TITLE: I am the Messenger
AUTHOR: Markus Zusak
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
RATING: 4/5
SUMMARY: Ed Kennedy lives his peaceful but mundane life as an underage cab driver. His days consist of routinely card games, caring for his abhorrently pungent-smelling dog, the doorman, and being hopelessly in love with his best friend Audrey. His peaceful routines comes to a sudden halt when he unintentionally stops a bank robbery. Then, the first playing card, the ace of diamonds, arrives in the mail, with three locations and times sprawled on the card. Ed becomes the messenger, following mysterious directions written on cards and helping the people around his town.
1. Ed Kennedy is not a superhero protagonist (he’s just a random guy trying to live his life!)
Ed Kennedy was one of the best parts of the book for me. He didn’t have any talents or special quirks. (Seems counter-productive, but hold your horses.) To me, this was important because I was able to relate to him and empathise with him. In many previous realistic YA books I’ve read, the main characters usually possess some kind of special talent that allows them to solve the problem and “save the day!”; this provides for interesting characters but also harder-to-relate-to characters. On the other hand, in “I am the Messenger”, Ed Kennedy is described to be just an average person. As he struggled through the tasked his been directed to complete, I was able to see more of his flaws and strengths. In some cases, he dealt with some problems between people with solutions that are less than perfect, such as one scenario in the book where Ed solves violence between siblings with more violence. However, in other cases, Ed comes up with solutions that were heartfelt and meaningful for other characters, like when he takes care of a lonely widow named Milla. His sarcastic and self-depreciatory voice humorously narrates the book, which also made the book more enjoyable. Ultimately, Ed Kennedy’s normality is what creates his extremely colourful and empathetic character, and what contributes to the book’s message of empowerment and believing in one’s capabilities.
2. There is a good balance of character types
We’ve probably all read books that have bland and similar characters. Were they fun reads? (no.) However, in “I am the Messenger”, you meet all kinds of characters, and you notice more quirks and interesting human flaws in characters as the book goes on. There are characters such as Ed’s best friend Marv, who is stingy and has a hard emotional shell, and there are characters such as elderly Milla, who has spent the past 60 years living alone and waiting for her dead war veteran husband to come back home. There are also characters like Ed Kennedy’s mother, who frequently yells at Ed over the phone. Marcus Zusak reveals more about each character when he reveals more about their backstories and struggles. The balance of character types also made the story more intriguing as a whole, because there were no two characters that were forgettably similar.
3. There is both a sense of good anticipation and curiosity
There is a motif throughout the book of playing cards. Ed plays cards with his friends throughout the book, and he also follows the mysterious directions written on playing cards sent to him anonymously through the mail. This pattern of how Ed Kennedy follows the three clues written on playing cards to help strangers or people near him allows the reader to have a sense of expectancy of what will happen next later on in the story. However, there is still the overarching sense of mystery in the book, lent to by the fact that the reader does not know who is sending the playing cards to Ed, and a sense of curiosity for me as a reader, as I didn’t know how Ed would approach each problem he was tasked to solve. Overall, the sense of anticipation and curiosity I felt whilst reading the book kept my eyes on each turning page.