Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry Review

Gathering Blue (The Giver Quartet #2), by Lois Lowry

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopia, Science-Fiction

Rating: 3/5 stars

Publication: March 28, 2013, by HMH Books for Young Readers

Format: Paperback Edition






Goodreads Summary: Lois Lowry won her first Newbery Medal in 1994 for The Giver. Six years later, she ushered readers back into its mysterious but plausible future world in Gathering Blue to tell the story of Kira, orphaned, physically flawed, and left with an uncertain future. This second book in the Giver Quartet has been stunningly redesigned in paperback. As she did in The Giver and later Messenger, in Gathering Blue Lois Lowry challenges readers to imagine what our world could become, how people could evolve, and what could be considered valuable.

Review:

"She felt a small shudder of fear. Fear was always a part of life for the people. Because of fear, they made shelter and found food and grew things. For the same reason, weapons were stored waiting. There was fear of cold, of sickness and hunger. There was fear of beasts. And fear propelled her now as she stood, leaning on her stick. She looked down a last time at the lifeless body that had once contained her mother, and considered where to go."

Back in the day, (okay, maybe not too long ago) I was captivated by the crazy beautiful moving story of The Giver. Known as a classic and read by teenagers in different schools all around the world, (I was one of them tee hee) this book became viral and is now a movie. Okay, so you may have known that previously, but it's what sparked this sequel to come alive. Or at least it was supposed to...

Well I kind of don't want to reminded of this situation that occurred with this book because I had such high expectations. There were amazing things that were supposed to happen, and really, all I received was a "meh" read that didn't mean so much to me as the utopian classic, The Giver did. 

Don't expect a true sequel here. This is more of a companion. This features a new protagonist, a new scene and problem going on. Over here, we're reading in the POV of Kira, (two syllables.. hmm) who's now orphaned and doesn't want to even think about her future. Well, she kind of has to. The Council of Guardians are left to make the decision to find out what will happen to her—and they have plans. Plans which involves her magical talent...

This is how my emotions went through when reading this book:

The beginning was very strong and interesting. Lowry got to her point quickly and by the end, she left us at such a mild ending that I didn't even end up caring about the characters because she failed at trying to connect with us—or at least, myself. The plot was lacking, and overall, this book was obese with things missing, if you know what I mean.

I'm not sure if this book deserves to really have companion novels/sequels, except ones with Jonas's POV. He began the story, made the story amazing, and he should be the one continuing this quartet's legacy, right? It seems like the author forgot all about him and left us with Kira, who was more on the weak side compared to him.

Kira was... acceptable. For her situation and age, I guess you can say that it's okay to feel some sympathy for her. What are you supposed to think when someone's orphaned and left worthless in her unfair world? It has totally moved from utopian to dystopian, in a matter of two books.

The positives? The action, the mystery, the atmosphere. The storyline may have been pretty messed up as well as the characters, but the mystery and action scenes really got me going when they were there. 

Thus, I wouldn't actually bear to pick this book up again, and I don't really recommend it too much if you weren't so pleased with the first book, either. If you thought of the first negatively, then better stay away from this, because you'll be even more upset with the outcome. Gathering Blue? Blue = sadness, therefore gathering sadness is more like it compared to the first.