Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Unavailable
Son: The Giver, Book 4
Unavailable
Son: The Giver, Book 4
Unavailable
Son: The Giver, Book 4
Audiobook8 hours

Son: The Giver, Book 4

Written by Lois Lowry

Narrated by Bernadette Dunne

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

"They called her Water Claire."

When the young girl washed up on their shore, no one knew she had been a Vessel. That she had carried a Product. That it had been carved from her belly. Stolen.

Claire had had a son. She was supposed to forget him, but that was impossible. When he was taken from their community, she knew she had to follow. And so her journey began.

But here in this wind-battered village Claire is welcomed as one of their own. In the security of her new home, she is free and loved. She grows stronger. As tempted as she is by the warmth of more human kindness than she has ever known, she cannot stay. Her son is out there; a young boy by now. Claire will stop at nothing to find her child . . . even if it means trading her own life.

With Son, the two-time Newbery Medal-winning Lois Lowry has spun another mesmerizing tale in this thrilling and long-awaited conclusion to The Giver.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 2, 2012
ISBN9780449014479
Unavailable
Son: The Giver, Book 4
Author

Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry is the author of more than forty books for children and young adults, including the New York Times bestselling Giver Quartet and the popular Anastasia Krupnik series. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, Number the Stars and The Giver.

Related to Son

Related audiobooks

YA Fantasy For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for Son

Rating: 3.8620907260705293 out of 5 stars
4/5

794 ratings77 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the conclusion of The Giver quartet. What a wonderful finish or wrap-up to this story. I really enjoyed the first book, The Giver, and was slightly confused how book two fit with it as there was nothing about The Giver characters in it. Then book three slightly tied the first two books together. But this one brought them all to a great conclusion and also answered several questions. What happened to Jonas, what happened to Gabe, and who was the Trade master. Very beautifully written, this book kept my attention and pulled me into the story. When Claire did her trade with the Trade Master I was yelling at her not to do it. But she needed to in order for the ending to happen. She needed to so that events would fall into place to end Trade Master's evil. This is a wonderful series of books. Great as audio book entertainment in the car.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book started out stronger than the second and third of the Giver series. As I read the first section, I was amazed at how much it reminded me of The Giver - and not just because it was set in the original community. It seemed to me that Lowry's writing style was different in the second and third books, but was back in stride for Son. The Giver will always be my favorite because it was the first, but I really think Son rivals that book in strength of both writing and story. It could be argued that all four of the books are a little depressing considering the subject matter, but in my opinion the second and third were very dark, and it was hard for me to be swept away by them because they seemed hopeless from the beginning. Son, however, has many obstacles to tackle, but there is hope above it all. I really loved how it wrapped everything up so nicely, and can appreciate the second and third books now for the necessary stepping stones they were to bring everything together for this ending.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    These books have been a strange combination of YA dystopian and fairy tale. The last one brings most of the characters together and makes a full circle when Gabe's mother gets her own story and comes looking for him.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really liked this, but I didn't love it.

    The Writing and World-Building

    I really liked how this book goes into some more mature themes, like motherhood, apathy, abuse, and depression, but found that in the third part, where it should have climaxed and been at its literary peak, I found it somewhat lacking. There were some characters whose arcs weren't really completed. I did, though, really appreciate the return of the Trademaster, though he did feel rather stereotypical and cliché.

    The Characters

    Claire: I really loved Claire. She made an excellent protagonist for the majority of the book.

    Einar: I seriously freaking love Einar. I only want the best for him! I just want him to be happy and loved! ❤❤❤

    Gabe: He was a bit too similar to Matty to really feel like anything special, though I did like him.

    Alys and Benedikt: They were so cute!!!

    The Trademaster: A little tropey, a little Trumpy...

    Conclusion

    I liked it enough, and it worked as a suitable conclusion to the Giver, but I was still rather disappointed.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The story of Claire from the same world as Jonas, (The Giver). She was assigned birthmother, but something goes wrong. She's re-assigned and then goes to the fish hatchery. But she has a longing to be with her child.
    I don't want to go into detail of what happens, because her journey is the story.
    In the end she makes a trade with the Trademaster from Messenger and her son Gabe has a longing to find his mother.
    This book is a little more advanced in emotions and relationships that may not be for elementary, but middle school and high school for sure. The word choices are not difficult and the story is woven well.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I love the way everything was tied together and ended well with this series. Sometimes, there's nothing wrong with a happy ending.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a perfect And beautiful series. I loved them all!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This story comes full circle through the series. I love that Lowry brought it together that way. This is a phenomenally good story that I would call a bit fantasy and paranormal. It is a study of human culture and of good vs evil. I highly recommend this series. I will surely read it again.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    After the second book, I wasn't going to read any more of this series, but a friend loaned the 2 remaining books and so I continued. The more I think about the plot of the last book, the less I like it. Why would a woman who had the resolve to spend 6 years training to climb a cliff to see her son accomplish the feat only to then lose the will to tell her son who she was, but skulk around for another several years? This made no sense, except that the author was stuck on having a Christ-like boy sacrifice, which she had already done in the previous book. I suppose the title should have been a giveaway.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It's hard to review a "series" book without giving away too much. So much takes place that is affected by what you're already read. Suffice to say, if you HAVEN'T read the preceding three books in this series, STOP what you are doing, and read them.

    Good. You're back. Excellent. And you've read "The Giver", "Gathering Blue", and "Messenger". Now then. I STILL can't in good faith give away too much of what goes on in this story, because it ties up so many loose ends in this world. More than I can mention, and more than even I realized. But a good summary might go like this: Claire, a birth mother in the same village as Jonas, the central character in the first book, gives birth to her "product" (the baby, her son) and in childbirth is rendered incapable of further child-bearing. As it happens, said child turns out to be a very important recurring character in the previous books, and as Claire's journey to discover--and then FIND--her son reaches from her original home, down a river, then to a settlement on the shores of a great sea, up the side of a cliff, and finally to the village we have previously visited in "Gathering Blue" and "Messenger". Along the way she makes a trade which at the same time points her toward her goal...and make it unlikely she will ever reach it.

    It's a fascinating tale and ultimately satisfying, and the only reason I don't give it five stars rather than four is that the denouement is perhaps a bit too abrupt for my liking. But it's Lowry's world, not mine, and I give her all the credit in the world for not only creating it, but for making it so utterly engrossing that I would go through all four books in less than ten days. And I am NOT a speed reader.

    I suspect kids from 8 to 18 would eat this stuff up. Even those who blinked their eyes at "Messenger" or wrinkled their noses at "Gathering Blue" (the best of the four, in my estimation) will enjoy it, and likely will quickly search out its predecessors. Which considering their quality, cannot be a bad thing. Parent, please oblige them! And enjoy the books along with them.

    In summary: this is a worthy finale to an epic tale, one which deserves its place among classics, childden, adult, and every age in between.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I loved reading this book, as well as, "The Giver" and Lowery's companion books. However, I did feel that Claire's story was very long and involved and I would have liked to learn more about Jonas and Gabe. I would have liked to know more about Jonas' gift. (**Side note** - I did not read "Messenger" but did read "Gathering Blue". Might have missed something by not reading that book, yet!)

    Overall, I was excited to finally learn what had happened to some of the characters in "The Giver". Claire's perspective of Jonas' father was interesting. He seemed much the same as he was in the first book - giving and caring toward little Gabe. I would recommend this and any of Lois Lowery's books to any upper elementary student, especially those who enjoy dystopian literature. A great entry place for this genre.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Good. It ties all of the books together.

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Son brings the reader back to the community of The Giver. This time we hear the story of Claire, a female just a few years older than Jonas. Their lives intersect in unexpected ways and ties the reader to her sad tale. The conclusion to The Giver quartet, though the longest of the series, was not as complete as I had imagined. The moral thread carried through the books was present, but I wish there had been as much detail in the third part, called Beyond, as there had been in the first two sections.
    My own wish was that Ms. Lowry had done more explaining about how this world came to be, perhaps more about the gifts given to the main characters. So much was left open to interpretation and my own feeble hopes for characters I came to care about.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Right now this is the only member of the Giver Quartet I've got- I plan to get "The Giver," but I'm not sure about the other two. This one was out of the library and my curiosity was piqued enough to buy a copy- Gabe's mother was out there looking for him? What happens? Moreover, what happens to Jonas and the rest of the characters that have come together? Though I'd welcome another book in the series, I was pleased with how everything came together. The most interesting part, however, ended up being seeing another perspective on the community that Jonas left.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The concluding part of The Giver quartet. We learn the story of Gabe, the baby in the first book, and his mother. At the end evil is vanquished. I found the early part of this book quite uncomfortable reading but that has more to do with my emotions around motherhood than the book itself. I am glad I persevered as it really is another excellent story. By half way through I was totally hooked and read at every opportunity. It is very satisfying to have so many loose ends tied up but without seeming like that is all the book is doing. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I read The Giver and quite liked it. It seemed more nuanced than a lot of YA stuff. When I read Gathering Blue and Messenger, my interest flagged, but I picked up Son both for closure and because I thought it a great ending might redeem the whole series.

    I was disappointed.

    It's not an awful book, it just irritated me. First there was the training montage during which I had the Rocky theme song running through my head on repeat, followed by the interminably climb. Then there were little inconsistencies that annoyed me, like Claire realizing that she "loved" Gabe even though in The Giver, it wasn't until Jonas received it from the Giver that he---and presumably any member of the community---had any concept of love, much less knowledge of the word. It would have made sense if this scene had happened after Jonas had left the community and the memories had been released, but this was before. Maybe Lowry's point is that people in the community didn't really need the memories to feel the feelings, but then, why did it take so long for anyone to have any and do anything about it? And really, based on the rest of the book and the way the messages are hammered home, if that had been her intention, I'm sure I would know it and not just be speculating about it.

    Then when Claire and Jonas meet up later, Jonas asks about when Claire stopped taking the pills, but earlier in the book, there was this big thing about how Claire never took the pills. She hadn't started before she went off to be a Birthmother and somehow she'd never been given pills after she gave birth.

    I find this kind of thing irritating. If an author (and/or her editor) isn't going to put the time and effort into internal consistency, why should I give my time and effort to read the book? But of course I did read the book, and since I can't get that time back, I feel like I just got a bum deal from Trademaster.

    My daughter seems to have lost steam after Gathering Blue, and I'm not going to encourage her to keep going. I'm really bad about quitting books that aren't doing it for me; it's not too early for her to learn the importance of knowing when to cut your literary losses.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    A rather unnecessary conclusion to the Giver. I did really enjoy and maybe even "love" Gathering Blue & Messenger, even though it ruined The Giver's brilliant ambiguous ending. This was a simple, plot-driven story that seemed like a forced "ending" to the other 3, when with both books 1 & 3 the ending was settled and fine as-is. Son fails to provoke thought--I paused briefly at the end to ponder the possible truth of the concept that people who are miserable ("evil") thrive on seeing the pain and hurt they cause and that perhaps to really hurt them you can show them how happy and unaffected you are by their schemes.... but that was the only time I thought at all, save for the making connections to book 1 (plot-wise). I am barely glad I did read it for the sake of saying I did, nothing more.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The story is broken in to three parts, Before, Between and Beyond. Claire is a Vessel, she carries a Product but the delivery doesn't go as planned. After the childbirth she is moved to working in the fisheries. She's curious about the child and when she finds him she visits him. Then he disappears and she is determined to find him, she stows away on a ship.Then she's Between, living in a small fishing village beneath a cliff, trying to recover her memory after the ship capsized and learning how to live in this different culture, where she encounters things she never knew before. One of the villagers once climbed the cliff and was left crippled, but he teaches her to climb and what she finds at the top will change her life and the life of her family forever.It's interesting but I found that the ending left me wanting more.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great ending to a great 4- book series!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Told in three parts, we get a book that attempts to tie together the world Lowry began building in The Giver. Part one focuses on the mother of Gabe and her attempts to get to know her son before he is released. This was easily the best part of the book. Part two continues to follow the mother after she has left the society. At this point, it becomes very disjointed and takes a good chunk of the book to find its footing again. Part three focuses on her "reunion" with her son and leaves the reader with a less than satisfactory conclusion not only to the book, but to the series.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    3.5 stars

    I liked this last installment in Lowry's "The Giver" quartet. I read The Giver over two years ago and it has stuck with me. When I read a fellow reader's review of one of the sequels, it sparked my interest in reading the other three. They were extremely easy to read and left me with a feeling of good-over-evil and a desire to read the next in the series.

    I was pleasantly surprised by the layout of this last story, with three sections which addressed three characters that devotees have loved since The Giver was published to accolades in 1993. The sections flowed seamlessly into one another, but were all different stories with different trials and outcomes. It was like reading three novellas to make one large story arc. Brilliant.

    Since these are YA books, I appreciate the tidy ending to each story, but feel that real life was addressed through aging, death, and a very real evil present in their lives. This is a very good series with an equally satisfying ending. The only thing lacking is the prospect of another in the series. I expect these books will become classics. It makes me want to go back to the first in the series for a re-read, and what can be better than that?

    Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    *sigh*.

    I did not like this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Narrated by Bernadette Dunne. Whether it's grave dystopia or an outside community of simple living, Dunne captures the ambience of both worlds and its inhabitants. A satisfying close to the series that began with "The Giver."
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An amazing ending to the series. It seemed a bit rushed at the end, but the beginning and middle were captivating!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Well, shoot, now how are English teachers going to assign their classes to write the rest of the ending to The Giver if Ms. Lowry answers a ton of the questions herself right in this book? (Heh).Anyway, this is the fourth book in the 'Giver' series. And it pulls together almost everything from the previous three books into the same story. It starts with Claire from the same community/town as Jonas, but who a couple years before Jo was picked as a birth mother. Claire had her child, #36 of that year, but something went wrong and she got reassigned to the Fish Hatchery. The story goes from there, mostly following her journey as she tries to reconnect with her son.It's an amazingly expansive story, and like with the other three stories in the Giver series, it never forgets about the characters or relationships also. We have Claire who with every chapter we find has new layers to her. Gabe who has quite grown up since the last books. Alysis a great supporting character who's quite the helper on Claire's journey. And then there's Einar. He turned into my favorite character in the whole book. Claire meets him once she gets out of the community where she grew up and like her he has many, many layers to him. And even as the book ends I felt like there could be another one just about him. That seems to be how Lowry writes. On the one hand the stories get well concluded while still being wicked open ended.But the part that I like most about this series' books, especially this one, is that it's always fun to try and figure out what these characters are talking about, what something like a fish as big as a boat really refers to. I like thinking of how Lowry's world fits (or doesn't fit) alongside our real world.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Summary: Claire never really had any plans for her future, but she was still disappointed when she was selected to be a Birth Mother at her Ceremony of Twelves - despite her parents' reassurances, everyone knows Birth Mother is not a particularly prestigious job. But when her first pregnancy goes wrong, and they have to cut the Product out of her, soon she doesn't even have that to hang onto. She's transferred to a new job, but she makes a secret vow that she will one day find her baby - her son. But that path is longer than even she could have realized, because her baby is Gabe, the infant that Jonas took with him when he fled the Community. Claire must leave as well, but how will she find her way in a world that's unlike anything she's ever experienced?Review: The action in this book takes place in three sections - one with Claire in the Community, as she's a young woman, one where she is living in a pre-industrial village and suffering from amnesia regarding her former life, and then the third where she has encountered the Tradesmaster and come to the town where Jonas and Kira and Gabe are now living. So this book echos the three books that came before, in a way, and my opinions about this book tally fairly well with my opinions about those books.Specifically, the first two parts were pretty enjoyable. It was interesting to see another side of the Community other than Jonas's, and although I still have issues with "how things got to be this way", I was able to suspend disbelief enough to just go with the story most of the time. The second part was equally interesting, nice to see Claire grow up and learn to interact with the people around her. However, a lot of this part is taken up by what, in the movie version of this book, would be condensed into a training montage, so I thought that could have been a little quicker.It's the third part where things went awry, much like the third book that I really didn't care for. In theory, I don't mend the melding of sci-fi and fantasy, but so much of this book (and the ones before it) is spent building this dystopian world (or worlds, in the various villages), that all of a sudden you toss in some magic, and some magical realism, and some woo-woo blathering about the human spirit or something, and that's where you lose me. This book, and the series as a whole, would have been so much better if the Trademaster didn't exist. But as is, I enjoyed the first two thirds of the book - they're not perfect, but they're enjoyable - and then I spent the last third rolling my eyes out of my head. 3.5 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: Better than I thought it was going to be (translation: better than Messenger), and fans of The Giver will enjoy it for sure. It needs to be read after The Giver for sure, but would probably be understandable without reading Gathering Blue or Messenger - it'd been years since I'd read them and I'd forgotten most of the details, and I still followed along just fine.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a perfect ending to the world of the Giver. Lois Lowry ending the book with so much creativty. Nothing in this book was a let down and it was a great way to get the answers that we wanted for so long.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A great wrap up that ties everything together.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This last book didn't live up to my expectations from the other three in the series. I have had a while to process, and I think it was a fine ending. Knowing what happens to everyone involved is ok. Seeing that more people are still developing 'powers' that others don't have can give you a lot of imagination fodder. Gabriel defeating the Trademaster is a bit of a let down though, because it sets the world up to be one where bad things can be defeated, and the purpose of all the others seemed to focus on having hope even though there is evil/bad out in the world. The overrunning theme of hope is what kept me coming back, and in a few paragraphs that was lessened IMO. But I also have to remember that if I want things to happen a certain way, I should probably write a book myself. :) The writing style was consistent and I liked having an ending after wondering for so long what laid in the future for everyone.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    what a terrible let down. The Giver is one of the deepest, most thought-provoking books ever written, in my opinion. it asks questions and leads us though a world like our but stark and full of the stress of oppression, vague but ever-present. the imagery and description of feeling and non-feeling is superb and immediately engaging.

    the other three books felt nothing like this. they were simply decently written YA books. but the last book, this one- Son- i had hopes for. i hoped Lowry would redeem herself and explain wtf was going on in these books and maybe even why her writing style changed. she did not.

    in fact, as my girlfriend adroitly pointed out, Son ends abruptly, as though Lowry just got tired of writing and decided that's enough. many parts of it were trite and hokey. at times, i felt like she was hitting me over the head with Deep and Meaningful Passages. unlike The Giver, where i felt that she was showing us rather than telling us; using nuanced metaphors and tropes rather than hackneyed old storytelling cliches.

    if we were to compare this to films, i would have to say The Giver is like The Matrix while Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son are like the last two of the Matrix films: they might be interesting and entertaining as stand-alone works but in the context of what has come before, they fail miserably. it feels like contractual obligation to me rather than actual artistic endeavor.