Not Committed

So I've been searching for a good book to read. In my searches, I have read some of Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I have not read much of either book because I have been so tired and busy this week and each book is tough to follow.

Gifts is a story involving magic and special powers. It is kinda like the X-Men series where people have special powers that can be destructive or used as defenses and only special people get them. In this story, the "gifts" travel through family lines. Gifts survive better when both parents are from the same lineage. Most of people that I have read about so far use their powers as defenses.

So far, the story has basically introduced the characters.  The narrator, Orrec, is a 16 year old boy who has the power of "undoing" (which causes instant death with just a glance). Orrec wears a blindfold because he believes his gift is "wild," that he could cause destruction unwittingly. Orrec's childhood friend, Gry, is from Roddmant (neighboring to Caspromant). Gry and her mother have the gift of calling animals to the hunt. Emmon, a runaway Lowlander, is traveling north, towards the Uplands. He meets Orrec and Gry in Caspromant, where Orrec's father is Brantor, or "master," Gry and Orrec attempt to explain the"gifts,"that they are real and not just Lowlander children's stories.  Emmon has trouble understanding that these powers should not be abused. He believes that Gry should call the animals whenever she pleases while Gry does not even want to use her power for hunting. Gry and Orrec also try to inform Emmon about the history of the Uplands, where various family lines live side by side, each of the with a hereditary "gift."

 'That's what the gifts are for, the powers — so you can protect your domain and keep your lineage pure.'-Orrec