Book Review: I Am The Messenger

Hey everyone! This time I am going to do a book review on I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak. He is the writer of one of my favorite books, The Book Thief. I have been meaning to read this book for a long time, and I am glad that I was finally able to. This book took be a little more than a week to read. I think I am going to start doing more book reviews because I have read many books this year due to the GoodReads Reading Challenge (I am on book 25 of 30).

Synopsis from Amazon:

By the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Book Thief, this is a cryptic journey filled with laughter, fists, and love.

Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

That's when the first ace arrives in the mail. That's when Ed becomes the messenger. Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who's behind Ed's mission?

My Thoughts:

 This book, right off the bat, has different vibes than The Book Thief. Does that make this book bad? Not at all.  The two books are completely separate and shouldn't really be compared. This book has the same sort of feeling as Looking for Alaska by John Green, because both main characters are lanky boys who kind of have the odds against them in a sense.

The main character, Ed Kennedy, is a very funny character to me. He didn't go to university, and he drives a cab around. He lives in a shack with his 17 year old dog who loves coffee, and is called The Doorman. Ed Kennedy at first seemed like a character with no potential, and I felt like I would get bored of him very easily. I was pleasantly surprised how he gets himself together to complete tasks that seem impossible at first. He is smarter than he is made out to be, and Zusak emphasizes on how many books Ed has read, which is always a very good thing.

The other characters that are involved with the messages that Ed receives, make this story very unique. Without giving too much away, each character has something wrong going on in their life that which needs to be changed, and Ed is the guy who is destined to make the lives of these people better. The characters seem almost real because of their circumstances such as abuse, abandonment, loneliness, poverty, and just being down on yourselves.

This book also has the underlying theme of mysterious because the whole time you ask, "Who is sending all these messages and tasks to Ed?"

I really liked this book, and I do recommend it from teenagers to adults because it isn't written in a too complex way, and it's an interesting read that makes you think.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Some Favorite Quotes:

“Sometimes people are beautiful.
Not in looks.
Not in what they say.
Just in what they are.” 

“It's not a big thing, but I guess it's true--big things are often just small things that are noticed.”

“You can kill a man with those words.
No gun.
No bullets.
Just words and a girl.”

“Only in today's sick society can a man be persecuted for reading too many books.” 

“People die of broken hearts. They have heart attacks. And it's the heart that hurts most when things go wrong and fall apart.”
 

Questions: Have you read this book? Also, what are some books that you recommend?

                                                                      xx
                                                        Christina Madeleine