Skip to main content

Markus Zusak: I Am the Messenger

 I got I Am the Messenger from a Christmas book exchange, and I was excited to read it. I loved The Book Thief (and have decided to reread it), and I was hoping this book was every bit as good.

Ed Kennedy is 19. He's an underachieving cab driver in an unknown city and country. Ed has no prospects, no future, and he's not even supposed to be driving a cab since he's underage. All of that changes when he and his friends inadvertently stop a bank robbery and help the police capture the robber. Shortly after the incident, Ed starts receiving playing cards in the mail. Each one has some sort of clue written on it, leading to a person in desperate need of help. Can Ed figure out what each person needs?

This is a hard review to write. On the one hand, I absolutely loved The Book Thief, and I was really hoping this book would live up to my expectations... but it didn't quite get there. Don't get me wrong, this book was highly entertaining. Ed is hilarious and I loved his character. He acts like he's such an idiot, but he really isn't, and I liked most of his solutions to the problems in the novel. I liked the pacing of this book, and I really enjoyed the twists and turns, and the unexpected problems and solutions. Even the end twist was fantastic. I enjoyed many of the characters Ed interacted with, and what he learned from each of them.

The other characters, especially Ed's "friends" I can't say that I really liked them. Audrey doesn't give Ed the time of day, Marv is just a jerk, and Ritchie is a really flat character. Marv ends up having some significant depth to him, which I really liked.

I also didn't like that Ed objectified almost all the women in this book. Except for Milla, he was almost creepily interested in their legs, and it bothered me. If I could change one thing about this book, it would be to take some of the focus away from sexuality. I think that there could have been other ways to have a conflict between Audrey and Ed with it not going in that direction.

In all, I ended up enjoying this book. It was hard to put down, and I thought it was overall hilarious. I laughed, I admit I cried a little.

I rate this book ⭐⭐⭐⭐



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Some Forgotten Thoughts--Eragon vs. The Belgariad

I forgot to mention something I noticed about Eragon in my last post.  If any of you have read David Edding's Belgariad series, then you might have realized that many ideas about the workings of magic in Eragon follow along with the Belgariad .  For example, the "Be Not" principle is a very important one in book three of the Belgariad  and has some of the same effects that it does in Inheritance (book four of the cycle).  "Magic" in Eragon can be equated to "sorcery" in The Belgariad .  Magic in both series depends upon your personal strength.  You can't bring people back from the dead (this is a common rule throughout all of the magical fantasy).  Another similarity is that there are different kinds of magic.  Shades are spirits trapped in the mortal world in Eragon .  Eddings actually portrays basically the same idea as an actual demon.  Mispronunciation or breaking of concentration will cause the Shade or demon to destroy the ma...
2 comments
Read more

Brandon Sanderson: The Alloy of Law - Wax and Wayne (Mistborn era 2) book 1

 Again, I had this book finished quite some time ago (shortly after finishing The Hero of Ages ) and I just haven't had a lot of time to get to posting my review. I am now about halfway through the next book, and now that the term is over, I'm hoping I will have a little more time to finish that book. The Alloy of Law  by Brandon Sanderson introduces Era 2 in the world of Mistborn . No longer does the world of the Final Empire exist, but it has literally been remade by Harmony, or the character of Sazed and the Hero of Ages that readers might recognize from The Hero of Ages . In this world, Waxillium Ladrian is a lawman in the Roughs. At least he was, until his uncle and sister unexpectedly died, and Wax is forced to assume control of the noble house he is now heir to. He finds the city is no less in need of a lawman than the Roughs, and is soon embroiled in the investigation into The Vanishers. Once his fiancee is kidnapped, and his butler tries to blow him up, Wax is fully i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brandon Sanderson: The Emperor's Soul

As Elantris  is probably my favorite Sanderson book of all time, I was excited to see this novella that takes place in the same world. I listened to this on Audible, and it went really quickly (I think it's about 3 hours total). The Emperor's Soul  follows the story of Shei, a Forger, who has been arrested for Forging a copy of a painting in the Emperor's palace. Unbeknownst to Shei, the Emperor was injured in an assassination attempt, and his mind was broken. Knowing her great skill, the bureaucrats in charge of the Empire offer her a trade: her life, for a forgery of the Emperor's soul. This feat is nearly impossible, and Shei knows this, but she accepts the chance at freedom. Will Shei actually be able to recreate the Emperor? This novella was beautifully written. I loved Shei's personality, and the conflicts she had with the Empire. I found it fascinating to learn more about her, and her attempts to thwart being manipulated. I thought her story was fascinating i...
Post a Comment
Read more