The set-up for the dystopian world of ‘The Giver’, a society that exists in a Utopia having obliterated pain and suffering because it has forgotten memory, emotion and colour, is simple but effective. The book focuses on twelve year old Jonas who is not granted a usual job best fit for him when he comes of age like his classmates, but rather the burden of becoming the receiver of memory, advisor to his utopian society as he is the sole holder of the burden of the ills of the world. Gradually as Jonas moulds into his new responsibility he comes to realise his world isn’t as Utopian as it seems. 

The world of ‘The Giver’ comes to criticise a unity and sameness in society that has been upheld by some regimes, doing it in a simplistic way which hold back me really appreciating this book as with its length I feel the world building is not as solid as other dystopian works, in addition to the limited perspective of a child protagonist possibly hindering it, but conceptually it is brilliant. I realise this is the first of a series that has often been read as standalone therefore the fundamentals of the society Lowry creates will only develop and enhance, however that does not necessarily make up for weaker groundworks. Further, the sequels don’t look like they pick up directly Jonas’ story, therefore the ambiguity of the conclusion might be all the reader remains left with, though I am speaking in hypotheticals here.