Messenger

By: Lois Lowry

Narrated by: David Morse

Length: 3 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

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 has 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.

©2004 Lois Lowry (P)2004 Random House, Inc., Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic reviews

"Builds suspense to the last heart-wrenching page." (Booklist)
"Simply and beautifully written..." (The New York Times Book Review)

Healer

Okay, so I guess I probably should have mentally prepared myself for the ending... but I still found myself a little stunned by it.
WARNING: SPOILERS
It’s not often that I cry for books.
I cried for this one.
I was trying to tell myself that they’d make it through forest, that they’d heal their world together. But deep down I knew... Maddi wasn’t going to make it. Part of me was disappointed that Maddi had to take his own life in order to fix things and save the people he loved, (I mean, yes he saved everybody, but he was such a great component to the story and such a huge part of the other character’s lives. Now that he’s gone, it feels like there will be such a huge gap in the community.). At the same time though, I do understand that the author kind of painted herself into a corner with all of the problems in the world of Messenger, Maddi was the only possible resolution.
I guess what I’m saying is, Maddi healed everyone else, I just wish there was someone to heal Maddi.
On a separate note, the background music at the end of the story kind of ruined it for me. It did NOT go with the heavy tone of Maddi’s death AT ALL.
Overall, this story was an important tale of selflessness about a few people trying to fight the evil in the world with a bittersweet ending.
PS. What was with Forest, an enchanting beautiful place, suddenly going totally psycho? Would have liked some more closure with why Forest turned evil.

Unexpected ending, loved this read

My 8th grade daughter read The Giver for school and it turned out to be one of her favorites, so I decided to give it a listen.

The Giver: The story line was engaging and the main character was well developed. I enjoyed this coming of age journey of questioning, exploration, discovery. I also loved that the story demonstrated acts of courage, grit, determination, and perseverance. I was so engaged, I immediately listened to the two additional titles in this collection and thoroughly enjoyed them all.

Gathering Blue: In this book, the author develops a completely different society and a very unique character in Kira. I liked this title even more than The Giver. Specifically, this story demonstrated the intrinsic value of "broken people" (as characterized by this society) and how their uniqueness can contribute in some of the most meaningful ways to society. Again, the characters demonstrated acts of courage, perseverance, grit, but extended to also include bravery, wisdom, compassion, love, and understanding.

Messenger: This title pulls together the first two books in a unique and unexpected twist. While the second book was my favorite, I really enjoyed this title as well. The portrayals of two sides of humanity and how quickly societal and cultural shifts can occur was on point (especially in our current culture in the US). The emotional roller coaster of light and dark was engaging and kept me pressing 'play' in every spare moment. In this title, we see a continuation of all the acts above, and extend further to see self-sacrifice / putting others above oneself of poignant relevance in this book.

I've thoroughly enjoyed this series and highly recommend it!

the best of the series... so far

Messenger:
This is probably the best of the series!

" 'No. It's all an illusion.'
Matty frowned. He didn't know what the blind man meant. Was he saying that fear was an illusion?"

"to start fresh, and begin a new place from what we had learned and carried from the old."
Messenger by Lois Lowry

"Turn your back to the past as it burns,
Carry with you from it only what you've learned,
For experience from what you endure you've earned,
But you must move forward lest you yearn to return,
When life is truly the future's to discern,
So turn your back to the past as it burns."
As it Burns, poem by Kyle Crawford

"hours and days and weeks seemed to go by, yet oddly, only a blink, an instant, of time passed. Today and tomorrow and yesterday were all spun together and held in those hands that moved and moved and moved, yet her eyes were closed, and the fire still flickered"
Messenger by Lois Lowry

"Leader shrugged. 'For a woman,"l' he pointed out. 'People do strange things.' "

"When finally he slept, his dreams were layered over with an awareness of rot and the imminence of terrible danger."

"But there seemed no victory to it. Only a pause in a battle he was bound to lose."

"The blind man was alone now, with his fear"

Excellent! again Excellent

If you listened or read the first book of "the giver" then you will enjoy this book also. I really hope that a 4th book will be written. All three have left me wanting to read more. I would recommend this to anyone.

I'd listen to David Morse read the phone book!

I think I read this story out of sequence and had problems figuring out what was happening until I re-read the Giver and Gathering Blue. Lowry does write interesting, well-thought-out, characters and environments and this is no exception. My original reason for getting it, and why I wound up with it out of sequence was that I saw it was read by David Morse. I've liked his acting, and especially his voice, since the days of the medical show he was on when he first began TV work. I can't remember the show, but I remember him.

worth it

It is a very good book. The narrator caught me off guard and, at first, I didn't like him. Eventually you get used to it though and his voice is quite fitting to the story.

One of the best discoveries

I read the first book in middle school, the second independently in high school. When I went to go and reflect upon the books again, I found this book. It was short and to the point, though I would have loved to learn more about Matty. He was a character you could fall in love with from the previous book in the series and see how he evolved as a person over this short novel. I felt as though it expanded the world I knew of from the first two books. Absolutely amazing and it brought me to tears at the very end. I don't find it often that books bring me to tears, but because of how well it was written it did.

Third book in series.

I like how the three books are located in different towns but connected. Looking forward to Son.

Great book

I loved it, and am moving on to the 4th book. Narrator was good too.

Curious ending. (No spoiler)

As always the writing style of Lowry is consistently engaging but it seems to me, at first read, the that the ending was plucked from air and not consistent with any foreshadowing or dialogue. Perhaps I need to listen again with the end in mind to see how this type of ending is logically possible within the “Gathering Blue world” that Lowry has created. I enjoyed it all the way up to the seemingly implausible conclusion.