Messenger

Lowery, L. (2004). Messenger. New York:  Delacorte Press.

What starts out to be a normal story of a child who is troubled and then saved by a man, definitely made a big turn.  Matty, the troubled young man, was a brought to the village by Seer, a blind man, to be healed and to become a better person.  Anyone living in the village had no secrets from the town’s people, everyone knew everything about everybody.  It was a way of the living.  The town progressed by a means of trading, until one day it seemed as if the trading of good turned into bad.  People started trading for themselves and it all turned into greediness.  The town’s people then decided that they didn’t want any more outsiders to come to their village because they thought that it would only bring more trouble, using Matty as an example.  The only difference was that there were people in the town that had certain powers, the Leader had the power to see beyond, Matty had the power of healing, and Kira, daughter of Seer, had power to see ahead.  Once the town had decided to take a vote on letting outsiders in, and it came back to not allow it, Matty had made the decision that he would make the journey through the changing forest to get Seer’s daughter.  This was a dangerous journey, but he knew that this was a journey that he had to make for someone that took him in as his own. 

This story is a Modern Fantasy, again a genre that does not catch my attention.  Having to read this book, I was a little reluctant because of the plot.  It starts out in a normal integral setting of a small village and people living their normal lives until Matty discovers that he has powers of some sort that he couldn’t quite understand.  He sees this frog that has been apparently gobbled up and spit out, and his leg is dangling.  He naturally picks him up to put into a safe place, and begins to feel something weird happen to him.  Needless to say the frog is now healed because of his powers.  The plot then moves into the town changing into a place of greediness and the forest that everyone is so afraid of is changing as well.  This is the forest that Matty had to travel through to get to Seer’s daughter.  It is like the fantasy of this story changes.  The town turns greedy; the forest turns me and tries to kill those who go through it.  The troubles and tribulations that Matty and Kira have to go through to get back to a town of greediness strikes me as strange because who would really want to live that way.  I know that I wouldn’t want to, even though we already live in a society that people are sometimes forced to look out for themselves.

I find myself drawn to this book because in high school we had to read Giver and I never took the opportunity to read this one.  I found it interesting to see how quickly someone can change because of something they want so badly.  I think find myself thinking that I am a little crazy to think that these things don’t happen.  They happen every day!  We either choose to see it or we do not.  It is our choice!  I did enjoy reading this book and am glad that I am being told to read outside my normal genres.  Definitely a good read!!  I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a book where you can get entrapped and see the good in people again.  There are still people who do well for others.

Big Question:  If you had special power such as Matty and good do well, what would your power be?  How would you use this to better mankind?  Would this be something that you would be proud?