Messenger (The Giver Quartet #3)

Reader reviewed by Bookworm9

Mattys life in Village with his elderly companion Seer is close to perfect. Matty feels important because he is the only member of Village who can safely travel through Forest, delivering messages to the outside world. Hes sure that when its time for him to get his true name, it will be Messenger.

But frightening things are beginning to happen in Village. With the advent of Trade Mart, people are beginning to change, and not for the better. Soon, Village will no longer be open to outsiders, and Matty is sent on one final journey through Forest to spread word of Villages closing and bring Seers daughter Kira back with him. But for the first time, Forest is no longer friendly to Matty. Will he be able to get Kira home safely? Is Village worth returning to?

Messenger is the third in Lowrys eclectic trilogy, and I admit I dont know if I like the linkage. The Giver is a great book that should really stand alone, with its ending open to interpretation. I didnt really enjoy Gathering Blue, the middle book. I did enjoy Messenger, though it was not as strong as The Giver. I saw the point in including the characters of Jonas and Kira in this book, and at the same time I was kind of wary of the connection. Messenger is much more a sequel to Gathering Blue, with less of a link to The Giver, except for the inclusion of Jonas. Also, Lowry seems to expect readers to care more about Jonas and Kira, and the possibility of a relationship between them, rather than about Matty, which isnt necessarily the case. Read it for what its worth, but I still like The Giver best by itself.

Reader reviewed by Dominique



Messenger is like a sequel to Gathering Blue. This time, the story is told from Matty’s point of view. He leaves the place where he grew up to go to Village, where he lives with Seer, a blind man. Matty is welcome at Village, where the people who live there help Matty become a better person.


Matty becomes a messenger for Village. He knows the forest well and is not afraid of it. He is sometimes sent to deliver messages to the people of Village, but sometimes he has to go past the forest. But after sometime, Village is not as peaceful and calm as it was before. Things change, and Matty is sent by Seer, back to his original home to get Kira, the Seer’s daughter. Matty must convince Kira to come to Village before it is too late.

This was a pretty good book. Although in my opinion, Messenger was not as good as Gathering Blue, I would still recommend it to you if you liked The Giver and Gathering Blue or books by Lois Lowry.