I Am The MESSENGER by Markus Zusak | Book Review

PUBLICATION YEAR: 2002 GENRE: Mystery / Thriller PAGE COUNT: 460 FORMAT: Paperback AVAILABLE  ONLINE  : amazon

I am the Messenger is written by Markus Zusak who is the author of my all time favourite “The Book Thief”. My love for The Book Thief must be evident in various of my previous blog posts . So saying that  “ I had high expectations going into this book”   is kind of  an understatement.

The story revolves around a guy named Ed Kennedy who is a cab driver and  lives a  life which is unremarkable to most people around him . He even considers himself incompetent at times  due to his over achieving siblings and abusive mother. However he  finds solace in his three best friends- Ritchie, Marv and Audrey who are themselves struggling with  self doubt . He spends most of his time playing cards with them  and secretly crushing over Audrey . One day he inadvertently  helped the police in catching a thief who was trying to rob a bank . He became a Hero overnight . But his joy did not last longer when he  started receiving playing cards( as in Ace, hearts etc ) in his mail which threatened  him to perform certain tasks otherwise he would be facing serious ramifications .  The book covers his journey of completing those tasks one by one with the prevailing  question of who is behind this dangerous mission . The tasks are a mix set of good  and dangerous deeds which  will overall  benefit the people around . 

It captured my interest at the get go. After reading the first few chapters , I knew it was going to be a crazy fun ride. In fact, I have to admit that it had one of the best first chapters I have ever read . It was hilarious and entertaining which peaked my interest.  However, I found the entire middle portion a bit lacklustre . The tasks became repetitive and annoying  . I started drifting off and even contemplated quitting  at one point . I simply wanted to know who was behind the mission and did not really care about the mission/tasks or the characters  . I just wanted the story to end. Fortunately  the story picked up at the  final 100 pages of the book and it hooked me till the end.

 The characters were really interesting . They were complex and dynamic . You feel empathy and sympathetic to all these people. The main character was relatable in a lot of ways. The depiction of self pity, self hate and self doubt was on point. It was nice to read a story where an ordinary character goes on to do something extraordinary. Through those tasks, he finds a purpose in life. In a way you can call it a coming of age tale  . I also enjoyed the camaraderie between the friends . It was refreshing to read their funny interactions with each other. In fact, the friends kind of gave the required comic relief to this otherwise dark and eerie story.

It was a strange book for me . It was no doubt fast paced with  short chapters  but I was bored thinking that the story isn't moving fast enough . It had a great cast of interesting characters but I didn't necessarily cared for most of them. It was beautifully descriptive which never became tacky but I was getting impatient to get to the end. So you can say , this book invoked some strange feelings in me. Even the ending was a bit iffy for me . The climax was something I did not see it coming , it was unpredictable but it was still underwhelming .May be that's because the overall mystery surrounding who’s behind the mission was not elaborately explained. This book definitely lacked something that I cannot exactly  pin point.

Despite all its flaws , I urge you to try this once because  of the beautiful message it delivers at the end. It was an inspiring story with a strong powerful message.  It had all the ingredients of  a good book- it was  thrilling and gripping with an interesting set of characters . The fast pacing and  easy to read writing style makes it a page turner  .That’s why  despite all my complaints, I simply couldn’t put this book down. I finished reading it because there was always something that kept me hooked till the end.

I think this book didn't work for me because I went into this story expecting it to be a masterpiece just like The Book Thief which is quite honestly  unfair to the author . Hence I suggest you  to  go with an open mind , you might end up appreciating it .

RATING - 🌕🌕🌕🌗 ( 3.5/5 )