Messenger, the third installment of The Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry, was a great book. Like The Giver and Gathering Blue, Messenger does not follow the previous protagonists but instead follows a past character in Gathering Blue. Messenger ties in the previous books by incorporating the past characters from The Giver and Gathering Blue. 

Messenger follows Matt or now known as Matty. Matty had first appeared in Gathering Blue and now lives in a village that he discovered while on his first adventure trying to find something for Kira in Gathering Blue. He lives with The Seer, a blind man who was found out to be Kira’s biological father. These two live in the village Jonah, from The Giver, had created. In the new village, everyone is equal no matter the disabilities they have or injuries they come with. Soon, the village changes due to something unseen and they now want to close the village off from outsiders. Before that can happen, The Seer wants to bring Kira to the village to live with him and Matty. Jonah, also known as Leader, does not want to send anyone into the Forest since it had recently become too dangerous. Matty convinces Leader to send him despite it being dangerous and in the end, Matty goes into the Forest to bring Kira to the village. Going through the Forest the first time was alright, but once he began to head back with Kira, things became more dangerous, threatening their lives. 

Throughout the story, we learn the true powers of Jonah, Kira, and Matty. Jonah can “see beyond” allowing him to sense the dangers and view particular things. Kira can weave her threads into predicting the future, and Matty has the power of healing. Messenger ties in the past books of The Giver Quartet and creates more depth to the characters and introduces more lore to the series. 

This book was more enjoyable than Gathering Blue and is on par with The Giver. Messenger introduces more lore and gives more depth to new and previous characters. It has a good balance of excitement and calm sections. Through the calm sections, it builds and introduces characters to see and understand who they are now. Within the more exciting sections, it shows what the characters can do and what they have grown to be. It shows their struggles and what they must go through. When the book finishes, Matty is the hero, healing the area around him and the people around him and is named The Healer. This book shows the true character growth of Matty, Kira and Jonah from how they were in their previous books to what they are now. 

I enjoyed Messenger. The new characters and brought back characters were important to the plot and each had their own personalities and stories. The events in the story were intriguing and exciting. Once again, this book ended in a cliffhanger, but soon I will read the last installment of The Giver Quartet, Son. Lois Lowry has done a great job with this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

-Nicole R. 

Messenger by Lois Lowry is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Sylvia and Autumn were in the auditorium with most of the school. Claire was running with her track team; they were excused from the assembly to practice. Tomás and his best friend (other than his twin sister Sylvia) sneaked into the principal’s office to look at a file.

Then someone pulled out a gun.

Although his attack only lasted fifty-four minutes, the boy with the gun would haunt them forever… This is Where It Ends is the terrifying tale of Autumn, Sylvia, Tomás, and Claire’s desperate attempts to survive a former student’s revenge on those who wronged him.

I would highly recommend This Is Where It Ends to anyone who loves suspense or thrillers. It’s told from four points of view, and all four had a reason to be afraid. It had a very satisfying ending, and while it didn’t end with everyone living happily, it was very believable and heartwarming. Marieke Nijkamp did an amazing job describing the relationships between family, friends, and more-than-friends. The fear people felt for their loved ones and the sacrifices they made were fantastic. And when each chapter only covers the span of a few of the fifty-four minutes, it’s incredibly hard to stop reading!

Overall, This Is Where It Ends was a very good book, and I would not hesitate to give it 10 out of 10 stars!

-Caitlyn O.

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

This book was the most devastating masterpiece I’ve ever read. The story starts off in the POV of one of the main characters, Rune, as a child. He just moved to Georgia from his home town in Norway because of his father’s job. He met Poppy, his next door neighbor. Rune called her Poppymin which meant “My Poppy.” They instantly became best friends, creating a bond that could never be broken, or so they thought.

*This review contains spoilers.*

The next chapter was in the POV of Poppy as a child where her Grandma she called Mamaw died. Her dying wish was for Poppy to fill up a jar with pieces of paper in the shape of a heart and on each heart she had to explain every one of her boy kisses. Her Mamaw wanted Poppy to fill the jar with a thousand boy kisses because one of her favorite memories were the kisses that her greatest love gave her. She wanted the same for Poppy so gave her this task as her last adventure.

Years later, Poppy and Rune are together fulfilling Poppy’s Mamaw’s last wish. But an unexpected roadblock gets in their way. Rune had to move back to Norway for his father’s job, leaving his greatest love behind. They were of course devastated and a few months later after Rune moved back to Norway, Poppy dropped all communication with him, leaving them broken up for 2 years.

Rune moved back to Georgia 2 years later as a different person. Dark, sad, and alone. Little did he know the real reason why Poppy cut off communication with him was because she was trying to save him from the burden of her terminal cancer.

I was crying throughout every chapter in this book, It completely broke me. Poppy and Rune rekindled their relationship even though Poppy had months to live. They stayed together throughout those last few months of her life trying to make those months happy for Poppy.

Toward the end of Poppy’s journey, she and Rune completed Mamaw’s wish by completing the thousand boy kisses jar. The thousandth kiss was the one Rune gave her as she passed to the other side. Rune filled out the last paper heart for Poppy.

“Kiss 1000. With Poppymin. When she returned home. My heart completely burst.”

This book was the saddest, most devastating thing I’ve ever read in my whole life. Poppy and Rune’s connection was so pure and they deserved the world. I loved this book with everything in me. 5/5 stars. Read if you want to cry but also read if you want to read a masterpiece at the same time.

-Kaitlyn D.