Messenger (audio)

Six years after Gathering Blue finds Matty living in Village with Seer, the blind man.  Once a peaceful and welcoming, the villagers are becoming angry and mean.  They have voted to close Village against newcomers.  Now Matty must convince Seer's daughter, Kira, to come back with before Village closes.  But Forest has given Matty a warning against entering its depths.

*highlight white for spoilers

After being a little disappointed with Gathering Blue, I was happy with Messenger.  It was so sweet and good and answers many questions.  It's funny because Gathering Blue and Messenger seem so different from The Giver, but together they give a complete picture of this world.

A big motif is names.  In The Giver, names are handed out and are reusable unless the person has committed an unthinkable travesty.  In Gathering Blue, length of names is based on age.  So the young tikes have only one syllable names and the older they get the more syllables their name becomes.  In Messenger, once a person reaches a certain age, they get their true name which signifies who they are and what they do.  So Jonas has become Leader and Kira's father, Christopher, is Seer.  All Matty wants is to become Messenger, which he thinks (hopes) is his true name.  But Matty is destined for greater things and it is interesting to see the little thieving funny boy grow up into this sweet and loyal young man.

I admitted to crying when Matty dies on Twitter.  I was so saddened when that happened, but I am amazed by the choice he makes to heal everyone.  It is a  poignant moment in the book and I wonder what it means for the world at large.

All in all, there is an a big difference between the villages shown earlier in the series and Village in Messenger and it was good to see what happened to Jonas.   But I don't remember a mention of Gabriel.  And I'm pretty sure Leader and Kira get married.  I was highly satisfied with the ending of this series even if it was sad.

David Morse is the narrator and I loved his sad, gentle, reassuring voice.  He was a great choice for narrator and he did an excellent job with the vocals.