MESSENGER OF FEAR By Michael Grant

Erm... wow! Where to begin?

Before I get started, I would just like to say that this book took me very much by surprise. Having read the GONE series by the same author just over a year or so ago, I thought I knew what to expect from this author. I'm telling you now that I wont make that same mistake again! This book was so totally different from my expectations it was unreal. It also happens to be one of the weirdest book I think I have ever read. Great, but weird. Also did I mention that I read this one in around six hours?

I think the thing that I found most bizarre was the fact that you don't learn anything about the main character until right at the end of the novel. It worked surprisingly well, having a narrator whom you know nothing about.

I would have like to known more about Messenger, and I felt a little put out that all the way through, Mara talked about how she would eventually come to know Messengers real name and why he became the messenger of fear, but then she never actually tells you what they are. I really liked the characters Daniel and Oriax and I would have liked to have known more about them and had a bit more of a back story as to who they were, especially Daniel whom I never really understood. I really liked and connected with the messenger and although I want to know more about him and what was it he did that was so evil, but part of me wonders that if I did know that then my feelings towards Messenger would be different, and not necessarily a good different.

Also, as well as being a tremendously good book, it is also a valuable lesson about the effects of bullying and how  we should stop and assess ourselves occasionally, because sometimes we bully other people without even realising it.

I must admit, there were times when I was reading this book that I wanted to put it down, I didn't want to read any more, yet I just couldn't allow myself to put the book down. But I guess that was done so that I could feel what Mara felt. wanting to stop watching the suffering and pain and yet not having the ability to do so.

This is a very interestingly written book and definitely not for the faint hearted. Not you're traditional horror/fantasy novel but hey, why should we always stick to the tradition.

This is a great, if a little weird, read.

This book does contain graphic violence and some very mild sexual references.