Our Discussion of Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin

Gifts (Annals of the Western Shore #1) by Ursula K. Le Guin

Scattered among poor, desolate farms, the clans of the Uplands possess gifts. Wondrous gifts: the ability—with a glance, a gesture, a word—to summon animals, bring forth fire, move the land. Fearsome gifts: They can twist a limb, chain a mind, inflict a wasting illness. The Uplanders live in constant fear that one family might unleash its gift against another. Two young people, friends since childhood, decide not to use their gifts. One, a girl, refuses to bring animals to their death in the hunt. The other, a boy, wears a blindfold lest his eyes and his anger kill.

In this beautifully crafted story, Ursula K. Le Guin writes of the proud cruelty of power, of how hard it is to grow up, and of how much harder still it is to find, in the world's darkness, gifts of light. Goodreads

Below are a sampling of our comments:

• Loved it and love her (the author) – the writing is beautiful. It’s a simple and familiar fairy tale and mythology with observations and insights of life
• Do I care about this story?
• I liked it, but was not excited by it – it was a nice read about tortured teenage angst
• Le Guin is good at dealing with big moral questions and allowing readers to draw their own conclusions – she doesn’t say what’s wrong or right, but shows things from both sides
• It was well-told, a good story – is that it?
• Orrec was battling with good and evil in himself and was determined to control it – it was a real surprise that he didn’t have power
• But it wasn’t entirely clear if he had power or not. Did Orrec’s father wield the power instead of Orrec?
• It was a coming of age struggle to be your own person
• The Celtic background in this story has been used in so many fantasies – the use of the white cows was similar to the stories in The Cattle Raid of Cooley, an old Irish epic tale, the use of the upland and lowland, and much more
• We needed more of Gry – she had the insight that the gifts were being used backwards to hurt instead of to help people and she was strong enough to refuse to use her gift the way her family wanted her to
• Gry was not just a manic pixie dream girl

Please add any additional thoughts or comments you have about Gifts. We gave this title the codes AGE, ETH, FAIR, HOME, MAG & YA with an average rating of 3.6.