Lois Lowery's The Giver is a solid novel with an interesting plot and serves as a pretty good introduction to dystopian narrative themes. I would recommend it to any middle school aged kid and above.

Initially, I read this book when I was a kid and absolutely loved it; that version of myself would have definitely given this book 5 stars. That said, re-reading it as an adult, I did not find it nearly as surprising or mind-blowing as I did half a lifetime ago. The story is okay and entertaining, but it is nowhere near as illuminating as I once found it to be.

Plot points that once ignited dredd to violently drop to the bottom of my stomach as a kid, seemed almost predictable as an adult. There are also simply better authors out there that have written better dystopian books (e.g., Octavia Butler, Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, etc.), so I think I've been spoiled.

I had to think hard about what truly irked me though, and it came down to the lack of personality in the characters. Without giving away major plot points, there are at least two characters that could have been written with more individuality than the others. All in all, the most interesting (and heroic) character was Rosemary, who is also the only character I remembered from my first read-through as a kid.

My nitpicking aside, this is still a solid read, so decide for yourself.