Merry Wanderer of the Night:
dystopia

Today's Memory Monday guest is Lauren, whom I adore! I love chatting with her on Twitter and we've had some pretty rockin' awesome conversations! She's got a great post today so, Here's Lauren!

I'm Lauren, a 20 something college student/bank teller/book addict. I'm an old soul with a thirst for literature and just plain reading for fun. I love my family, my friends, my boyfriend, my dog, and my books. I blog at Ravishing Reads and you can also find me on Twitter as @ravishingreads.

The first book I remember reading that stirred something in me is The Giver by Lois Lowry. Little did I know when I read it, it would be my first dystopian novel, a genre I would later fall head over heels for. In The Giver, Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back. {Summary from Goodreads }

This summary just gives you a snippet of what lies inside. I remember connecting so much with Jonas. When he felt things were wrong, I felt things were wrong. Never had a movie or book had ever made me relate so much to a character before. I remember everyone in my class complaining because it was an assigned book to read. I also remember thinking, "What the heck is wrong with you people?" I honestly think I was the only one in my entire class who read the whole book and enjoyed it. I recently checked it out at the library and reread it for old times sake. I felt like a little girl for about the two hours it took for me to read it. It is geared towards middle grade children, but even now, it still sends a chill up my spine. When The Giver started showing Jonas what the real world held — the pain, the anguish, the suffering — he was spent. But then The Giver showed him what love was. How love and peace conquered all and that was it for Jonas and me. We both knew we had to get out. To let the others know the truth. See, back in the day, me and Jonas we a team. No superhero/crime-fighting outfits. We were just armed with the truth and the ability to change the world. Lois Lowry changed my world. I think that book opened my mind and heart to reading. And my Grandma may have had a little something to do with that as well, she was a high school English teacher. But I will never forget Jonas. And as crazy as it might sound, Jonas will never forget me.

And I just want to give Ashley a special thanks for letting me be a part of her Memory Monday feature. Ashley is completely amazing and I'm so glad I've met her. <3
Aww! Thanks Lauren! I <3 you too!:)

The Giver by Lois Lowry is a reread for me. I originally read it as a sophomore in high school and I was pretty neutral about it. I don't think it was the type of book I was really in the mood for and I know that I sped through it really fast (because reading only 3 chapters a night in a book this small was torture for a kid like me) and I admit that I read it a bit grudgingly. I was never that kid that hated a book because I was forced to read it. There were a few books I didn't particularly enjoy reading, but this is the only one, in all my years of schooling that I remember not liking because they made me read it.

I read the companion novels, Gathering Blue and Messenger and I simply loved them. So I figured that I must have missed something within The Giver and I decided that I would reread it sometime. But, in the meantime, I will also admit that I claimed to like The Giver as much as I had liked the other two books, but I'm admitting now, that it wasn't true. Then.

Now, however, that's all behind me and OH MY GOODNESS! I'm sitting here, staring at my 15 year old self in shock wondering why on Earth I didn't love this book. Because it is amazing. Far too amazing for the words I'm going to use to adequately describe this book.

Here is a book that makes you wonder, makes you think, makes you question. It follows a young boy, Jonah is not quite 12 when the book starts, and the whole story takes place in just over a year. We watch as Jonah is transformed from a young, naive boy into someone who has wisdom and understanding thrust upon him. Most of you reading this review have either already read The Giver or I'm sure you've heard about it from someone. So, it might be that it's impossible for me to spoil anything for you. BUT I think the way Lowry has written and crafted this story is so important, so powerful and so impactful when read 'right' that I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone. So there is a lot I'm leaving out, a lot I'm leaving for you to discover, or rediscover, as I did, all on your own.

You learn in the beginning of the story that the world Jonah lives in is full of structure, rules, regulations, and careful, careful planning. Every detail of their lives is planned by the Elders. Everything is meticulously planned and there are no deviations from this. They are taught from a very young age how they are to live, how they are to be. And no one questions anything, because none of them know any better.

The only question I have about the story is something I can't address in a review like this, because while not, perhaps, an actual spoiler, it does contain something of the story that I think needs to be revealed to the reader, one page, one thought, one memory at a time. I wish the idea of memory had been explored a little deeper in the novel but I find the idea behind it utterly fascinating. Definitely very Jungian though. Makes you wonder.:) (Any of you know what that means? Or am I the only Psych nerd: P)

So really, what I guess I'm trying to say here is that this is a novel worth reading and it is defintiely a novel worth reading again and again. I imagine that there is much Jonas can teach me, about life and what makes it worth living and about what I'm willing to sacrifice in exchange for comfort and whether I have the right to make certain choices for later generations. It's a book to make you think, a book to make you feel and one that I can already tell is going to draw me back for a reread again and again. It is not to be missed.

Blood Red Road by Moira Young is one of those books that you just need to read to get it. I didn't know a lot about this book when I started it. I knew that the cover gives the impression of desolation, barrenness and heat. I knew that it was a somewhat post-apocalyptic novel, set sometime after the end of the known world. And, I knew that the main character was on a mission to find and save her twin brother, who she viewed as the light to her shadow.

And I'm glad. I think that knowing so little about this book before I started reading made the book more exciting, made the level of tension I felt while reading so much stronger. I want others to have that same experience, to be able to experience that same level of surprise and excitement as they read, learning about the new world with Saba, learning about Saba's strengths as she does.

The cover of Blood Red Road sets the perfect tone for the novel. Saba and her family live in a vast desert. The nearby lake is drying up, taking with it their only source of water. Their family is almost completely isolated and Saba and her siblings know very little of the world outside their home. As is often the case in the post-apocalyptic novels, when things change for Saba and her family, the change is drastic and there is no going back.

Saba starts out with a very basic, very simple understanding of the world. She knows what she knows, believes what her father tells her, and has a very narrow, very specific and fixed world view. She doesn't leave a lot of room for gray areas. But as her world begins to change, she is forced to analyze and examine the possibility of change. She begins to realize that there are other ways to view the world and that she is, perhaps, too hard on others, too hard on herself and too quick to cast things and people aside. Watching Saba grow into herself, watching her become this amazing and strong person was insane. From the beginning of the novel to the end, she changes completely. And yet, she also stays exactly the same. She does not lose the essential pieces that make her who she is, but they grow and mature to allow for a deeper understanding of people and the world. I want this girl to be on my side. I want to be her friend.

The secondary characters were also amazing. Each was fully formed and with many of them, we see them change, and they also help us measure the changes in Saba. Her perceptions and interactions with varying characters show us this, help us understand that integral role that character had on Saba's growth without ever needing to tell us about it. The growth doesn't need to be told, because it is plainly visible.

I also loved the writing in this book. It's just as sparse as the landscape of the story, but it's rich. The dialect writing might throw some readers off initially, and it does take a few pages to get used to, but by the end of the novel, Saba's voice is so strong that the words just pour off the pages. You don't need to stop and analyze or verify the specific words, because you just know. It's what Saba would say. It's what Saba does say, and it's plain as day.

I would say that this is one of the strongest debuts that I have read this year and it's a book that I highly recommend. The story is paced perfectly. And for me, the ending left nothing to be desired. It is obvious that there are plans for a sequel but this book doesn't leave you in the middle of a scene, chomping at the bit to see what happens next. You will want to know. You will need to know. But it's more because you just have to spend more time with these wonderful people that the need to know how the scene you just cut off will end. As far as the characters go — they characters are far from perfect, far from ideal but they grow and mature and are so very, very real that their flaws are just another sign of life. I feel like Saba and the rest of this cast are just waiting to be born, just waiting for the world to destroy itself so that they have the chance to redeem themselves.

*Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.