Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication date: 09/2014
US Edition | Hardcover | 272 pages
Mara wakes up surrounded by a strange mist with no memories. She meets a strange young man who calls himself Messenger of Fear and she’s supposed to be his apprentice. They move through time and space, observing people who need punishment for crimes of wickedness, bullying and thoughtless teenage cruelty, when human law isn’t enough. They give the people a choice: play a game the horrific Game Master devised, or face your biggest fear. If the players win the game, they go free – though they’ll be changed by the experience of the game. If they lose, they must face their biggest fear anyway.
Messenger of Fear by Michael Grant is about the good and the evil in humans and the thin line between the two, the cruelty people choose to inflict on others and how they justify it in their heads. It shows the hard reality of today’s world, but also a scary new fictional world. Real life problems are mixed with fiction and I really loved that.
There are three subplots and I felt so sad reading them. My heart broke a little, especially with Samantha’s story. The three plots are very different, but they’re all involved in the same terrifying situation. Messenger paid all of them a visit, but everything else was anything but similar. This book has important lessons about life and the biggest lesson is that you should be careful of the way you act. Unless you want a visit from the Messenger of Fear and you don’t want that, trust me.
I really enjoyed reading this book, the plot twist at the end was very interesting and I didn’t see it coming. I did felt like this book was more like an exploration of an idea than a story, but it’s the beginning of a series, so this book was a good introduction and I’m very curious about the rest of the series. I’d love to know more about the other characters like Daniel, I feel like he’s got a lot going on that we didn’t see. This horror book will make you think.
