The Messenger of Fear Essay Example

“The Game Master tore apart each limb of his body till he was left with nothing besides a head.” This is just one situation of the consequences these teenagers have after what they have done. Messenger of Fear a book written by Michael Grant is a read that will have all people thinking after each chapter. The reader will be so shocked by the events that it's hard to keep reading, but the story is so intriguing it is hard to put this book down.

The Messenger of Fear starts off by the protagonist Mara and we are taken through a journey with her to discover how our world deals with justice and the relationship between good and evil. At first the book begins with Mara waking up in a dark space that is filled with mist. All she knows is her name and her race. She walks up to a church-like building to see a girl inside a coffin with a man next to it. Here she meets the Messenger of Fear. She has been chosen to be his apprentice because Mara has done something so horrific it caused an uproar in the balance. 

The Messenger of Fear picks out teenagers that have done so wrong that they must face a dramatic event. They are given an option to either play a game given by the Game Master, or pay the price of their deepest darkest nightmare they could ever think of. If they succeed in the game then they are free to go, but if they don’t they will be forced to pay. Will Mara choose to become a Messenger of Fear, does she want too?

Messenger of Fear was jam packed full of different characters and different plots. One character that stuck with me was the Messenger of Fear himself because he was kind of the antagonist and the protagonist at the same time because even though he was doing these horrible things to these teenagers it makes the reader think, did they deserve what they got? Another character that was influential to me was the Game Master. The Game Master was a character that really stood out to me because he was this creature that had powers to really obliterate someone's expectancy of society. He created this imagery that the reader will never be able to get out of their head. 

For example, right around the middle of the book there is this couple that has a story like Romeo and Juliet, a love story that should never exist. So they sneak out together and while driving they hit a dog, the dog is seriously injured but can be taken to a vet to be saved. They choose instead of bringing it into the vet and saving the dog's life and getting themselves in trouble, run over the dog again a second time to kill the dog 100 percent. This caused the Messenger of Fear and the Game Master to appear and because the thing they have done is so evil and wrong the Game Master goes on to dig out their worst nightmare and it is terrible. Without the characters of Messenger of Fear being so gory and wrong the story wouldn't have been nearly as influential.

The theme of this story was really obvious and standoffish. The theme is that with a cause there will be an effect when there is a good thing or a bad thing. This shows up many times when there are many plots of people doing things so wrong that they will stay with their conscience for the rest of their life. For example, bullying someone till they have to end their life to get rid of the pain is a terrible thing to experience. But when you do something that is morally wrong there needs to be an effect to that action. Another theme of this story is thinking about what you do before you do it. 

Like the dog story, it's deciding between life and maybe getting in trouble by your parents. In our generation, we are all so self centered that we don't think about anyone else besides ourselves and it can cause things to die and maybe even one day the earth to decrease. After reading this book the reader can't help but keep these themes to heart. 

Undoubtedly, horror is one of the most influential things to read about. It causes the reader to be sucked into what they are reading. The Messenger of Fear doesn't have a chapter that isn't a little surprising or offstruck. Any reader that likes to read horror won’t be able to put down this book.