I know that this is one of those "beloved classic" books. They force you to read it in school and the teacher marvels at the use of symbolism, imagery, and all that stuff, but when I read The Giver by Lowis Lowry in the eighth grade, I despised it. If you are not familiar, it is about a young boy, Jonas, living in a dystopian society where everything and everyone is controlled and equal. No one gets choice or preference; medicine is taken to control emotions and colour vision is eliminated. However, this is changed when he chosen to become the next Giver, and he receives special knowledge and memories that begins to change his perspective.
I think that if I had read this book outside of school or when I was older, I might have appreciated it a bit more. I felt like we completely over-analysed this book, held too many forced discussions about the plot and the characters, and it completely ruined the book for me.
However, I think it was the vague ending that was the worst part. We, as a class, speculated on what we think happened, but the open-endedness really bothered me. I hate ambiguous endings; I absolutely love it when books/movies end with all the questions answered and the loose strings tied up. Don't ever leave me hanging, books. I hate that so much.
I think that if I had read this book outside of school or when I was older, I might have appreciated it a bit more. I felt like we completely over-analysed this book, held too many forced discussions about the plot and the characters, and it completely ruined the book for me.
However, I think it was the vague ending that was the worst part. We, as a class, speculated on what we think happened, but the open-endedness really bothered me. I hate ambiguous endings; I absolutely love it when books/movies end with all the questions answered and the loose strings tied up. Don't ever leave me hanging, books. I hate that so much.
Runners-Up:
Beatrice and Virgil- Yann Martel This is the same guy who wrote Life of Pi, which I loved. I was really excited for this book, but I was horribly disappointed and shocked. It's about a writer who meets an eccentric taxidermist who turns out to be an escaped Nazi war criminal. There are some graphic moments of cruelty and it felt like it was put in for the sake of being "shocking and edgy". Overall, it was awful and I ended up skimming the last half of the book. | The Swarm- Frank Schatzing I read this book so long ago that I'm a bit fuzzy on the details of the plot. I do remember that weird things begin to happen throughout the world. Whales are attacking ships; toxic, eyeless crabs show up and poison everyone's drinking water. Something, somewhere collapses. There's a group of scientists that get together to figure what's been happening, but then they find some sort of sentient thing under the sea. This is a massive book (you could probably hurt someone with it if you threw it hard enough across the book), and I hated it. It was unengaging, bogged down by terrible characters, and had an ending that made me feel like I wasted my time. |