Although seemingly set in the world of The Giver, this book can stand on its own. It presents another dystopian society, but different from the one in The Giver, where people are controlled through hunger and fear. To bring them to heel, the Singer warns of the atrocities of the past and guides everyone towards an ideal future.

I enjoyed how the society was portrayed, in that it was different, yet the same as the one in The Giver. I also liked that this gave some small amount of closure to the previous book. I’m a big fan of heroines, and although I am happy to meet yet another, I felt like Kira was not fully explored as a character, the book focusing more on plot than character development.