Book Review of Son by Lois Lowry

Goodreads Summary: They called her Water Claire. When she washed up on their shore, no one knew that she came from a society where emotions and colors didn’t exist. That she had become a Vessel at age thirteen. That she had carried a Product at age fourteen. That it had been stolen from her body. Claire had a son. But what became of him she never knew. What was his name? Was he even alive? She was supposed to forget him, but that was impossible. Now Claire will stop at nothing to find her child, even if it means making an unimaginable sacrifice.

Son thrusts readers once again into the chilling world of the Newbery Medal winning book, The Giver, as well as Gathering Blue and Messenger where a new hero emerges. In this thrilling series finale, the startling and long-awaited conclusion to Lois Lowry’s epic tale culminates in a final clash between good and evil.

Goodreads Rating: 3.96 stars with over 44,000 ratings
Genre Listing: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Fiction, Fantasy, Children's, Adventure
Get the book: Amazon, Book Depository
My other reviews on Lois Lowry's books: Messenger, Gathering Blue

Review:

Edited 12/1/2016

I'm just going to come out and say it. I'm glad to be finished with this quartet. I hadn't planned on reading Son, but I needed to know the conclusion. I guess it has a conclusion or something that vaguely resembles an end with the words "The End" tacked on to it.

The first part of Son had my interest. I liked Claire's story and going back through her and Jonas' community. It felt very Giver-Esq to me, more so than the previous two books in the quartet. I enjoyed her time post-community story when she was in the village remembering who she was and training to "climb out." My problem with her story is post-climb out to her being in the Village. She just kind of shows up in the Village and a lot of unaccounted time has passed.

The story eventually makes it way back to Gabe and Jonas. I found their parts in the story rather boring and rushed. There wasn't anything exciting that happened. Gabe's encounter with the Trademaster, in the end, was probably supposed to be exciting, but it wasn't at all. I was hoping that Kira would have been in this a bit more, but she was pushed way into the background where all she did was offer food and take care of her kids. I didn't expect her to be a main component of the story, but it would have been nice to see a little more of what made her so special originally.

I don't think Lois Lowry likes writing conclusions. I guess in Son it was all wrapped up, but it was still pretty vague. I wasn't particularly impressed with this book. Overall, I just don't think the remaining books could follow the hype of The Giver. Each book seemed to drop off a little more, resulting in a pretty disappointing series. Son started out with promise but quickly fell short of it.