![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Gathering Blue
May. 27th, 2012 07:11 pmGathering Blue
is a loose sequel to Lois Lowry's 1993 young adult book, The Giver
. It has been a while since I read The Giver, but I remember it being a very good book. Gathering Blue is just not as good a book. Sometimes it's hard to be a middle book in a trilogy, but what really killed it for me was the stunted language that the characters called things.
For example, to describe the time of day or season, there are terms such as "day start" or "summer start". A building that was once a church is called the "Council Edifice" and the cross within is called the "Worship Object". The cemetary is called "the Field", and that's where the reader first meets Kira, the young main character, as she maintains a vigil beside her mother's body. Yet other things still have normal names, such as the butcher, the weaver...heck, even the plants that Kira gathers to make fabric dye.
The textiles reference was a good one and ties into the title. Kira learns the art of making dyes after her mother dies and a vindictive villager tries to have her left for dead now that she's an orphan. Kira has a deformed leg, and as such, is judged to be useless. However, a kindly man on the Council of the Guardians, successfully defends Kira and she is invited to live in the Council Edifice where she can repair The Robe for the Gathering in autumn start. The only colour she can't make is blue.
This book had so much potential, and just didn't deliver. The quality of the language is too simple for a young adult reader and far simpler than I remember The Giver being. Lowry filled the book with good ideas - the village that Kira lives in is one without compassion for others, for example - but there are just so many plot holes, even holes in the world building. The villagers live in a simple and rustic fashion, but the Edifice Council has plumbing with flush toilets and hot water. Surely, if civilization had gone all to heck, so would the plumbing! Or, if they mastered building treadle looms, surely they could have figured out some simple plumbing. Maybe there's a 486 and a copy of Encarta in the Edifice Council's basement ;-) It was those sorts of details that really drove me crazy. I just have a hard time believing that civilization could retain some highly detailed knowledge but completely lose others.
There's some conspiracy mystery to the story that isn't played up to its full potential either. It is a quick read, with short chapters, at least.
is a loose sequel to Lois Lowry's 1993 young adult book, The Giver. It has been a while since I read The Giver, but I remember it being a very good book. Gathering Blue is just not as good a book. Sometimes it's hard to be a middle book in a trilogy, but what really killed it for me was the stunted language that the characters called things.For example, to describe the time of day or season, there are terms such as "day start" or "summer start". A building that was once a church is called the "Council Edifice" and the cross within is called the "Worship Object". The cemetary is called "the Field", and that's where the reader first meets Kira, the young main character, as she maintains a vigil beside her mother's body. Yet other things still have normal names, such as the butcher, the weaver...heck, even the plants that Kira gathers to make fabric dye.
The textiles reference was a good one and ties into the title. Kira learns the art of making dyes after her mother dies and a vindictive villager tries to have her left for dead now that she's an orphan. Kira has a deformed leg, and as such, is judged to be useless. However, a kindly man on the Council of the Guardians, successfully defends Kira and she is invited to live in the Council Edifice where she can repair The Robe for the Gathering in autumn start. The only colour she can't make is blue.
This book had so much potential, and just didn't deliver. The quality of the language is too simple for a young adult reader and far simpler than I remember The Giver being. Lowry filled the book with good ideas - the village that Kira lives in is one without compassion for others, for example - but there are just so many plot holes, even holes in the world building. The villagers live in a simple and rustic fashion, but the Edifice Council has plumbing with flush toilets and hot water. Surely, if civilization had gone all to heck, so would the plumbing! Or, if they mastered building treadle looms, surely they could have figured out some simple plumbing. Maybe there's a 486 and a copy of Encarta in the Edifice Council's basement ;-) It was those sorts of details that really drove me crazy. I just have a hard time believing that civilization could retain some highly detailed knowledge but completely lose others.
There's some conspiracy mystery to the story that isn't played up to its full potential either. It is a quick read, with short chapters, at least.
