Messenger

Messenger

by Lois Lowry

Genre: Juevenile Fiction, Dystopian Fiction

Synopsis:  He carried messages for [the people].  It was his job.  He thought that when it came time to be assigned his true name, Messenger would be the choice.  He liked the sound of it and looked forward to taking that title.

But this evening Matty was not carrying or collecting a message...He headed to a clearing he knew of, a place that lay just beyond a thick stand of bristly pines...He needed privacy for this thing he was discovering about himself: a place to test it in secret, to weigh his own fear for what it meant.

Six years earlier, Matty had come to Village as a scrappy and devious little boy.  Back then, he liked to call himself "the Fiercest of the Fierce," but since that time, Matty had grown almost into a man under the care of Seer, a blind man whose special sight had earned him the name.  Now Matty hopes that he will soon be given his true name, and he hopes it will be Messenger. But strange changes are taking place in Village.  Once a utopian community that prided itself on its welcome to newcomers, Village will soon be closed to all outsiders.  As one of the only people able to safely travel through the dangerous Forest, Matty must deliver the message of Village's closing and try to convince Seer's daughter, Kira, to return with him before it's too late.  But Forest has grown hostile to Matty too, and he must risk everything to fight his way through it, armed only with an emerging power he cannot yet explain or understand.

From the book jacket

Review:  This book started out slowly.  It took me a while to become interested in the storyline.  Matty is a character who we met in Gathering Blue so there is a connect between this book and the last book.  I liked the community that Matty lived in but there just wasn't enough of a plot.  Nothing really happened in this book.  There was some action at the very end but that was about it.  At least I didn't end this book wanting to know more.  I'm satisfied by how this book ended.

Rating: 2 1/2 stars

To read the review of The Giver, click here.

To read the review of Gathering Blue, click here.