Summer Book #14

Son by Lois Lowry

The fourth and final book in The Giver Quartet, this one brings it all together. The book actually starts a little before The Giver does, and in the same community. It tells the story of a birthmother, about to give birth to her first product. Her name is Claire. Things go wrong, and they end up having to do a C-section. It leaves Claire unable to have anymore children, so she is reassigned to the fish hatchery. Claire is left with feelings, and this, as you may remember, is unheard of in her society. She wants to find out what happened to her child, a boy. Turns out, her child is Gabe.

She spends time at the nurturing center just to be able to spend time with her son, though no one knows she is the one who gave birth to him. She finds out he is going to be released, and she leaves the society the same night Jonas leaves with Gabe.

Claire ends up in another society, one more primitive than the one she left. I say this only because they live in huts, and use plants for medicine, much like the society from the second book. Claire has lost her memory, and must try to remember who she is and where she comes from. I am not sure that everything became clear for her, but she knew she had a son and she wanted to find him. One of her friends in the village trained her so she would be able to climb the cliffs and leave the village. She manages it, but at the top, she runs into the Trademaster. She trades him her youth so that she can find Gabe.

Find Gabe she does, but she is an old woman. Gabe is an unhappy lad because he wants to find where he came from. He builds a boat and plans to leave, but Claire has a talk with Jonas, telling her who she is. Jonas in turn talks to Gabe, who finds it unbelievable at first. Gabe then goes to battle the Trademaster so that his mother can be her true age again, instead of about to die.

Sometimes, there was an overabundance of details, and sometimes there weren't enough. It ended well, and it was a good series to read.