I Am the Messenger

DON'T MISS BRIDGE OF CLAY, MARKUS ZUSAK'S FIRST NOVEL SINCE THE BOOK THIEF AND AN UNFORGETTABLE AND SWEEPING FAMILY SAGA.


From the author of the extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller The Book Thief, I Am the Messenger is an acclaimed novel filled with laughter, fists, and love.


A MICHAEL L. PRINTZ HONOR BOOK
FIVE STARRED REVIEWS

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?

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357 pages

Average rating: 8.02

52 RATINGS

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8 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

JulieChristmas
Nov 25, 2024
10/10 stars
Markus Zusak has an amazing imagination. I wish I could just crawl around his head sometime. I loved this book. I wish my college kid would read it - such a great story line about finding a purpose and about simple human kindness. It kinda made me wonder why I dont watch and observe more people - why I don't go out of my way to help others with simple acts of kindness. The main character, Ed, is so likable. And I loved the way he talked about the love of his love, Audrey. If all women were adored like Audrey - just once in our lives - the world would be a better place and there would be less cheating and divorce.
Reanae99
Apr 26, 2024
10/10 stars
There is a difference between living a life and going through the motions. Just enduring the day. I liked that Zusak made an entire book about that difference.

I also really liked the end. I realize the books do not really have anything in common, but this is how I wanted Sophie's World
by Jostein Gaarder to end.
Anonymous
Apr 26, 2023
8/10 stars
Damn it.

I'm having a really, really hard time rating this one. I spent most of the book thinking, "This is definitely a 3 star for me. I don't know what all the hype is." I was so disappointed about this because I wanted to love this book.

And then. Oh! And then I reached right around page 300 and was just floored. So I am compromising with 4 stars.

I'm not going to rehash what the book is about - it's just not my style. I also don't have any crazy gushing to do, so it's going to have to be a brief LIKE vs DISLIKE review.

Disliked:

description

The way I kept waiting for something to happen. Something that would make this worth all the 5 star reviews and "AHHHHHHH SOOOO GOOOOOOD!!!!" ravings.

That I just could not get a good grasp on these characters. I'm not sure why. I am positive that a year from now - no, three months from now - I will not remember any of their names. It is not that I found them unlikable; I just more or less didn't give a crap about most of them. That bums me out!

The way it made me feel like a moron...even after all the goodness near the end of it. Like I was supposed to get more out of it that I did. Like maybe I'm just not deep enough to get it. Eh.

Liked:

The writing style. No, scratch that. I loved Markus Zusak's writing style. It is as if every line is so perfectly thought out. Not a breath is wasted. And while there are so many good lines to choose from, for some reason, my very favorite is:

I didn't know words could be so heavy.

I am pretty sure that this line will stay with me a long, long time. It will stay with me much longer than the characters.

The way the last 10% of the book hit me. I was a smiling, crying mess. I love when a book hits me that way.

Honestly, I found that the writing style was the house for me. It almost didn't matter what was inside the house, what it was filled with. This could have been a book about the procedure of making sausage links, and I still would have wanted to savor each line...each word. The story alone is not something that I am going to run and tell anyone about because I didn't find it that remarkable on its own. I'm going to give [b:The Book Thief|19063|The Book Thief|Markus Zusak|https:d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1352395325s/19063.jpg|878368] a shot because of this.







Anonymous
Feb 02, 2023
10/10 stars
This was absolutely beautiful. The writing, the characters, the suspense, the moral... All of it. Zusak's style is stunning; this is gorgeously written. It had just the right amount of humour, action, and reflection to keep me totally engrossed, and the ending was one of the most original and surprising endings I've read in a long time. I liked this more than The Book Thief, and I loved The Book Thief.

This will stay with me for a long time.
FatSwedishBoy
Jul 01, 2022
5/10 stars
***THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*** I Am The Messenger. Huh… where do I start. I liked the content of the book, for the most part, but absolutely abhorred the execution and writing style. I can appreciate narratives however the author tore down the fourth wall multiple times and directly addressed the reader. I find this to be a huge writing faux pas. It was often difficult to visualize events being portrayed. This may be due to the Australian/English slang, but I think the layman’s approach in writing style greatly attributed to it as well. I liked Ed as a character. The way he communicated with others was unique and I could very much appreciate that. I did not like how the author continually referenced his sexual desires and wants. It became redundant. I found myself being irked by his lack of sexual prowess and shy libido more than empathetic or piteous of. I noticed the author repeated himself a lot with other details as well. Was this to meet a page number quota? Was it supposed to emphasis aspects the author found important? Whatever the reason, it too was redundant. The remaining characters…TRAGIC. Absolutely tragic. There was no personality, nor any character development aside from the Ace of Hearts section (and let’s be real, if there wasn’t any character development in that section, the book would had been a total flop). Most of the supporting characters were downright toxic. Mean bitch level toxicity. Back to Ace of Hearts section. The most important part of the book, getting his one true love Audrey to fall for him, was so rushed it came across laughable. He danced one dance with her, to a song never mentioned, moments after she bumped uglies with her current boyfriend.…AND THAT WON HER OVER?! AND NOW SHE’S MOVING IN WITH YOU?! AND ALL HER CHILDHOOD TRAUMA THAT KEPT HER FROM LOVING DISAPPEARED?! Good god. Then the BIG reveal. The man behind the ace cards that made Ed the Messenger. It was… *dramatic pause* …nobody we knew. Nobody who had any relevance to the story. Just some dude who moved into town a year ago and felt compelled to fuck with Ed’s life, orchestrating a robbery “full-well knowing” Ed would do what he did to save the day. That the dominos would start tipping over in random guy’s favor to bring forth this grand scheme of challenging Ed’s life and somehow make it better. What a joke. I do not recommend this book. Sure, I am the Messenger had some good parts. There were just too many poorly written, poorly executed, and poorly thought-out plot lines to ever be considered of mentionable quality.

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