Messenger

Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry has been around for a while, but she started making noise, and finally started getting the recognition she deserved, with 1993's The Giver. The Giver has since blossomed into a trilogy, of which Messenger is the third part. While Messenger is not the tour de force that The Giver was, it's still well worth your time. Many reviews, especially those that found the book lacking, have compared it to The Giver. I found it more amusing (and ultimately more satisfying) to compare the book to M. Night Shyamalan's recent film The Village, with which it shares both a number of characteristics and a number of major thematic elements. In comparison, the novel shines.

Matty is a message runner in Village, a small, well, village cut off from the rest of the world by a thick, and intelligent, forest. Matty is the only person from Village capable of traveling through forest at will, which makes him incredibly valuable. Something happens to Village, though; a person known as the Trade Master begins to visit on a regular basis, and as they visit him, people begin to change, gradually. Matty, is adoptive father Seer, and the village's leader (Leader, of course) see what's going on, but are unsure how to stop it.

The main problem with the book is that Matty is incapable of seeing a number of things that are right in front of his eyes, the seeing of any (much less all) of which would have helped the book along considerably. This makes it seem unnecessarily convoluted at times. Also, as a consequence of this, the end is clearly visible halfway or less through the book, and what should have come off quite nicely ends up sounding somewhat bombastic.

All of which sounds like reasons not to read the book, but Lowry's style and storytelling ability do keep the pages turning, and Messenger is certainly well worth your time if you liked The Giver. Just be prepared; you won't have the same experience.