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Messenger Of Fear
(Messenger of Fear #1)
by
I remembered my name – Mara. But, standing in that ghostly place, faced with the solemn young man in the black coat with silver skulls for buttons, I could recall nothing else about myself.
And then the games began.
The Messenger sees the darkness in young hearts, and the damage it inflicts upon the world. If they go unpunished, he offers the wicked a game. Win, and they can ...more
And then the games began.
The Messenger sees the darkness in young hearts, and the damage it inflicts upon the world. If they go unpunished, he offers the wicked a game. Win, and they can ...more
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Paperback, 320 pages
Published
September 1st 2014
by Hardie Grant Egmont
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Community Reviews
Showing 1-30

Start your review of Messenger Of Fear (Messenger of Fear, #1)

AUGUST. THAT'S ONLY A FEW MONTHS AWAY

I CANNOT FUNCTION RIGHT NOW

How's The Messenger look? DOES HE HAVE A CAPE?

(Really hoping he does)
I NEED THIS BOOK LIKE I NEED FUDGE IN MY LIFE
...more

I CANNOT FUNCTION RIGHT NOW

How's The Messenger look? DOES HE HAVE A CAPE?

(Really hoping he does)
I NEED THIS BOOK LIKE I NEED FUDGE IN MY LIFE


Original review, written before the book was released (preserved because Michael Grant himself liked it):
Messenger of Fear is going to be about a teenage boy delivering copies of the fifth book in the Gone series to people. A little... pretentious for its author to write about that, don't you think?
(Just kidding - I have no idea what this is about, but it's going to be awesome.)
My new review:
Whatever compliments you might give to Michael Grant's writing, he is not a subtle author. By any extent ...more
Messenger of Fear is going to be about a teenage boy delivering copies of the fifth book in the Gone series to people. A little... pretentious for its author to write about that, don't you think?
(Just kidding - I have no idea what this is about, but it's going to be awesome.)
My new review:
Whatever compliments you might give to Michael Grant's writing, he is not a subtle author. By any extent ...more

Jun 02, 2014
Melanie
rated it
it was ok
Shelves:
bleh,
could-have-been-so-much-better,
death,
fantasy,
paranormal,
young-adult,
f-a-i-l,
mystery,
books-i-own,
arc
See more reviews at YA Midnight Reads
Back from my hiatus but alas, the first book I read just had to be a disappointing read .-.
I think it's quite apparent that Messenger of Fear is a polarising read. I haven't actually read anything by this guy before, so I wasn't absolutely sure what to expect--what I knew was that his Gone series is crazy popular--so I hoped that this one would be just as amazing. Perhaps, it is just as amazing as his Gone series but clearly this book is not my cup of tea.
A g ...more
Back from my hiatus but alas, the first book I read just had to be a disappointing read .-.
I think it's quite apparent that Messenger of Fear is a polarising read. I haven't actually read anything by this guy before, so I wasn't absolutely sure what to expect--what I knew was that his Gone series is crazy popular--so I hoped that this one would be just as amazing. Perhaps, it is just as amazing as his Gone series but clearly this book is not my cup of tea.
A g ...more

HOLD IT RIGHT THERE.

How did I not know about this until now?
This is going to be awesome.

Except for the fact that it comes out in September. I keep getting freaked out about all these books coming out in the fall because I'll be in college and I have no idea how much library access I'll have.
...more

How did I not know about this until now?
This is going to be awesome.

Except for the fact that it comes out in September. I keep getting freaked out about all these books coming out in the fall because I'll be in college and I have no idea how much library access I'll have.
...more

Oh.My.God. This was so...so...Yeah,you get the point.Most of you haven't read this yet so I'be carefull with spoilers.
The plot is about Mara a girl who wakes up surrounded by strange mist with no memories and meets a strange young man who calls himself Messenger of Fear.
The fiction part of the story was truly amazing (I was mesmerized by the strange and scary new world Michael Grant introduces us to) but what I really loved was that this book has at its center REAL-LIFE problems mixed with the ...more
The plot is about Mara a girl who wakes up surrounded by strange mist with no memories and meets a strange young man who calls himself Messenger of Fear.
The fiction part of the story was truly amazing (I was mesmerized by the strange and scary new world Michael Grant introduces us to) but what I really loved was that this book has at its center REAL-LIFE problems mixed with the ...more

Apr 30, 2017
Dannii Elle
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fantastic-fabrications
I was anticipating great things from this book after reading the warning for sensitive readers that adorns the back cover. I like my fiction dark and both the cover and the synopsis promised to deliver that.
This is the tale of Mara. The reader is introduced to her through her entrance into a dream-like phase of her life, where fantasy becomes reality and the rules that govern our world are continually broken. Both Mara and the reader are equally as disturbed and confused by the events occurring ...more
This is the tale of Mara. The reader is introduced to her through her entrance into a dream-like phase of her life, where fantasy becomes reality and the rules that govern our world are continually broken. Both Mara and the reader are equally as disturbed and confused by the events occurring ...more

This book was so weird that it was really good! Michael Grant is king of the peculiar.
Summary: Mara wakes up one day with no memory of who she is, where she came from, and how she got there. All she knows is her name. To make matters worse, she is visited by a dark haunting boy who calls himself the Messenger of Fear. Not only is Mara enthralled because of his dark looks and mysterious past, but he can also stop time, time travel, read minds, and conjure up a strange green mist that seems more m ...more
Summary: Mara wakes up one day with no memory of who she is, where she came from, and how she got there. All she knows is her name. To make matters worse, she is visited by a dark haunting boy who calls himself the Messenger of Fear. Not only is Mara enthralled because of his dark looks and mysterious past, but he can also stop time, time travel, read minds, and conjure up a strange green mist that seems more m ...more

Aug 10, 2014
Stuti Rai
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
hot-like-meh,
fantasy-pr-everything-untoward
Take your *insert whoever* to work day, is it???
Because, it seems, that's all Michael Grant deals with in Messenger of Fear. Our protagonist is introduced to a great deal of passive torment, and then some she herself doles out.
That is all there is to this book. All you need to know. And as such, the story doesn't really make much progress from the initial point. Just lessons learned, I guess? Who the fuck cares "aboot" that?
The tale is narrated to us in the voice of an amnesiac teenage girl who ...more
Because, it seems, that's all Michael Grant deals with in Messenger of Fear. Our protagonist is introduced to a great deal of passive torment, and then some she herself doles out.
That is all there is to this book. All you need to know. And as such, the story doesn't really make much progress from the initial point. Just lessons learned, I guess? Who the fuck cares "aboot" that?
The tale is narrated to us in the voice of an amnesiac teenage girl who ...more

Edit
The Cover is errr...Not the best.
I don't care what this is about, I need it. ...more
The Cover is errr...Not the best.
I don't care what this is about, I need it. ...more

3.5 stars.
Many people know that Michael Grant is my favourite YA writer, mostly because of the characters and themes he imbued into the Gone series. But unfortunately, unlike Gone and BZRK (which I have read and loved both in their entirety), Messenger of Fear did not have any characters that I liked. Maybe it was because most of the cast were spectral beings. Also, as it wasn't until the final chapters of the book when we actually got some answers, these characters had big question marks floati ...more
Many people know that Michael Grant is my favourite YA writer, mostly because of the characters and themes he imbued into the Gone series. But unfortunately, unlike Gone and BZRK (which I have read and loved both in their entirety), Messenger of Fear did not have any characters that I liked. Maybe it was because most of the cast were spectral beings. Also, as it wasn't until the final chapters of the book when we actually got some answers, these characters had big question marks floati ...more

Michael Grant is an author who has caught my attention on many occasions. More than one of his series have whispered a ‘read me’ in the book store, yet I always found my attention pulled elsewhere. With how big a fan base Michael Grant has, however, I decided it was finally time for me to dive into his work. Thus, when I saw the two Messenger of Fear novels on offer, I decided to take the leap.
In reality, Messenger of Fear is more of a three-point-five-star rating rather than the three-star rati ...more
In reality, Messenger of Fear is more of a three-point-five-star rating rather than the three-star rati ...more

Messenger of Fear is basically what you would get if Hot Topic and an After School Special had a baby: from the obvious, cliched bullying, to the seemingly philosophical realization that, *gasp*, there's both good and evil inside all of us, and right down to the tight, faux leather clothing, the crazy and totes rebellious colors for hair and cosmetics, tattoos and the cheesy skull buttons in a black, long, Goth jacket, because why not? That's how creatures of the underworld/otherworld/whatever-t
...more

May 31, 2014
Diamond
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
e-arc,
2014-releases,
own,
magic,
favorites,
ya,
favs-4-blog,
fantasy,
ya-series-i-love,
thriller
Full Review on my blog @ Dee's Reads
One of the genres I rarely read are thrillers; but a thriller with a supernatural element? Messenger of Fear had me interested because of the unusual braid of genres and the really cool cover (I love that color blue). I guess it doesn’t take much for me to step out of my comfort zone. Add a little of a genre I tend to love and a color-pleasing cover and I’ll try you out! But seriously though, I’m so glad I did.
“Yes, Mara,” he said with a sense of finality, as ...more
One of the genres I rarely read are thrillers; but a thriller with a supernatural element? Messenger of Fear had me interested because of the unusual braid of genres and the really cool cover (I love that color blue). I guess it doesn’t take much for me to step out of my comfort zone. Add a little of a genre I tend to love and a color-pleasing cover and I’ll try you out! But seriously though, I’m so glad I did.
“Yes, Mara,” he said with a sense of finality, as ...more

I was looking at Michael Grant's Wikipedia page and was shocked to discover that he has written over 150 books. That's right, one hundred and fifty. How is this the first book of his that I have read?! Where have I been?
I don't normally read a lot of supernatural fiction. That means I don't necessarily know all the ins and outs of what makes a fantastic supernatural book. What I do know is that Messenger of Fear is a crazy, weird and creepy story that intrigued and captured my imagination from ...more
I don't normally read a lot of supernatural fiction. That means I don't necessarily know all the ins and outs of what makes a fantastic supernatural book. What I do know is that Messenger of Fear is a crazy, weird and creepy story that intrigued and captured my imagination from ...more

(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to HarperCollins and Edelweiss.)
I have to say that I didn't really enjoy this book, although I appreciated the twist at the end.
Mara was an okay character and what she was going through wasn't very nice. I couldn't really relate to her though, and even by the end of the book I didn't really like her, if anything I liked her less.
The storyline in this was a nice idea, but the execution was just off for me. ...more
I have to say that I didn't really enjoy this book, although I appreciated the twist at the end.
Mara was an okay character and what she was going through wasn't very nice. I couldn't really relate to her though, and even by the end of the book I didn't really like her, if anything I liked her less.
The storyline in this was a nice idea, but the execution was just off for me. ...more

Aug 01, 2014
Paul
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
People who: have read Grant's past work, want a quick bit of fantasy.
I was given a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This has not affected my opinion of this book nor the content of this critique in any way.
3 1/2 stars
The opening installment to Michael Grant's new series seems largely a routin ...more
3 1/2 stars
"He is not indifferent, that's the thing. His too-near voice that seems always to be whispering in my ear is held to a standard of cool detachment, but his eyes and his mouth and his forehead and the way he swallows all speak of reflected pain."
The opening installment to Michael Grant's new series seems largely a routin ...more

This and other reviews can be found on The Psychotic Nerd
MY THOUGHTS
This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, mostly because I loved Michael Grant's Gone series, but I also thought that this sounded like such an interesting book!
I was sort of mislead, though, because I was under the impression that this would be at least a little bit scary. But, no, it's about teaching those who've done wrong a lesson. I was okay with this. I actually thought it had a very intriguing idea. Basic ...more
MY THOUGHTS
This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, mostly because I loved Michael Grant's Gone series, but I also thought that this sounded like such an interesting book!
I was sort of mislead, though, because I was under the impression that this would be at least a little bit scary. But, no, it's about teaching those who've done wrong a lesson. I was okay with this. I actually thought it had a very intriguing idea. Basic ...more

This book was unlike anything I've ever read and it was super interesting but it kind of fell short for me this is just a quick review.
Characters: i didn't feel connected to any of the characters the messenger i feel should've stayed ominous and mysterious that would've been a better approach. Mara was okay but rather boring i didn't care for her much. Oriax and Daniel were kind of unnecessary. i did like the other characters in the mini story lines i liked meeting each one but again i didn't fe ...more
Characters: i didn't feel connected to any of the characters the messenger i feel should've stayed ominous and mysterious that would've been a better approach. Mara was okay but rather boring i didn't care for her much. Oriax and Daniel were kind of unnecessary. i did like the other characters in the mini story lines i liked meeting each one but again i didn't fe ...more

From what I've observed in the last few years, all YA novels can be categorized under three broad headings:
One. Paranormal Romance. That's your typical novel, the Mortal Instruments, the Twilights, the Vampire Academies. The genre is saturated with these.
Two, the realistic or non-paranormal literature more often than not with their share of the romance, things like the Hunger Games, the Fault in our Stars, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.
And Three, my favourite and least common, science ...more
One. Paranormal Romance. That's your typical novel, the Mortal Instruments, the Twilights, the Vampire Academies. The genre is saturated with these.
Two, the realistic or non-paranormal literature more often than not with their share of the romance, things like the Hunger Games, the Fault in our Stars, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.
And Three, my favourite and least common, science ...more

I really liked the whole concept behind this story but sadly the writing style kept me from truly enjoying it as much as I had hoped I would.
I think because of the synopsis and this being my first Grant book, I was expecting a little too much and we all know what can happen when we go into a story expecting something and not getting it. It makes it hard to plow through and really enjoy what is happening in it and connecting to the characters like we need to.
Instead of getting into the story I fo ...more
I think because of the synopsis and this being my first Grant book, I was expecting a little too much and we all know what can happen when we go into a story expecting something and not getting it. It makes it hard to plow through and really enjoy what is happening in it and connecting to the characters like we need to.
Instead of getting into the story I fo ...more

AAAAAHHHHHH It's so far away...
...more

For the most part, I enjoyed the book.. It was a quick read and I didn't call the ending. I will admit to being confused in the beginning, but if you stick with the story, it mostly makes sense in the end. I may read Tattooed Heart sometime in the future. I have some questions that may be answered in the sequel. It is a bit gruesome in some parts as it details a suicide, so I would probably keep it to the older YA crowd.
...more

When I finished this book, I had no idea how to rate it. I have no idea whether it was amazing, or meh or just plain old likeable and I think the reason for that is because while it deals with so many interesting things in such interesting ways, it also seems a little flat at times. Not as intense as one would imagine a book like this to be. But let me define what I mean when I say ‘a book like this’.
This is a book that deals with the idea of handing out justice. It deals with things like bully ...more
This is a book that deals with the idea of handing out justice. It deals with things like bully ...more

I can totally see how Michael Grant has written a crap load of books. It's clear this man has some talent, and a bunch of crazy ideas living inside of his head--which I must admit, after reading, Messenger of Fear--I think it's a creepy place.
Messenger of Fear was eery to say the least. It felt like I was reading this book with a shadow sitting over my shoulder. I could be wimpy or just easily scared but this book gave me goosebumps--at least for some parts of this book. Some parts of this book ...more
Messenger of Fear was eery to say the least. It felt like I was reading this book with a shadow sitting over my shoulder. I could be wimpy or just easily scared but this book gave me goosebumps--at least for some parts of this book. Some parts of this book ...more

Aug 16, 2014
Sarah Churchill
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
received-for-review,
arc
I didn't really know what to expect from The Messenger of Fear, but it wasn't this. It's very cryptic but never boring, philosophical but also brutal (and at one point pretty gruesome). Something about this book reminded me of Hellraiser, if Pinhead had been into philosophy.
A perfect Halloween read, I'm really glad I picked it up this month. The only downside for me was the big finale, which I saw coming from very early in the story because there were just too many clues to ignore. I wish it cou ...more
A perfect Halloween read, I'm really glad I picked it up this month. The only downside for me was the big finale, which I saw coming from very early in the story because there were just too many clues to ignore. I wish it cou ...more

Mara wakes up only to find out that she is stuck in limbo with the mysterious Messenger of Fear who makes her witness other people who gets punished for their sins. Can she survive? Read on and find out for yourself.
This was a pretty good YA horror story. If you like stories that scare you, be sure to check this book out at your local library and wherever books are sold.
This was a pretty good YA horror story. If you like stories that scare you, be sure to check this book out at your local library and wherever books are sold.

I was super curious to read Messenger of Fear, as I’ve not read anything by Michael Grant before, but I’ve heard many good things about his books. Messenger of Fear was definitely an interesting read.
Mara has no memory of how she came to be an apprentice of The Messenger of Fear, a young man who dresses in black and can see the darkness that brews in even the purist of hearts. When someone does goes unpunished after they’ve done something wrong, The Messenger of Fear will track them down, and of ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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What's the Name o...: SOLVED. YA-Girl/Bully watches as others face tests/punishments for wrongs they've done. [s] | 4 | 23 | Sep 16, 2020 07:19PM | |
YA Buddy Readers'...:
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7 | 9 | Apr 30, 2017 02:07AM | |
Bookreads :): Messenger of Fear | 1 | 1 | Jan 09, 2016 11:25AM | |
Good Horror Books? | 2 | 8 | Sep 12, 2015 08:01PM | |
SEQUEL?!?!?! | 3 | 18 | Jan 06, 2015 12:50PM |
Co-author with Katherine Applegate of Ocean City, Making Out, Summer, Animorphs, Everworld, Remnants, Eve and Adam.
Pseudonymous coauthor with KA of Christy (the TV spin-off books), Sweet Valley Twins, Girl Talk and various Disney spin-offs.
Pseudonymous author of Barf-O-Rama.
Author of Gone, BZRK, The Magnificent 12, Messenger of Fear, Front Lines, Monster and A Sudden Death in Cyprus.
AKA Michae ...more
Pseudonymous coauthor with KA of Christy (the TV spin-off books), Sweet Valley Twins, Girl Talk and various Disney spin-offs.
Pseudonymous author of Barf-O-Rama.
Author of Gone, BZRK, The Magnificent 12, Messenger of Fear, Front Lines, Monster and A Sudden Death in Cyprus.
AKA Michae ...more
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Messenger of Fear
(2 books)
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