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I Am the Messenger Markus Zusak Random House, Inc. © 2005 |
A man like Ed Kennedy is completely normal. He is nineteen and has an average house, no car, and an average job. He has a few friends and a seventeen year old dog named Doorman. His life is boring and ordinary until he stops an already botched bank robbery. He gets his name in the paper. No big deal right? Wrong. Someone decides to change his ordinary life due to this heroism he showed.
He receives an ace of diamonds in the mail and sees three addresses written on it. What are they there for? Who lives at each one? Are they connected? Will there be more aces? And most importantly, who sent the Ace?
The Marcus Zusak novel I Am the Messenger is a great book. It is fairly simple to read and has huge amounts of character depth. I enjoyed the interaction between the characters and laughed out loud at some of the humor involved in the book. There is no possible way to know what will happen in this book as it keeps you guessing until the very end. It has so many twists it is hard to keep up. On the downside the ending is a little more flat than I like, but it portrays an extremely important message.
This book would be a great read for an advanced middle school reader to an octogenarian. If you can understand the writing style, you should be able to relate either to the humor and friendships or to the more serious parts and the hardships. Also, if you enjoy Dean Koontz you might want to check this book out. It will keep you reading so be warned, don’t pick it up if you can’t finish it
~Brian Adams, 11th Grade, Linesville High School