Pages:
390
Publisher:
Electric Monkey
Release
Date: 27th
August 2015
Edition:
UK paperback,
purchased
Other
titles by this Author: Gone,
Hunger,
Lies, Plague, Fear, Light, BSRK, BSRK: Reloaded, BSRK: Apocalypse, Eve and
Adam, Messenger
of Fear
He
is the Messenger
Be
afraid
A
group of people were walking slowly up the road towards us. Four of the men
carried something, and I could already guess that it was a funeral procession.
“Why
are we here?” I asked.
“This
is the victim,” Messenger said. “Our business is with the ones responsible. The
wickedness we pursue is not murder, but murder’s source.
It
is hatred we pursue. Hatred.”
Messenger
and Mara serve the balance. They seek out injustice and punish the wicked. But
their world is changing and everything depends on the decisions Mara makes. The
Messenger’s apprentice is about to face her greatest test…
I bought Messenger of Fear last year with no expectations, only the
knowledge that I had enjoyed what I’d read of the Gone series, and it ended up being one of my favourites of the
year. The Tattooed Heart was equally
as brilliant.
In the beginning of Mara’s apprenticeship
with the Messenger of Fear, she was mainly discovering what on earth had landed
her in such in punishment, trying to get to grips with the new life she faced
and learning the ropes of being a Messenger. In this we see her more sure of
herself in the duties she will face, the powers she has the decisions the
severe punishments she will have to dish out. Even though her confidence is
rising, the surrounding consequences are hitting home. The loneliness and the
expanse of time she will be lonely for are weighing down on her, affecting
everything she sees as she follows the case of a young drug addict, ODing alone
and desperate and a boy riddled with bullets in an effort to protect his female
classmates from those wanting to forbid them from going to school.
I really like how Mara’s story
runs alongside several smaller plots of the cases she has to follow to
determine the guilty party and offer them a game. It allows issues such as
abuse, racism, manipulation, rape, morality, prejudice and many others to be
discussed without it feeling like it’s thrown in your face, although there are
a fair few scenes that are still difficult to read. The realisation that you
can never really know what the repercussions or chain reaction even the
smallest action can cause is scary and really makes you think twice about what
you say and do, especially when it comes to the feelings and lives of others.
Mara genuinely regrets what she
did to take her on this journey by this point, but she still has some residual
feelings that led her to that place: an overwhelming desire to be loved. And to
love in return, of course. I really liked how that played out for Mara. She could
easily have taken the route of selfishness and desperation to provide her with
what she thought would soften the edges of her new life, but what she actually
did really showed just how much she had transformed over the course of the
story. It actually even made me well up a little! She suddenly became worthy of
getting to the other side of being the Messenger of Fear, in the many, many
years when that will happen.
The
Tattooed Heart is
a touching and bittersweet ending to a fantastic duology and though Mara and
Messenger’s story concluded wonderfully, I definitely wouldn’t say no to more
from them!
Sophie
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