Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Archives for August 2007

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak: B+

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From the back cover:
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:
Doesn’t this sound like the premise for a geeky TV show or movie? It certainly had that sort of vibe at first, with narration and dialogue that prompted me to mentally cast Simon Pegg in the role of Ed and Nick Frost as his annoyingly childish friend, Marv.

Pretty soon, though, things got a lot more serious. The cards Ed received sent him on a variety of missions, from kind of sappy things like spending time with a lonely old lady and rustling up a congregation for a priest to more dangerous ones, like dealing with a drunken lout who abuses his wife. I liked that the messages for Ed’s three best friends were the last tasks he had to complete, and that it forced him to take the scary steps of breaking through the pattern of superficial interaction he’d had with them and finding out their secrets, fears, and what it was they really needed. The resolution of Marv’s message was particularly moving.

The writing was often funny, but sometimes a little too pretentiously poetic. Example: “Voices slam and the door shouts shut.” Things like that disrupted the narrative flow of the story with their clunky construction. Plus, they conjured memories of high school creative writing assignments, which is seldom a good thing.

The ending was weird and very disappointing. The identity of the person behind Ed’s mission made very little sense. Zusak apparently felt the need to reinforce the already-obvious point that Ed’s not actually the messenger, but the message, and it concluded things on a rather confusing note.

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld: B

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From the back cover:
Tally has finally become pretty. Now her looks are beyond perfect, her clothes are awesome, her boyfriend is totally hot, and she’s completely popular. It’s everything she’s ever wanted.

But beneath all the fun—the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom—is a nagging sense that something’s wrong. Something important. Then a message from Tally’s ugly past arrives. Reading it, Tally remembers what’s wrong with pretty life, and the fun stops cold.

Now she has to choose between fighting to forget what she knows and fighting for her life—because the authorities don’t intend to let anyone with this information survive.

Review:
This was definitely the best of the Scott Westerfeld books I’ve read so far, though the first two-thirds of it just felt like exposition.

Tally learns more about her world in Pretties, including the existence of a secret reservation where the violent tendencies of unaltered humans are studied in a tribal setting. It’s pretty interesting, and there really weren’t any particular parts that dragged.

I wouldn’t say the characters were more fleshed out than the previous volume, really, but with the introduction of Zane, Tally’s boyfriend as a pretty, there forms a romantic triangle that I actually quite like. Usually with these, there’s one boy that is my clear favorite, but that’s not the case here. I’m kind of surprised that Westerfeld managed to get me that interested in it.

Therefore, it’s with some renewed hopes for the series that I continue on to its third installment.

So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld: C+

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From the back cover:
Ever wonder who was the first kid to keep a wallet on a big chunky chain, or wear way-too-big-pants on purpose? What about the mythical first guy who wore his baseball cap backwards? These are the Innovators, the people at the peak of the cool pyramid.

Seventeen-year-old Hunter Braque is a Trendsetter, on the second level of the pyramid. His job: find the newest, coolest thing for the retail market. His MO: observe, don’t get involved. But from the moment he meets Innovator Jen James, he can’t help getting involved in a big way.

Part love story, part mystery, part stinging satire, Scott Westerfeld’s spellbinding novel will make you question everything you’ve ever believed about how to be cool.

Review:
So Yesterday isn’t bad, it’s just boring. For such a short little book, it took me a while to make it through.

Cons: The plot is very silly, involving a missing friend, some apparently amazing shoes, and preserving the sanctity of “the cool pyramid.” The word “cool” is used approximately 412.9 times. There’s a mistake regarding whose cell phone called whom that no editor seems to’ve caught. The main characters are shallow and uninteresting. Because of something the lead character states at the beginning of the story, the supposed bad guys never project any true menace.

Pros: It’s occasionally amusing. Um… that’s about the only one I can think of.

This is the second book I’ve read by Scott Westerfeld, and so far I am not impressed. And yet, I’ve just started the second book in one of his series. No one can say I’m not giving this dude a chance! I do have to wonder whether actual young adults like this book or are insulted by the implication that they’re all obsessed with being “cool.” Maybe they are, and I’m just too old now to remember how it was.

Innocent Blood by P. D. James: B

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From the back cover:
Philippa Palfrey, adopted as a child, exercises her legal right to apply for a copy of her birth certificate when she becomes eighteen. Although she has always had a fantasy of being the illegitimate daughter of an aristocratic father and now dead mother, she soon learns the shocking truth about her parents—and finds that her mother is about to be released from prison.

With this knowledge, Philippa moves into an alien world that is to prove more dangerous and terrifying than any she could imagine. For there is someone else interested in her mother’s release—someone who has dedicated his life to seeking out and destroying her.

Review:
Innocent Blood is rather odd. The story is intellectually interesting, but not much beyond that. The characters aren’t exactly unlikable, but they’re very aloof and remote. By the time they experience something provoking a powerful emotional response, it’s hard to care very much.

Not a lot happens until the last hundred pages or so, where the man with a grudge gets closer to exacting his revenge. I was curious to see whether he’d succeed but again, not very invested in the fates of the characters. I liked how revelations about Philippa’s adoption precipitated the events of the novel’s conclusion.

The writing is quintessential James, complete with thoughtful insights and the exceptionally vivid physical descriptions of the characters that I love so much. I liked it, but I’m not sure whether I’d reread it. I don’t rule it out.