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)

Love the overall idea of the story

I didn’t like that it left so many unanswered questions. I needed more answers, it could have been longer

The Giver stands alone... Messenger needs...

Messenger is actually the end to Gathering Blue and ties the three books together. You need to have read the other two for it to make sense. The Giver to me is the classic and although I am glad to have read the other two, they do not reach as deep or as high for me. Gathering Blue felt unfinished, the end is here in Messenger... but Messenger is short and leaves lots and lots of loose ends unsatisfied for me as well. That said Lois is an incrediable writer and I love her themes, mind and creativty.

Allegory, Eucatastrophe, and Unanswered Questions

"Ah hah!" thought I after getting a few chapters into Messenger (2004), when the third book in Lois Lowry's Giver Quartet finally starts making the quartet a quartet in story as well as theme. Messenger shares characters with its isolated predecessors, Jonas from The Giver (1993) and Kira from Gathering Blue (2000) and makes clear that each of the three stories takes place in the same post-apocalypse world of scattered communities that have responded to starting over differently: enforced sameness and suppression of emotion (The Giver), desperate poverty and brutal competition (Gathering Blue), or acceptance of Others and group harmony (Messenger). Each novel features a young protagonist with a special gift and hence a special destiny for their society. Hints in Messenger retroactively make the earlier books' ambiguous endings happier. . .

Messenger is Matty's story: the little boy who in Gathering Blue is called Matt and has "a dirty face and a mischievous spirit" and boasts that he is "the fiercest of the fierce" and finally brings to Kira both woad and her blind father. At the end of that second book Kira decides to stay in her village to try to improve it, while Matt moves to the blind man's community. Now 14-15, "no longer a boy, but not yet a man," Matty has been living for six years with the blind man, who's called Seer. When people reach a certain age in Village, they receive new names that confirm their roles, and Matty is hoping to some day be called Messenger. He loves carrying messages (telephones being a lost technology), especially when his missions take him through Forest, with which he believes he has a special relationship.

Although Village has been a eutopia where everybody has work and food and homes and everyone welcomes and helps everyone else (especially refugees and people with disabilities), a cancer has been eating Village. Some years ago a tall, dark-haired, accent-voiced stranger called Trade Master started visiting Village to run Trade Mart, where the adult villagers trade away aspects of their personalities for tawdry and transient desires like handsomeness or a sewing machine. And as more people have been trading more of themselves, Village has been losing its harmony. Mentor (the formerly kind and literary schoolteacher) is leading a movement to close Village to outsiders and to build a big wall around it (ala Trump?). Thus Seer's daughter, Kira, may not be able to move there. (One wonders why Seer, who has deep insight into things, and Leader, who sees beyond, haven't noticed the harmful influence of Trade Mart and banned Trade Master--unless their obtuseness is necessary for Lowry's plot.). Not coincidentally, Forest has begun choking people to death with vines, and though Matty feels sure he and Forest are fine, we may worry about him.

For Matty is most likeable! Jonas in The Giver and Kira in Gathering Blue are fine protagonists, but Matty has another level of appeal. His conversations with the wise Seer often take a humorous turn, as when the blind man says that if Kira doesn't come soon, "I'll never see her again," and Matty points out, "You can't see her anyway." When Seer says, "I see with my heart," sensitive Matty regrets his obtuse comment. Although he's often comically frank, Matty also lies now and then (something not done in Village), a remnant of his hard, hustling boyhood in Kira's village. He finds cooking "a bother," despite Seer patiently trying to get him to smell and taste the virtues of chopped and sauteed onions. Matty is tired of reading Moby-Dick and wants a gaming machine like the one his friend Ramon's family traded for at Trade Mart. He loves Seer, Jean (the daughter of Mentor), Frolic (the dog Jean gives him), Kira, and Leader. Matty is a charming and real adolescent boy.

So I don't mind Matty's special gift, healing creatures by laying hands on them, feeling a lightning-like connection, and willing them to be better. He discovered his ability when he held a mutilated frog, felt it die, and healed it back to wholeness and life. His gift terrifies him. Using it is painful and leaves him sick and makes him feel different, and he is unsure what it is, what it means, why it came to him, and what he should do with it. Leader tells Matty, "Don't waste your gift," while Kira refuses to let him heal her crippled leg because it's her.

Unlike in the first two Quartet books, in this one Lowry writes scary violent action (through Forest) and transcendent and romantic fantasy ("in the place called Beyond, Leader's consciousness met Kira's and they curled around each other like wisps of smoke in greeting"). As with the first two books, she is uninterested in explaining the fantastic elements of her story. Who is Trade Master? Where is he from? What is his goal? Where does he get his machines and fur coats? How can he take someone's love of poetry and make them younger? What is the source of the gifts of Jonas (seeing beyond), Kira (seeing ahead), and Matty (healing)? What makes the sentient malevolence of Forest? Is this novel science fiction or fantasy? Actually, it is an allegory, as in Seer's idea that, "Forest is an illusion, a tangled knot of fears and deceits and dark struggles for power." Allegorically, the novel shows that we tend to exchange what is important and makes us happy for what dehumanizes and sickens us. And that "Our gifts are our [non-violent] weaponry." Especially in its sublime, poignant conclusion (no ambiguity this time), Messenger is (so far) the most overtly Christian allegory of the Quartet.

David Morse is the perfect reader for the audiobook; his voice is scratchy, wise, and compassionate. And the ending is accompanied by beautiful, uncanny music just right for the devastating and exhilarating eucatastrophe. If you've read the first two books of the Quartet you should read this one, which links them and looks forward to the fourth. I do hope the last book will answer some of the questions raised by this one.

Oh My Gosh!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would happily recommend this audio book to a friend. Even though it's the third book of the quartet, they can work separately, and you can understand the characters stories just by reading each book. It's a lovely story, well-paced, full of magic and simple, but engaging.

What other book might you compare Messenger to and why?

I don't have any book to compare it to because it's so different from other books I've read.

Which scene was your favorite?

The scene where he heals it all. It is so unexpected and full of grace.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Healing beyond reason.

Any additional comments?

The only thing that bothered me a little it that I thought the story could be longer.

Fantastic Listen!

What made the experience of listening to Messenger the most enjoyable?

The narrator was so moving, his gentle voice able to tell the story from many different perspectives.. The third book in this series did not disappoint. It was nice to hear about Jonas and Gabriel. Also, of Kira and Matty and how they grew.

What did you like best about this story?

What a beautiful story. Every character has a gift and we get to hear about how they use the gifts for the good of humanity... Also, what you give up in order to acquire material things..

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Matty uses his gift to heal the community...

not as good as the others

some of the details seemed off and the story felt a little weak but still good

The plot thickens

Spoiler alert: this is a sequel; (to the best of my knowledge) this book is the second in a series, following The Giver. If you thought that the story ended there, well, you will either be disappointed or relieved. Whichever way, enjoy the new cast of characters.

David Morse is proof that some stories are meant to be spoken.

I enjoyed every bit. The message is one from which we can all learn and benefit. I loved the transformation Village went through- from idyllic to poisonous and back toward goodness.

Incredible!

Loved the story, the narrator, and how it tied together with The Giver. I will recommend this to my children. And friends.

Absolutely loved this

So I read in grade school The Giver by Lois Lowry and decided to read Messenger on Audible because she inspired so much wonder as a young child to me. I was not disappointed! This was such an adventure of discovering ones true self and it makes me wonder if my true self is what I expect it to be as well. I feel like this book was just as good as The Giver and it gave me the same sense of wonder and thought as I had as a child!