messenger

In the middle of the forest, far enough away from everything else, lay Village. It was a peaceful place, and a healing place. People from other places came there, but not just ordinary people. They were the ones who were hurt, or disabled, or ostracized. And Village welcomed them, made them well, and gave them a new life.

Village has Leader, a wise young man who could see beyond things. He had pale blue eyes, and maybe you'd recognize him from The Giver. Then they had Seer, a man who had been brutally blinded in his previous village. And they had Matty, who had not received his proper name yet, but who wished it could be Messenger. His job is to go places, bring messages, and navigate Forest, which no other person could do.

Forest is alive. It kills. It gives a Warning to people who enter it, and once you get a Warning, you should never enter it again. Seer has had that Warning. But Matty had never been harmed in Forest, and he considers it his friend.

Something ugly has come to Village. Kind people became cruel. There was sickness, and sadness, and hatred. And the people voted that Village be closed to visitors. Leader sent Matty to bring messages to the path and to the other places that Village will be closed. Seer sent him with a different mission: to bring his daughter Kira home.

Matty goes out on a dangerous journey, and it is where he discovers his true gift. It is where he is given his real name.

A lovely story to close the trilogy. But to me, The Giver is still the most amazing of it all. You keep wanting it to be more, to take you farther. You wish it were a thousand pages long, more like Stephen King's Dark Tower series. :-)