Book Blog #146: I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Title: I am the Messenger
Author: Markus Zusak
# of Pages: 360 (paperback)
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Mystery
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Synopsis: Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

That's when the first ace arrives in the mail.

That's when Ed becomes the messenger.

Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who's behind Ed's mission?
Review: I'm still confused.

I'm not exactly sure what I just read. The whole book seemed quite ridiculous. This guy thinks  he's a messenger and HAS to interfere with people's lives? How does he know this by receiving the ace in the mail?

The following are notes I've taken while reading:

- How does Ed know that he's suppose to involve himself with these people? What if he was just suppose to observe...?

- How can Ed even see into these houses? Don't people have blinds?

- "It strikes me that without the man there, they might not have enough money coming in to pay the bills. On the other hand, he probably drank a lot of the money away, and I'm fairly certain she'd prefer being a little poorer in return for his absence." (167). EXACTLY! If this whole ordeal wasn't planned out, and he interfered with a random person's life, he could be screwing them over.

- The way he describes Angie Carusso eating the ice cream (and the way he seems to be intently watching her) is really creepy.

"Then her tongue rescues the steams on the side of the cone." "She works her mouth around the peppermint and onto the passion fruit now, nice and slow."

Maybe my mind's in the gutter....but those descriptions are really detailed in the wrong ways.

- Why is Angie Carusso accepting ice cream from strangers? Everyone's so trusting.

I didn't enjoy this one as much as The Book Thief, but I do think you should give it a shot if you've read Zusak's books  before...