The Giver is an awesome book. I can't really remember it very well right now, I read it a long time ago... but I remember the contrast between the highly limiting black and white world and the full color liberating, human experiences the Giver.. gives the main character.
How that extended and "full color" understanding of human experience make the boy feel constrained and chaffed by his surroundings.. how he starts to see his family as small and ignorant as he realizes how little they appreciate the beauty of it all.

Didn't any of you have to read "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson in high school? These books reminded me very much of that short story and it is quite dark and brutal. I read it as a freshman or sophomore.

In case you haven't read it, here is a link.

I read these books because a friend lent me a stack of books (yay for having friends who work in bookstores!) and the first one was in the stack. They are easy reads and I was curious about where it would go from there so I picked up the other 2 at the library. I wouldn't have bothered otherwise. I also love me a good dystopia and I have definitely read much darker books that didn't necessarily have more violence. I have also played video games with teens that have a lot more violence and darkness in them but without as much of a message. In these book at least most people feel sorry for the good people that die and see that good can fight against evil. I'm glad I don't have kids so I don't have to make decisions about what would or would not be appropriate for a teen to read.

I well remember "The Lottery." We read it in my high school English class. I have later wondered how such a story got into the highly censored and sanitized textbooks we had for Literature. Still gives me a chill sometimes when I think about it.

Another short story with the same feel as "The Lottery" is "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas", Ursula K. le Guin. We read it here on BT. Check out short story forum and you will find a link to the story.

The similarities aren't as close as some of the books mentioned, but I remember thinking of The Running Man by Stephen King. A totalitarian dystopia is behind both plots.

Suzanne wrote:Another short story with the same feel as "The Lottery" is "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas", Ursula K. le Guin. We read it here on BT. Check out short story forum and you will find a link to the story.

Ooo, will do! I didn't know she had any short stories and I generally like her writing.

I really liked all of the hungergames-books. Real pageturners for sure, even though some parts in the third book were a bit boring.

Haven't read the third Hunger Games yet, but my daughter keeps trying to shove it under my nose...so I'm sure I will soon.

Shirley Jackson has loads of short stories btw

I have a love hate relationship with Hunger Games (As I do with The Inheritance Cycle and Harry Potter) and it is because of the ending. I was fully gripped to all three series the entire time only to be let down by the endings (I actually threw the fourth Inheritance Cycle book, all 850 summin pages straight at a wall) I'm sure since this discussion was started so long ago most have read it now but I will put the rest under this:

SPOILERS

I feel Katniss just gave up. The whole story ended sappy and she was pretty much going "well I can't have the guy I want and you want me so I guess we can get married" It actually says that Peeta convinced her to have kids. I mean really? I get it, she was scared to bring children into that kind of world and he helped her overcome that fear but it was forced. The whole ending seemed rushed and didn't go along with the rest of the writing (Don't get me started on Harry Potter and how the writing style was 100% different)