This review is on SON by Lois Lowry. It is the second book I have read by this author. This book is part four of The Giver Quartet, composed of The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son. I have not read books two and three. The Giver was released as a motion picture in 2014 and I saw it on DVD. It was great and followed the book closely; again not explaining what happens to the main character, Jonas, at the end.
This book starts out with a young fourteen year old girl named Clair who has been assigned the role of Vessel or Birthmother. Clair is about to have her first child and she must wear a blindfold so as not to see the “Product” after it is born. It is easier this way to avoid feeling any attachment to the baby.
This is a problem with the birth and Clair ends up having a healthy, but troublesome, baby boy. Unfortunately, Clair can no longer have children and is told she has been decertified and must be reassigned to another job in the community. Soon Clair begins to have feelings and realizes that she really misses her child and wants to see him.
Clair is determined to find her child and figures out a way to visit him in the nursery. At this point in the story, Clair meets the man who cares for her boy and finally gets to hold her son named Gabe. Unlike other mothers in the community, Clair develops true feelings for her child and is determined not to let him go.
When Jonas escapes and takes Gabe with him, the connection between Book 4 and Book 1 is made. Form this point on the story goes in a new direction. Clair decides to leave the community to find her missing son. Clair faces many ordeals in her search for her son and the world she knew vanishes forever.
I give this story four stars because the writing is very good and the author makes you feel the emotions the new characters experience in this book. I choose this book to find out what happened to Jonas and the baby boy after reading The Giver. There is no ambiguity in the telling or ending of this story. Perhaps I will read Books 2 and 3 in the future to see how interconnected they are to the same story line in Books 1 and 4.