Review: I Am The Messenger, by Markus Zusak

Having just finished The Book Thief, which is also by Markus Zusak and one of the finest books I have ever read, I was anxious to read another of his novels. I Am The Messenger, while a completely different novel from TBT, was not a disappointment.

The beginning of the story finds Ed Kennedy, a 19 year-old cabbie, caught at a bank during a robbery. After an act of daring that makes him a hero, Kennedy, whose life until this point has been a listless blank note, becomes the target of a do-good blackmail scheme involving increasingly cryptic directions written on playing cards -aces - that arrive at his house. Kennedy doesn't know where the cards are coming from, but two roughnecks that show up at his house let him know in no uncertain terms that it is in his best interest to solve the riddles, follow the directions, and do the good deeds he finds required of him. On his journey, Kennedy helps many people in ways ranging from keeping an elderly woman - who is convinced that he is her husband that died in WWII - company, helping the family of an abusive man, and filling the church of a lonely priest.

I liked this book very much. It did take a little while to get going, but once the deeds started rolling in, it was fun solving the riddles and witnessing the varied acts of kindness, as well as their intended and unintended effects on the lives of those with whom Ed becomes involved. The ending is a little too clever for its own good, or else was just rushed; it feels like Zusak wanted to make a statement, and had a great idea for how to do it, but was too excited to restrain himself to the point where he could work it into the story properly. It doesn't ruin the book, and isn't terribly annoying, just disappointing where the rest of the novel is so well put together. It wouldn't have surprised me in a lesser novel. In fact, I got the sense that, since this novel was written before The Book Thief, this was almost a training ground for him, because IATM has the same cleverness about it that TBT does, just not quite as skilled of an interworking.

While this novel is deemed as YA fiction, I had no idea that that's what it was. I requested it from the library online, so never saw which part of the library it came from. I would never have known except for the author's bio on the back that described it as such. It would definitely be for older YA readers, however, since some of the content involves beatings, a rape, and sexual content.

Rating: four out of five stars; interesting, fun to follow, and for once a focus on the good people can do for each other