#62 in Dystopian
Messenger
- 175
- Pages
- about 3 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“Messenger” is the short third book of “The Giver Quartet”, and the one that begins to tie the earlier, separate stories together. Characters from both previous novels return, so it belongs after them. Lois Lowry writes it as a quiet, dark fable, and some readers who found it slow at first say a second reading revealed its depth. At 175 pages it takes little time and leaves a good deal to think about.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Messenger is a 2004 young adult dystopian novel by American author Lois Lowry, as is the third installment of The Giver Quartet, which began with the 1993 Newbery Medal-winning novel The Giver. The story takes place about six years after the events of The Giver, and the events of Gathering Blue, the preceding novel in the series. Characters from both of the previous books reappear in Messenger and give the novels a stronger continuity.
Reading order · The Giver Quartet
Full order & progress →- The GiverStart here
8.08.0 / 10 - Gathering Blue
7.47.4 / 10 - MessengerThis book
7.57.5 / 10 - Son
7.77.7 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.4 across 297 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 67% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Dystopian average of 7.7. That is how 7.5 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.3 | 21 | 7% |
| Hardcover | 7.4 | 276 | 93% |
Frequently asked
What age is Messenger for?
Messenger sits on the Young adult shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 13 and up. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 175 pages — shorter than 96% of the ranked books in Dystopian.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Dystopian — with scores between 7.4 and 8.0, closest to this book.
