This was a really quick, easy read, but not that good of a book. I found it a bit hard to follow the details at times and would often just accept ignorance because I didn't care enough to check what an acronym stood or find out who a character was. The writing style was also a bit odd. It felt like the author was trying very hard to make it pretty, but wasn't all that successful, and the pretty writing felt at odds with the darkness of the mystery/thriller.

I called the ending from the beginning and my biggest complaint of this book was that it was just too boring and predictable to hold my interest. It wasn't terrible, but I'll probably have forgotten it in a week.

Continued disappointment in my random cop mystery/thriller reads. Although when it's bad from page one, I don't know if it can be considered disappointment anymore. My expectations continue to drop lower and lower. It's a cliche, boring cop thriller that doesn't even have a whodunit mystery to propel it toward the end because it tells you from page one who the kidnapper is. That can be a very interesting story telling device, but it doesn't work when the story around it just isn't up to par. The writing was awful and stilted. The characters were at best unlikable. It continuously reinforced gender roles. And mostly it was just boring.

Cops investigating lead after lead to figure out who kidnapped the baby isn't suspenseful when you the reader literally know who did it and why.

I really enjoyed this book, which surprised me because books centered around amnesia are usually difficult for me. I loved the writing and character development. It immediately sucked me into the book and I read the first 50 pages without stopping once. I couldn't wait to get to the end. The reason I only gave it three stars is because of the amnesia. I really don't like it being a focus because it always winds up making the books feel repetitive and drag on a bit, just by nature of it being amnesia. The first and final acts were my favorite, with the bits in the middle being interesting, but I did feel that I struggled a bit more with them.

Overall, this left me really excited to read SJ Watson's next book.

This was a reread for me and I actually listened to the audiobook. I'm always very torn on this book. There are aspects I really enjoy, some of the stylistic writing elements, some of Leah's inner dialogue, some of the grim realities of eating disorders. And I really enjoy and appreciate those.

But there are also elements that I feel don't work as well. Too much of it feels romanticized, but it also manages to feel like a PSA. And some of the stylistic elements felt too gimmicky. But my biggest problem with this book is that it always feels like it was written with the intent to trigger. I don't think it was, and I love Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, so I'll always give her the benefit of the doubt, but it feels like it was. I just can't get behind it as much as I would like to.

I wanted to like this book. I really wanted to like this, but I just didn't. The characters mostly felt like they lacked personality and rational motivation. The plot telegraphed itself hundreds of pages in advance and I wasn't surprised by anything. I didn't care what happened to them. But I was enjoying it until the main character became involved in a lot of rape fantasy sex play. That's something that makes me really uncomfortable, especially since it was written by a man.

I can see why other people would enjoy this book, but it definitely wasn't for me.

This book was fine. It was a generic mid 2000s contemporary YA. I didn't feel much when I was reading it, but I did marginally enjoy it. I wanted it to be something more, something memorable, but honestly it was just a forgettable book that entertained me for the better part of two hours. It didn't really make me feel any emotions, I thought the 28 year old sleeping with the 18 year old on her literal birthday was gross, and it was all just a little deadpan for me.

It was just fine. Nothing more, nothing less.

This book made me cry. A lot. I identified incredibly strongly with Eden, and I was so sucked into her story and arc. I read this in one day and would have finished it in one sitting, except I got interrupted.

I did have some critiques. I think maybe if I hadn't identified with Eden as much as I did, this might have been a three star read for me. It felt very melodramatic at times and I found myself think it was too much at quite a few points throughout the story. There's only so many times the main character can run crying from a guy who's proclaiming his love for her before it feels just a bit ridiculous. It didn't really bother me, but I think it would have if I hadn't related to Eden as much as I did.

I also felt there was a fair bit of slut shaming that was never addressed or discussed critically. That bothered me quite a bit. The critique of slut shaming seemed to only include "it's bad to bully" and not "you shouldn't judge someone for having sex." I didn't think that aspect was well done at all. But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

This book isn't as good as The Giver. It lacks some of The Giver's underlying charm and simplicity. I also feel that it's a bit more geared toward a younger audience. Where The Giver can be appreciated regardless of age, I felt this would be more enjoyed by a kid. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this book on its own. Kira is a compelling main character and it's a very different kind of village. The story didn't have as satisfying an arc, but the ending left me immediately grabbing for Messenger, which I have already started, and I'm looking forward to the conclusion of the series.

Probably the weakest of the series for me. Still a good read, but the use of a "big bad" made the story feel weaker than the previous two books. I didn't like where the story went or that things still weren't explained because of how in detail this book went while the previous two kept it vague. And I didn't like the ending. It felt very unnecessary.

I was expecting something more. The Giver series felt more like four separate books that interconnected rather than one complete series. None of the questions I had after The Giver were answered. None of the questions I had from any of the prior books were answered either. She never explained anything further from any of the books. Too many times in this book and previous ones she'd say something like "and then things changed" without going further in depth. I felt like The Giver got away with that as a standalone, but as I series I needed something more.

I thought this was going to be the conclusion that tied everything together, but it really just felt like an entirely different book, as they all did. I was left feeling very disappointed. I didn't hate this book or any book in the series, but it was just okay on its own and kind of bleh on the series as a whole.

This was also the first book that I would classify as completely young adult, where I'd consider the previous three middle grade (Messenger borderline).

I'd one hundred percent recommend everyone read The Giver, and Gathering Blue wasn't as good, but still a worthwhile read. Messenger and Son just didn't do anything for me and I'll probably forget they were even a part of this world.