So, obviously, I'm about to read it. Margaret Mahy writes an introduction in this copy saying: "..'The Giver' is a very different sort of story from the stories about Anastasia. And it shows that Lois Lowry can write a sinister book as well as a funny one.
'The Giver' is possibly the most alarming story of all her books - a disconcerting book.....a book for young adults and adults rather than younger children, though good and thoughtful readers of perhaps eleven up could certainly read it with understanding and appropriately mounting apprehension."
Hot off the press the book "isn't a horror book", I'm reliably informed, "but it makes you think about it for days and days."