Different Concept, Same Author

    Hey everyone! As you can tell, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is currently what I talk about constantly because it has been my favorite book so far. And also, I have finished I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak and I was wondering, "How are they different, but they come from the same author?" I think you can answer this easily because he wouldn't want his work to be the same and bore his readers. But I feel that there is a connection between these two books even though they both have a different concept.

   Now to start this off by seeing what they have in common. The main characters Ed and Liesel have a hard family connection. In the Book Thief, on page 21, the author writes, "It was January 1939. She was nine years old, soon to be ten. Her brother was dead." And in I Am The Messenger on page 353, the author writes, "" I killed your father, Ed."" This shows that when Ed and Liesel were little kids, Liesel and Ed lost very important family members in their own books. But the only difference was that Ed never saw his father hung, but Liesel has seen her brother die in her arms two days before he was buried by gravediggers. Ed recalls in the book that others told Ed that his father died while sitting on a chair in a moving van (because Ed's father worked for a moving company) being hangover because he drinks a lot. But in reality, it was a murder that someone (who is open to interpretation) has killed Ed's father. I felt that there wasn't a lot of things that were similar between The Book Thief and I Am The Messenger.

   Now as to how they are different, there are a lot of features that makes these books unique from each other. Firstly, The Book Thief took place during the time period of the Holocaust in Germany while I Am The Messenger doesn't have a time period or country set. Also in I Am The Messenger, not many people have been killed, however in The Book Thief, it describes millions of people dying in multiple ways because the time period was the Holocaust. Also, none of Ed's friends die, but for Liesel, someone important to her dies during a bombing in Germany.

    Even though Markus Zusak has written these wonderful books, they leave you with something to ponder about.

 Vs. 

First Time in Forever

I am really happy about how my Monday went because I got to meet my blog buddies Bledina and Sana for the first time (and please don't sing For the First Time from Frozen)! It was really what I didn't expect this experience to be. Bledina and Sana are really great people to have conversations with. One of my blog buddies Sana was really relatable to be because we like about the same things (examples: Supernatural, Girl Meets World, Fifth Harmony, Eminem, etc.). And my other blog buddy Bledina is what you would consider as sporty. She loves basketball and so do I. I wanted to write this because not only I have created a friendship between these two wonderful people, I have created a bond that can last a lifetime that I would never trade for the world. It was really fun to get to know both of you Bledina and Sana and hopefully we can meet up again in the near future.

Tough Questions for "The Message"

   Hi everyone. Because I have recently finished I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak, I wanted to discuss something differently about this book. Because I have discussed the conflicts and lessons that Ed has been through in the book, I wanted to discuss difficult questions that I've had about this book.          

                       (This blog is obviously filled with spoilers. You have been warned.)

   So, on page 319, the author writes, " The girl got pregnant. Not unusual in these parts, but obviously not condoned by the Boyd's. The family left town. Nothing was ever said, and the Boyds were never really missed." What I never understood about this was that Suzanne (Marv's lover) left suddenly because her family "disappeared", but they never say in the beginning of the book that Suzanne never got pregnant and near the end of the book, they finally mention Suzanne getting pregnant but with who? I feel that Marv was the person that had Suzanne pregnant but I feel that we can only predict who we think that Suzanne got pregnant with.

  Also on page 353, the author writes, ""I killed your father, Ed. I organized the bank bungled bank robbery for a time when you were there. I instructed that man to brutalize his wife." What I obviously don't understand from this part of the book is that as a personal question for all of you, would you get angry if you found the person that did something horrible to someone you loved? I know I would, but I wouldn't kill myself for them just like in Romeo and Juliet. But the problem is that Ed didn't get angry with the person who told him that they killed Ed's father. Doesn't that seem odd to all of you? Because I still ponder about Ed not being mad at the person who killed his father. 

  Even though I have finished this book, the message that I will take away from this book is that there is always a spark of hope there waiting for you in the darkest of times.