Anthem: Clarity by Zedd
Rating: ***1/2
Risk: X, all but nothing.
Review: I read this book over a year ago and saw the movie even before that. The sequels are okay, but nothing tops this first installment. The book is middle grade, which is noticeable in the style, but overall it's an atmospheric novel enjoyable for everyone. I would round off to four stars on Goodreads.
The following will contain minor spoilers for The Giver.
Unsuited for age group
The primary problem with this book is its theme of child euthanasia. In the world Lois Lowry describes, some babies are killed because they don't sleep well or because they don't grow fast enough. Even one half of a twin is always murdered because the government has decided that two identical people in a community are inconvenient. A character's daughter requests euthanasia and the government grants her wish. Only no citizens know the people die because the government does not tell them. All they are told is that these individuals are 'released'.
Now, there are many relevant themes discussed in the book, for example, the loss of individuality and the question whether the riddance of positive things is a good price to pay for the riddance of negative things. And I do understand that euthanasia is a hard subject to discuss with children of ten or eleven. However, the safest place to debate conflicted and painful points is fiction. I would not encourage a teacher to tell sixth graders of all the real-life discussion surrounding real-life euthanasia when he teaches about The Giver. (Even if it were only for the fact that the issue is highly simplified in the book.) But later on, when they grow into the knowledge more, they will have a significant edge, for they have experienced something through someone else's eyes already that resembles the problem at hand.
I had to add this scene. It might not be true to the book, but I love the clip of the memories: The Giver ending scene.
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