I Am The Messenger

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ed is an underachieving cab driver with no direction in life. He spends his days playing cards with his unusual and quirky group of friends, pining over his best friend, and drinking coffee with his elderly dog. Then one day he foils a bank robbery and his entire life is turned upside-down. He begins receiving playing cards that point him towards people who need some help and Ed is supposed to be the man/boy to provide it.

I wasn’t as attached to the characters, even Ed I found myself not really caring if he got his happy ending. The thing is, I should care about these people, they seem like they should feel real. They’re not perfect and should therefore be believable and relatable, but they’re not entirely believable or really all that relatable. I thought the Doorman, Ed’s coffee and ice cream loving dog, was the most endearing character.

The plot was unbelievable, but that’s to be expected. Read the synopsis and you can tell it’s not a series of events that might ever happen. However, I do think this was trying to do something original between the lines of reality-like fiction and surrealist version of reality and I think it fell a little short (and a bit on the confusing side). But I’m a sucker for originality and this book definitely gets points for that, it is like nothing I’ve ever read before (I could have done without the being hopelessly in love with the best friend trope though).

Overall I did enjoy reading this book. It had an unusual premise and I love a book that’s original. It’s a quick read and will probably be worth the time spent reading it

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