Review: Messenger of Fear

Messenger of Fear by Michael Grant
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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 rating I gave it. Mostly, this rounding down is a reflection of my reading mood recently – most books have been rounded down rather than up, as nothing seems to be blowing my mind in the way I have been hoping for. Such is the case with Messenger of Fear, it is why I decided to round it down – even though I found this to be enjoyable, I had been expecting more from it than I was given.

If the truth is to be known, I read Messenger of Fear much quicker than I’d anticipated. A couple of hours passed and I was done, ready to pick up book two. It was a much easier read than I’d expected, one that had me turning the pages throughout. Clearly, based upon how quickly I managed to finish this one, I did enjoy it. I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d been hoping I would.

My main issue is that the story didn’t quite have the depth I had been hoping for. The concept was interesting, watching the story unfold was fun, but it never went as deep as I would have liked. I was left with far too many questions, too many things I felt were not explained as well as they could have been. The whole story was focused around one element that was obvious from the start, and I feel as though we sacrificed world building to focus upon unravelling a very clear mystery.

Don’t get me wrong, what world building we had was enjoyable. I will be honest and say I was surprised by how dark and gritty the book was, though. I love dark and gritty books, and this will never rank within my top ten, but it contained more than I’d expected from a young adult novel. In fact, I was rather surprised by the details that were given. This one certainly goes further than many young adult novels out there, to the point where certain details could almost have me forgetting I was reading a young adult novel.

Overall, this was enjoyable – even if it wasn’t quite to the level I had been hoping for. It left me more than willing to dive into the second book, especially as I was left with many things I wished to receive more of.

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