Customer Reviews

The Cure

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Don't be fooled! This book isn't just about the future, where everyone wears a mask and things like music and love are forbidden. Deep within is a tale set in 1348 during the coming of the Black Death. In "The Cure", Gemm 16884 is sent back in time in hopes that he can forget his interest for music and individuality. What follows is an amazing tale of survival, passion, togetherness, and courage when sixteen-year-old Johannes and his Jewish family work hard to keep their traditions alive whilst millions of Christians plot against the Jews because they believe that the Jews are responsible for the pestilence which has raged their land.

I was interested in this book because of the science fiction aspect, but now I see that "The Cure" is so much more than that.

This book is recommended for students in grades 7 and up.

this book is amazing! it follows a boy named gemm 16884. gemm 16884 lives in a futuristic, perfect society. in this society everyone is perfect and doesnt know love or pain or practically and emotion. they live by conformity and see diversity as a horrible, troubling, bad thing. gemm 16884 is different though...he hears music. music is not known to anyone and therefore he is different. the elders of this society want to make him go through the cure to be cured of this monstrous thing he hears,music. gemm 16884 goes through this program where he becomes a jew named johannes living in germany in the year 1348. at this time jews weren't treated like regular people. they were treated badly and dehumanized. this book follows johannes and in a way gemm 16884 is living through him. after all the hardships johannes goes through in a year, gemm 16884 wakes up, only a day passing in his society. he saw all the things and emotions johannes went through. he experianced love, pain, hatred, and many things. the pain was so great he didnt want to hear music and be reminded of the horrible things johannes went through. he wanted to conform and be like everyone else. however, at the end of the book, gemm 16884 realizes how much there is out there, like love and music. this book is wonderful and just pulls you in. this is by far my favorite book.

I originally picked up this book because it reminded me of The Giver by Lois Lowry, an absolutely fabulous book that I recommend to anyone who enjoys The Cure. I originally thought I'd love reading about Gemm 16884 and tolerate reading about Johannes in order to understand Gemm better. I was pleasantly suprised to find myself enthralled by both of the main characters. I've read books on the holocaust in the past, including Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen, and enjoyed seeing the differences and similarites between that period of Jewish history and the one portrayed in this wonderful book. The Cure also provides a look at ignorance and prejudice on two levels, again showing differences and similarities. The underlying message of freedom and acceptance is anything but corny and cliche. And it had just enough of a scifi twist to satisfy me, a die-hard science-fiction fanatic.

In the year of 2407, Gemm 16884 is a sixteen-year-old boy who lives in a world of tranquility. Passion, hate, violence, and diversity are considered deviant and forbidden. Gemm was a very special exception in that world and finds happiness through music by singing. He was given a choice of “recycling” (death), or The Cure. Doing anything to live, Gemm choose The Cure and was sent back to Strasbourg, Germany, in the year of 1348 as a Jewish moneylender’s son Johannes. Johannes was a cheerful young man who loved to make music on his flute. In Germany, because of the pestilence, Jews were blamed for the cause and was segregated from the gentiles.... Sonia Levitin used very detailed descriptions on the everyday lives of people in the medieval times and portrayed what really had happened. Her book shows that we cannot live without pain and it is an experience to teach human lessons. We cannot just banish negative emotions and live in a world where everything is the same.

(this is Candice's daughter, Elizabeth) when i first got this from my school's bookfair, i figured it would all be set in the future. i was glad that i did get a little history lesson out of it. i happen to be jewish and i identified with the ridicule a bit. at the second to last chapter i almost lost hope, seeing Gemm as a hypocrite. thank goodness i read the last chapter. Gemm has great hope and is a very interesting character. i have read very few books that were this great. some have said this was like the Giver, but it's better than that. it's the fight for love and happiness!

Far in the future, the year 2407, a society of perfection exists. Children are paired with a life partner from birth, someone perfectly compatible with themselves, with almost the same genetic structure: a twin. These sets of twins travel through life together, keep each other company, and are similar in most ways. Then again, most people in this society are similar. Each person wears a mask, so no person's true face is ever seen. They live in a state of perpetual peace and tranquility, with no passion for good or bad. There is no diversity and no conflict, and anything other than passivity is seen as dangerous. This is all that Gemm 16884 has ever known.

Then he begins to have strong feelings. He feels rhythm. He feels song bubbling up inside of himself, and he needs to let it go free. Such behavior is deviant in his society, and everyone around him is horrified. He thinks he may even be put to death for the way he is, but then there is a bit of hope. There is a cure--for Gemm 16884 to experience a bit of history, to live the life of someone from the ancient past who also had a love for music, so he could see how painful music and the things associated with it could be.

Gemm is virtually implanted into the body of Johannes, a young man living in Germany in 1348. He is a musician and a Jew, and it is a bad time for Jews in Europe. A plague is sweeping through and in many countries Jews are being blamed and killed for causing it. Gemm has no memory of his real life in 2407; he is living the life of Johannes, a life that may be doomed.

I hadn't realized that the Jews were so persecuted so far back in history, so this book was an interesting history lesson for me. I didn't like how the females in this futuristic society were so frivolous, and so subservient to the males. I also didn't like the ending to this book; it was a bit muddled.

The Cure by Sonia Levitin is a very unique and spectacular novel. Levitin ingeniously brings the reader into two totally different worlds that are set 500 years apart. She does a great job of explaining the attitudes of people at two different time periods.
Gemm 16884 is having issues. He is creating and hearing music. Music in this utopia is a sheer sin. The authorities try to help Gemm discard his musical abilities, but they can't. Thus, the high elders leave Gemm with two choices. He can either be "recycled" (killed) or can undertake a cure, which is unlike anything he has ever been through or witnessed. Nevertheless, Gemm takes the cure option.
This cure takes us back into the medieval ages. We are found in Stroasburg Germany where Gemm has become Johannes, a Jew who is a talented musician and son to a moneylender. At this time the black plague was spreading. Everyone blamed the Jews for starting and spreading the plague. Because of this, Johannes is faced with many life and threatening obstacles that keeps the reader entertained.
Levitin does an excellent job of distinctly bringing us into two different worlds. She was really able to alter the way the characters spoke in the future and the past. Levitin also does a great job with the setting. She is able to use these little details that can really give you a great picture of the place the characters are in.
What kept me reading this narrative was to find out how Johannes would be cured. I also wanted to see how Gemm was able to get through all the hostilities he faced and what would happen to his family.

The Cure is the heroic tale of two very similiar people from different times. One from a perfect society in the future, a future allowing no emotions or diversity in any way. The other character a jewish boy from Strasbourg, at the time of the Black Death. The Cure is a page turner, expressing both the hate and the love one can feel towards another, while also giving you a lesson of the hardship of the jews in Strasbourg. This book mixes the harsh truth of our past and the grim possibility of our future. I loved it.

This was a very good and exciting book. It takes place in the future in the year 2407. A boy named Gemm 16884 is considered a threat and is given the choice of being "recycled" or undergoing a painful and mysterious cure. Gemm chooses the cure. The elders describe what will be happening to him, Gemm doesn't fully understand all of it and has many question but understands that he will not know that he is from the future. He is now a 16-year-old Jewish musician named Johannes in Strasbourg, Germany, in 1348, at the beginning of the Black Death. As the pestilence starts to spread, people in town start to worry and accuse the Jews of causing the disease. As everyone begins to hate Johannes he must hold on to his family and faith. Can he ever return to the future and become Gemm again after having known emotions like pain and love?
This book is about a boy named Gemm 16884 who lives in the future.
Gemm 16884 has a passion for doing things such as sing and dance, which is prohibited there. To try and cure him from this desire, a group of elders put him in a trance that will make him live the life of a Jew in the Middle Ages, which will supposedly cure him. This book gives a detailed description of how hard it was to live the life of a Jew back then. In the first place this is a great book because there is constant action throughout the book. Secondly this was one of my favorite reads in a while because It really felt like you were there watching the events go by. Finally one of the other reasons why this book was so fun to read was because it pulled me in and I did not want to put it down. One reason that this book had me so hooked was because it was so historically accurate. It gave a detailed description of how it was like to live in the Middle Ages as a Jew while the black plague began to spread all over, and they were blamed for it. For all of the reasons above, this is why The Cure by Sonia Levitin is such a great book to read. If you want a great book to read for school or just a read at night, this is the book for you.

The Cure was a very interesting book about a futuristic boy named Gemm 16884. In this time the human race has decided to eliminate racism and emotion by having every one ware masks and pretending as if their emotion does not exist. Because music is considered to bring emotion to humans, and Gemm 16884 ca not stop making it he takes part in a experimental cure where he take on the role of a Jewish musician in Midlevel Europe named Johannes. Johannes while he does not remember his life as Gemm 16884 experiences pain, joy and love. He struggles to keep his faith even though the majority of the populous feel is the reason for the plague which has just begun it's onset of death on the European continent. The strongest point in this book is its interesting story line. It keeps you begging for more and more as you get deeper and deeper into the story. You ca not put it down. The story is just that good. I would say that the flow is a little shaky but her attention to detail makes up for it. However, it's the plot and the ideas behind it that just draws you deeper into the life of Gemm 16884 who is later Johannes. You root for him and hate his enemies as he does. You feel sympathy for his losses hope for his endeavors and wonder how it will all tern out in the end.