Reviews with content warning for Blood - I Am the Messenger

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

5 reviews

mikki_9's review against another edition

emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

At first I did not really enjoy this book, but the writing’s great, and, against my will, I really started liking the characters. In the end, I loved this story and the characters.

The reason for 3.5 is because the author uses awful descriptors for people of colour, and the main character’s attraction to a friend is written really creep-ily at times. There’s also villainization of fatness a couple times and a weird sexualization/infantilization of most women/girls in this story. Also, at one point they misgender a man, calling him Mimi, saying he looks like a woman.

Maybe those things didn’t bring down my rating as much as they normally would’ve because the character acknowledges his… lack? And because he experiences a lot of character development? Idk.

Content Warnings

miaaa_lenaaa's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I do love this book a fucking lot, but babe, we get it, audrey is hot and u love her- YOU DONT NEED TO TALK ABOUT HER THIGHS EVERYTIME YOU SEE HER

‘He comes a little closer as the sun falls on its hand and knees behind him.’

Content Warnings

jayda_lily's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

This is filled with casual spoilers, i’ve tried not to spoil any major plot points but honestly i’m so mad that I can’t handle talking around things or pointing out the specific spoilers. You have been warned.

I have never been so infuriated while reading a book. By the time I was halfway through, there was nothing that could redeem it for me. I despised Ed and take note, if two people ask you if you’re a pervert, you probably are one. I’m all for reading about characters that aren’t perfect and don’t make good life choices, but when you’re met with the internal monologue of Ed, and his sense of entitlement, I can’t imagine having any sympathy for him.

Speaking of Ed’s entitlement, the way he spoke (yeah it was his internal monologue but i’m just gonna refer to it as him speaking) about Audrey, the entire book, made me so angry!!! If you understand why she can’t be with you, and she has told you that she doesn’t want to be with you, then it’s time to move on. No matter how many times Audrey tells him that she doesn’t want to be with him, Ed not only still tries to make moves in her, he feels as though he deserves her, for all the charitable thing he has done (and if you’re wondering, yes ‘charitable’ is dripping with sarcasm). And to make matters worse, they end up together. Look on the one hand, I’m glad that Audrey was able to finally be with someone who she actually likes and cares about, however, her whole subplot of having to work through that was poorly done, and I hate that it was with Ed, after his relentless complaining and whining (internal) about her not wanting to be with him.

I also just found most of the other characters to be poorly developed, and focusing on each of their problems once in the second last part of the book doesn’t make up for that. Everything felt rushed and although Zusak attempted to show Ed having trouble figuring out what to do, it always seemed as though he made it to every conclusion too easily, and in a very unrealistic way. A lot of the plot seemed to be aided by the other ‘messengers’ one might say, jumping in to show him what he needed to do, in the most cryptic way. I also found a lot of the ways he ‘helped’ people to be too small for him to have boosted his ego as much as it did. I completely understand how much a small gesture from a stranger can mean to someone who is struggling, however that should not lead to the entitlement that Ed got from it.

I could go into specific things about each ‘task’ (for lack of a better word) that I didn’t like, and I might some other time, but that would take too long for now.

Ok I lied, this next part is gonna reveal the entire ending:

So, the ending, I hated it.

Spoiler

The main reason I continued to read the book was to see if there was supposed to be some deeper message when the person pulling the strings was revealed, and I was thoroughly disappointed to say the least. First of all, the ending, the reveal, it was all way too rushed and confusing. Four different interactions, that were supposed to be the big reveal of the book, were fit into eleven pages. In these eleven pages, we also experienced Ed suddenly having a completely new though of whether his dad was behind it all, purely by the fact that he was asked to go to the cemetery on the one year anniversary of his dad’s death, and yeah maybe that does create suspicion and links however, giving everything previously told to us about his father, by Ed, it does not seem like he would have been in any position to orchestrate this. Secondly, the actual reveal, what in the author is playing god was that!!! And basically that’s the whole point, that someone orchestrated every single thing because they didn’t want Ed to end up like his father. They also had written about everything, which they gave to Ed to read, making this fall into, and absolutely butcher, one of my favourite tropes, which is the this book that someone in the book has been writing, yeah it’s actually the one you just read, so that just topped it all off didn’t it. I’m pretty sure the person is supposed to be Markus Zusak and be a supposedly real life kinda spin on how characters in books are completely controlled by the author, and honestly if it had’ve been slightly more likeable characters, I probably would’ve really enjoyed it. However I did not and here we are.

The final kinda theme or message, also the main one seemingly, is basically wrapped up in this quote:

Spoiler
‘I did it because you are the epitome of ordinariness, Ed.’ He looks at me seriously. ‘And if a guy like you can stand up and do what you did for all those people, we’ll maybe everyone can. Maybe everyone can live beyond what they’re capable of.’ He becomes intense now. Emotional. This is everything. ‘Maybe even I can… ‘

Spoiler

So, the entire point of the book was to show people that they can be more than ordinary. If it means that i’m gonna end up with the entitlement that Ed develops throughout the book, I think I’ll pass

A final note on the book, there are a couple of things throughout the book that are just outdated and unnecessary. The two that come to mind are the speculation of the gender of a player in a football game, which was brought up multiple times, way more than it should’ve (that being zero), and referring to a child whose gender was unknown as ‘it’. Yes the book was written in 2002, but that was not that long ago and these things, although probably more accepted in media (idk I wasn’t born then) can not be excused and just don’t make for a good time when reading. Another thing that just made me deeply uncomfortable, was Ed’s comments on one of the characters that he helps, who is a 15 year old girl, Ed is 19, and he makes both internal comments about how beautiful he finds her and says it to her. There are also two times he is asked by a character if he is a pervert (one of them being Sophie, the 15 year old), and in both situations he denies it. As well as at least three times in his internal monologue where he makes a point to himself, and also the reader I guess, that he is not a pervert. So make of that what you will but as I said earlier, if two people have to ask you, then you probably should do some self evaluation on that.

Content Warnings

the_write_to_cry's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

erenrinren's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I am the Messenger is about a young man who works as a cab driver, though he’s underage. At the beginning of the book, he stops a bank robbery in a creative way, and afterwards he is sent an ace playing card with addresses on them, presumably to find the truth behind the events that occur there and put his own spin on them.

The plot kind of hinges on the mystery, while the other events supplement it

Spoiler

him being in love with his friend, Audrey, his relationship with his friends, his mother and his grief about his father, & his job

. He has a wonderful bond with his dog, Doorman. I was so scared that something would happen to him, but I am glad to say nothing ill happened to him.

Our main character, Ed, shows tremendous growth throughout the novel. He becomes obsessive with the mystery, to the point of harming himself

Spoiler

and others

. I found his voice to be not the most likeable, but he was thrust into this mystery that changes his view and outlook on life so that changes quite a bit.

There was so much intensity at certain points within the novel that after reading a significant chunk of the book, I had to put it down to process everything that had happened. This wasn’t to the novel’s detriment, however.

In terms of details on content warnings, I will post them below in the drop down.

Near the end, when we find out the mystery, it seemed very unsatisfactory to me. Maybe if I ruminate on it for a while, I will think differently but for now it seemed very convenient. I also found some of the “messages” Ed had to perform were lacklustre compared to others. Maybe that was the point, but it seemed very off kilter.
This is why I docked down the percentage rating.

All in all, I am the Messenger was not as good as The Book Thief, but it shares the same intensity and character growth. I really do recommend it, if you can handle some of the content.

Content Warnings

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