i am the messenger by Markus Zusak

i am the messenger -- 5stars

So there I was, trolling the library, wondering what would pop out at me this time. What treasure would call to me and beg to be read? What story would make me think, make me curious? Who's words would keep me awake until the wee hours? I found it. Or rather, it found me.

We follow a young man named Ed Kennedy for just one year, one single year in the life of a pathetic kid who won't amount to anything, so says his mother. Then one day everything changes, he receives the Ace of Clubs in the mail with three addresses. He has to deliver a message to each place, but he doesn't have a clue what that is to be. He has to to this not just for one ace, but for all of them. The journey isn't just to deliver a message, but to... well you'll have to read it to find out what happens.

This was one of those rare books that I think everyone should read, not because it was a joy and a great read, but because it has the potential to change lives if you let it. There are other books that I can think of that I can think of, most of which are considered young adult, that have the same potential. Deliver a message to someone, maybe not what they want to hear sometimes, but always what they need. Every thing that we do, every thing we say has a power to effect others and ourselves. The point is that we have to allow the change, fighting it only causes more pain.

So is that what happened to Ed Kennedy? Did he change because of the messages he was sent to deliver? You'll have to read it and find out. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, I hope the story calls to you in a whisper off the shelves and talks to you until you are wide awake at two in the morning, feeling completely satisfied.

The Bar Code Rellion By Suzanne Weyn

The Bar Code Rebellion
Four Stars

This was a grand conclusion to the series. All right so, it isn't really a series as they go, more like a long story. Hard to explain, anyway...

So once I finished the first book, The Bar Code Tattoo, I had to see how it ended. We pick up where we left off, with Kayla in the rebel camps, trying to find the courage she's always had, but never realized. She has found a new ability to go with her visions of the future, telepathy.

We follow her as she travels across the country to get away from those chasing her and find friends she's lost. In her travels, she finds out that there is far more behind that tattoo then simple medical and financial information. The tattoo is not a protection, it was never meant to be. But what is it, and is that information worth killing for? To find out, you have to join the rebellion yourself, fight against the control of a government that never meant to protect you.

This story brings back memories of history class, the Sixties most especially. That was a time of much unrest, when the general populous was not exactly against the government, but they didn't exactly support it either. People protested being sent places they didn't want to go and doing things they didn't want to do. Basic freedoms were still in place, you weren't branded like cattle.

These books make you think, they make you take stock of what is offered as a protection when in reality its more of an imprisonment. Global positioning systems in our cell phones and cars are for our safety, what if we get lost? But it's also used for tracking. Fluoride is put into the drinking water. Vaccines are forced upon our children, a new one that is supposed to prevent certain cancers in women actually causes other cancers! How far is too far? That is what Suzanne Weyn is trying to tell us all in her books. She is forcing us to ask ourselves... how far is too far?

The Barcode Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn

The Bar Code Tattoo
*****- Five Stars

I happened upon this little gem whilst meandering though my local library. Oh the joys of books to read, free of charge! This book was just leaning ever so slightly off the shelf, so I adjusted it, then decided to take a closer look. "Closer", indeed! I read it in a few hours on the road this weekend.

We start in a world set in the future. Everything is smaller and faster then ever before. The latest "in" thing is to get this tattoo on your wrist of a bar code that is unique to you and only you. But see there's a problem in Utopia, isn't there always?

Kayla is one of the very few people who think there is something wrong morally about having your identity plastered on your arm for all the world to see. Medical records, criminal records, schooling records... every personal thing about you is right there for anyone with a scanner to see. Kayla refuses to get the tattoo, which starts to pose problems after the government makes it a law to be tattooed by seventeen.

What path will Kayla choose now? To follow the government and be a good little docile sheep, following the herd? Or will she take a stand for her morals? Are morals and self integrity really important anyway? Is "safety" the price for freedom?

A wonderful story, but then I'm a sucker for the "False Utopia" stories. 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Giver... There are more I'm sure, but these are my favourites. Is safety the price of our personal freedom? Can we be free moral agents, allowed to make mistakes, yet maintain freedom? What is price we are individually willing to pay? Well... you answer......