The Giver by Lois Lowry is a futuristic dystopian book about a boy named Jonah who lives in a utopian community where everyone is completely equal and life is seemingly perfect. On his 12th birthday, when everyone in his age group receives their job assignments, Jonah receives the assignment of the Giver. The job of the Giver is to hold the memories of life before the world became perfect, and it is through this job that Jonah uncovers the dark truth about his reality. I would definitely recommend this book to just about anyone.
The writing is engaging and the characters are entertaining but what really makes this book great is the world-building. Lois Lowry manages to create a dystopian and utopian society at the same time, prompting questions about society and human nature. The methods she uses to create a perfect world results in parallelism with the ideal society humanity likes to fantasize about while exposing the flaws behind said fantasies. The world-building encourages questions relating to ethics, psychology, morals, sacrifice, harmony, humanity, and civilization.