I thought there would be more resolution at the end of the series, but we are left hanging on some points, which I did not like as much. Overall, it was a good book and I would recommend the series (although book 2 and book 3 are not as interesting and not quite as necessary to read), however there were some parts that were left to imagination that I wish would have been addressed. I mean, if you have to read four books in order to get to an ending, I feel like there should be a pretty darn good ending! But that is just my personal opinion.

In short, here is the breakdown of Son:

Genre: Dystopian Young Adult Fiction
Number of pages: 393
Reading endurance: You need to read three other books before this one, all of comparable length. Medium reading endurance required.
Good Moral: Yes! It shows the importance of family, relationships, and choosing things for yourself.
Favorite Quote: "If she had not made the trade that had brought her here she would perhaps be back with Einar now, helping him tend his lambs, cooking a stew they would share in their hillside hut, talking together by the fire in the evenings. But she would not have found her son. She would never have seen Gabe again, would not have watched him grow into the lively young man he had become. She knew it was a trade she would make again, given the chance" (pg. 306)
Recommend? Yes