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Aug 05, 2017DBRL_KrisA rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Lowry wrote Gathering Blue as a companion piece to The Giver. It's not a sequel, in that it doesn't have the same characters as the first book. Instead, it provides a sort of counterpoint to the earlier story - a sort of "what if". In "Giver", the society is highly developed, well-structured, organized through a system of citizens doing what they're told, never questioning, working at their assigned jobs. And in a way, "Blue" has some similarities - jobs assigned by the leaders, take the information provided at face value, never question what you're told. But where the society in "Giver" is clean and organized and (to some extent) kind, the village in "Blue" is dirty, disorganized, angry. The strong prey on the weak; the old and infirm are cast out from society. It's just "the way it's always been done". Kira is a girl (not yet a woman) whose mother has just died. Her father died long ago, killed by beasts outside the village. (Don't go outside the village; don't stray from the paths. The beasts will get you. Have you ever seen a beast? No, but they're there because the village elders say so.) So Kira's an orphan, and has a twisted leg that makes it hard for her to work. She's useless in the eyes of many in the village, so she'd normally be cast out of the village to fend for herself (and die), but she has a gift with sewing so she's given a special job in the Village Council House. The strange disappearance of some members of the community, along with some other things that don't add up (like the dangerous beasts one never sees) begin to make her question the motives of the village elders. I liked some of the things Lowry used to describe the village: the idea of adding a syllable onto a person's name as a sign of increased age and maturity; the way the people of the Fens talk; Matt and his little doggie. I liked the idea of the Singer, with his robe and his staff, telling and showing the people their history; it reminded me of the scene in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome where they used cave drawings to tell the people's history. This was a decent book which - although part of a series - can stand alone; there are issues left unresolved at the end, but Kira has set herself to fix things, so there's a sense of completion that gives a good finish to the book.