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Nov 18, 2011

Maja rated it:

My full name’s Ed Kennedy. I’m nineteen. I’m an underage cabdriver. I’m typical of many of the young men you see in this suburban outpost of the city – not a whole lot of prospects or possibility. That aside, I read more books than I should, and I’m decidedly crap at sex and doing my taxes. Nice to meet you.

After accidentally preventing a bank robber from escaping, Ed Kennedy receives his first playing card with three addresses written on it. He understands that he needs to deliver a m More...

52 comments like (41 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2009

Shelly rated it:

I downloaded this on itunes today because my job is super boring and I like to have stuff to listen to and/or watch online. Plus it's popular with some friends, and I'm a follower like that. Anyway, I had to force myself to turn it off today so that I would have something to look forward to tomorrow. I'm halfway through. The story and the reader's voice are mesmerizing! Don't want it to end.

Review starts here:

There's a series on PBS about these doctors--it may even be c More...

14 comments like (39 people liked it)

Jul 15, 2008

Annalisa rated it:

I can't seem to get enough Zusak. Once again his language is magic. Instead of falling into the "he (or she) said" pitfall, the dialogue takes on the action of the predominant emotion. If he wants to reach for a friend, the words reach. And the way he breaks his sentences to evoke emotional pauses is poetic. Plus it makes his stories delectably quick to read. The perfect combination of length and pause. But his prose is not even the most powerful thing about his writing. Zusak pulls th More...

6 comments like (37 people liked it)

Apr 26, 2008

Kim rated it:

Stamp it on my forehead, folks. I'm here, I'm a blubbering fool, get used to it.

I didn't have high expectations going into this novel, I'd heard it wasn't as good as 'The Book Thief'(pfft...whole box of kleenix on that one). But, I finished it in 7 hours and what can I say?

Um... I.AM.A.SAP

Okay, I can see the flaws, I mean..I'm not a stupid sap. I could see the formula... I knew what was coming. But, the writing makes up for it.

Plus, a 19-yea More...

23 comments like (38 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2008

Jackie "the Librarian" rated it:

I threw this book across the room, and then I picked it back up, held it at arms length, and shook my head at it. And then I thought about the way it held me in suspense, how it kept the kids in my teen book group reading and thinking, and I dusted it off and gave it a hug. Markus Zusak, you bastard!
What has me reacting like a schizophrenic? Why, I can't tell YOU. That would spoil the book for you, and you really should read it. The basic plot is, a guy stops a bank robbery, gets written u More...

6 comments like (27 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Kevin rated it:

OK: one of the best first chapters of any book, ever. Like, SO good. Perfectly executed.

The rest of the book: I liked it. Interesting premise, moved along at a decent pace. The "twist" at the ending was good.

There are a few iffy spots, where he describes a scene and it's not at all clear what exactly just happened, or he over describes and reminds the reader that what's happening at the moment is related to something that happens previously, and you're like " More...

9 comments like (36 people liked it)

Sep 19, 2011

Chelsea rated it:

After reading The Book Thief, I went to great lengths to find another Markus Zusak book, and when I finally found this one, I couldn't have been happier. I think I read it in about two days. Markus Zusak's powerful prose is still at work, although Ed Kennedy is hardly an ideal subject for poetry. Zusak's protagonist is an underage cab driver with a coffee-addicted dog, a foul-mouthed mother, and an intense love for his best friend Audrey. Ed thinks he's destined to be another nothing of the city More...

1 comment like (10 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2010

Meaghan rated it:

This book was hilarious -- it had one of the funniest bank robberies in the history of literature and I was often literally falling out of my chair laughing. The suspense was also well-done -- I was dying to find out who The Messenger was. The only thing I didn't like about the story was the ending. It almost ruined the whole book for me, in fact. I won't give it away except to say this: it was a cop-out. Very clever, a wonderful little literary conceit, but still a cop-out. It pissed me off. If More...

6 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jun 28, 2011

Isamlq rated it:

The gushing starts here:

I first came across Zusak in The Book Thief. In that one, I knew I had come across another favorite~ book or author, take your pick. And while I am the Messenger is not the same genre as the former, it is just as good as (and at certain points better than) the former. Each word, each line in it carefully chosen to paint Ed Kennedy’s world as clearly as possible. And what a world it was: one peopled with ordinary, sometimes mediocre individuals, all hilarious More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2009

Hillary rated it:

I wanted so badly to like this book because I liked the Book Thief so much, but I just couldn’t. I couldn’t get past the constant swearing, the sweaty smelly characters, and the story line kept shifting back and forth from horribly bad to decent and the decent didn’t compensate for the horrific. . In the Book Thief the charm of the characters seemed to make up for their lack of poise and class, this book couldn’t pull that off.

19 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2012

Shauna rated it:

Lua and Marie are holding hands.
They look like they’re so happy, just inside this moment, watching the kids and the lights on their old fibro house.
Lua kisses her.
Just softly on the lips.
And she kisses back.
Sometimes people are beautiful.
Not in looks.
Not in what they say.
Just in what they are.

Ed, our protagonist, is a loser. A loser, but a beautiful person. In the way he is, and the way he views and interacts with the world around him. He deserve More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 04, 2011

Shirley rated it:

Having read the rest of Markus Zusak's catalogue, I was excited about this - a tale about card-playing, taxi-driving, lovable-loser Ed who's ordinary lives is tipped sideways and weird sh!t goes down when he starts recieving cryptic playing-cards in his letterbox with instructions to carry out. Ed suddenly finds himself as The Messenger under the mercy of a mysterious stranger whose intentions he does not know.

I knew I would love it. I just never expected to be having a love-hate-rel More...

4 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 08, 2008

Michael rated it:

Ed Kennedy is your typical, directionless "slacker." At the age of nineteen, he's barely graduated high school and finds himself in a no-end job as a cab driver--and he had to forge his age up a year in order to get that job. He's got an unrequited crush on his best friend, Audrey and he and his friends are you typical group of buddies, who hang out, drink beer and play cards. One day while waiting in line at the bank, Ed thwarts a robbery. He's dubbed a hero by the local paper, bu More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jan 20, 2012

Aly (Fantasy4eva) rated it:

RATED: 4.5

It's no 'THE BOOK THIEF' but it hold its own pretty well. Ed' a 19 year old cab driver with not much going on in his life. His sisters have married off, his brother is studying to be a lawyer, his father passed away a few months ago and his mother treats him like absolute shit. Life feels pretty hopeless but he manages to pass the time how he can. Mostly he just plays cards with his mates: Richie, Marv and the girl he is hopelessly in love with: Audrey. But then he starts to More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 11, 2010

Emily rated it:

It only took me 30 pages to decide I wasn't going to like this book. It certainly sounds like an interesting premise--cards in the mail, the need for someone to care and to act--but the language turned me off, and when the main character starts reflecting on his pathetic sex life I decided this book was not for me. It didn't help that Zusak made his characters so completely unlikable. And in only the first 30 pages! I flipped through to see what else the book might hold, but only saw more of the More...

10 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 17, 2011

Jo rated it:

Initial Final Page Thoughts.
Say what?

High Points.
The beginning- what a hilarious opening. Hopefully I’ll never be caught in the middle of a bank heist, but I just know that if I ever were, that is exactly how I would act. Marv and Richie! The Doorman. Australia! Pa-pa-pa-poker faaaace. Mystery. Intrigue. Clues. (Most of) The messages were beautiful and made my little northern ice-heart melt.

Low Point.
I am still undecided about whether I liked Ed, I’ll discuss More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 06, 2011

Choco rated it:

It took me a long time to pick up this book and start reading it because I LOVED The Book Thief so much. I was scared to be disappointed and let down because I didn't believe anyone who has written a book that good could have created another book that's good. Weird logic? Bet it makes sense to some of you.

Zusak's love for stupid humans (we are all stupid in a way) is evident, and characters and what happens to them in The Messenger are both funny and beautiful. As I read about Ed, Ma More...

11 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2009

Michelle rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

19 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 14, 2008

Moses rated it:

After reading the Book Thief, I did not hesitate to read Markus Zusak's other book, I Am The Messenger. The question was, would it live up to the Book Thief?

The answer is yes--and no.

First of all, if you're looking for the same historical epic the Book Thief was, forget it. This was actually written two years before the Book Thief, and so Zusak is still finding his flaws and his strengths and applying them. Secondly, this is a more gritty, modern novel, and if you don't l More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2009

Rachel rated it:

In reading this book, there were times I teared up. Nothing sad, just the power of Zusak's words. There are beautiful books out there, ones that are lovely and I float away in, but Zusak's words make me feel like I'm really living them or writing them myself. That is how connected I feel. I feel like he's in my head or I'm in his and somehow we are laughing together over little things. He writes the exact way that I see things. Maybe it's the poet in me where inanimate objects come to life More...

4 comments like (11 people liked it)

Dec 04, 2008

Anne rated it:

Let me just start off by saying that this was one of the best books I've ever read. Zusak has a very unique writing style, but that's not the primary reason for liking it. It refuses to be put down and practically screams at you to be picked back up. Ed is a great character, both morally and in the words that make up his character. Despite the fact that the circumstances of most people are radically different from Ed's, you can still relate to him as an average kind of guy. The end of the b More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2009

K rated it:

Maybe I'm allergic to Markus Zusak's writing? What he intends as quirky, inspiring, and heartwarming, my brain interprets as affected, cliche, and grossly manipulative. In this novel, an underachieving 19 year old begins receiving cards directing him to various troubled individuals around town. By stalking these people and interfering with their lives at the right moments, he becomes a hero/saint figure, and wins the heart of his beautiful best friend, a girl who'd previously been too afraid t More...

5 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2011

Liu Zhen rated it:

Title: I Am the Messenger
Author: Markus Zusak
Pages: 357
Publisher: May 9th 2006 by Knopf Books for Young Readers
Isbn: 0-375-83667-5
Ed Kennedy is a typical cabdriver who, from his own perspective thinks that he himself is a failure in a messed-up family. He is not as smart as his other siblings. He lives under the breath of his mother's scolds and his father's alcohols. Pretty much, he hates his life while he is deeply in love with his best friend, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 24, 2011

Lauren rated it:

oh, ed kennedy. we were so close to perfection, you and i.

first, a question: what is about markus zusak's ability to write a profound and poetic sentence about the mundane trivialities of life that so desperately resonates with me? he writes the way that life feels. even the crap bits of life. and i love that about him.

aces:
1. ed - i love him. he's a lovable loser, with his ancient, stinking dog, his go-nowhere career as a cab-driver, and his dysfunctional rel More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 23, 2010

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

This book has "moments" of great writing. It "at times" it touches on or "skitters past" some real insights. Possibly it brushes up against them and then glances away. The opening "sequence", chapters, or cards seemed to me to go on forever and I was more than ready to move on. It was a case of "okay I get it, your a ne'er-do-well, your mother disrespects you, your father's dead (and you miss him). It was tragic, he was a drunk, your mother was disill More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2011

Melek rated it:

Der Roman handelt von dem neunzehnjährigen Ed Kennedy, der sich eher für einen durchschnittlichen jungen Mann hält und noch nichts in seinem Leben erreicht hat. Ed ist ein Taxifahrer, der schwindelt, was sein Alter angeht, er hat keine Ausbildung und keine Freundin. Nur eine schäbige Hütte und einen sabbernden Hund namens Türsteher.
Sein Leben verändert sich jedoch schlagartig, als er eines Tages zufällig in einen Banküberfall gerät und ein Karo Ass im Briefkasten findet – die erste von vier More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Apr 21, 2011

Peep (Pop! Pop!) rated it:

I LOVED how the book started out. That was hilarious and annoying if it were your friend. The author really did do a great job at locking you into a story. A good way to set the mood. I did really like his friends. All had their quirks, but it worked.

I loved how the Narrator, Marc Aden Gray said “Ed Kennedy”. And for some reason, I really enjoyed how he did the girls voices, especially the mom. He made her sound like she was about to start screaming at any minute. I could have listened More...

7 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 19, 2010

Cherrie rated it:

I'm glad that I read though the book and make it my fist finished English novel. It is the language that I wanna admire a lot. Zusak, with his sense of humour, lays good foundations in the ealier chapters till he gets the opportunity to reveal the main idea of the whole book: ordinary people can achieve beyond what they think they can. I was quite moved when seeing Ed, the leading roal, accomplish tasks on each card and makes differences to others lives. I think it touches me the same way as wat More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 12, 2010

Glenda rated it:

Meet Ed Kennedy—underage cabdriver, pathetic cardplayer, and useless at romance. He lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog, the Doorman, and he’s hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That’s when the first Ace arrives. That’s when Ed becomes the messenger. . . .
As Ed inserts himself into these strangers' lives he learns to care for them personally and insightfully discovers More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 20, 2008

bookczuk rated it:

Markus Zuzak is the reason why my own YA manuscript moulders away is a musty corner of the house. His books are so good, that instead of encouraging me to trot mine around to publishers and such, I just get discouraged. He blew me away with The Book Thief and basically did the same thing with I am the Messenger. His use of language in unexpected ways is still delicious. The plot entertaining, interesting and thought-evoking. I found myself trying to determine the relationships between the n More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

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