Book Synopsis:
protect the diamonds
survive the clubs
dig deep through the spades
feel the hearts
Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.
That's when the first ace arrives in the mail.
That's when Ed becomes the messenger.
Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who's behind Ed's mission?
My Review:
2/5 stars. I had to read this book for school, and I really didn’t like it. There was way too much inappropriate content, and the characters and plot didn’t even make up for it. There was a somewhat positive message at the end, but the plot didn’t really fit with that message very well at all.
Going into this book, I knew there was going to be a lot of negative content from what I'd read online, but I didn't realize it would be as bad as it was, and it was for school, so it would be harder to refuse. All of the bad language and sexual content was completely unnecessary. The book's plot would've been completely unchanged without any of it.
I hated the main character. At first it was because he so self-deprecating, and then it was because of how weird/creepy he was. As he delivered all the messages, he basically stalked and spied on everyone through their windows at night. He even had some characters ask him, somewhat jokingly, if he was a creep. The worst part was how he interacted with a fifteen-year-old character. When he first met her, he thought she was beautiful and told himself he couldn't think that way. Then he followed her on her morning runs. It was gross.
There are a couple positive things I will say about Ed. First, I like that he didn't actually kill the man on Edgar Street and gave him a second chance. Second, he was a good friend, especially toward the end. Those are his only redeeming qualities, though.
Another thing I really didn't like was the kind of negative portrayal of Christianity/church (although it was a Catholic priest and church, but it's still the same) and the characters' attitude toward it. Ed says he likes the priest character in the book because his sermons are "not like all the fire-and-brimstone preaching that's usually all bs anyway." It felt like the author was inserting his own opinion of Christianity through his characters.
The ending of this book was kind of interesting. I liked how it kind of broke the fourth wall, with Ed meeting a character who represented the author in real life. The author was the real "messenger" delivering the "message" that is the story to the readers. There was also a somewhat good message of living up to your full potential, but the plot as a whole didn't focus on that too much.
Content:
Language: Very frequent, almost constant. It felt like there was a curse word on every other page. Sh*t, bas**rd, a*se d*mn, d**khead, h*ll, other Australian curse words, God's name taken in vain, a priest character curses freely and says it's okay
Sexual Content: Ed talks a few times about how bad he is at sex and kissing, mentions of orgies/orgasms, he is constantly thinking about wanting to have sex with Audrey and having sex fantasies, someone gets raped almost every night and it described in a bit of detail, Ed thinks a fifteen-year-old girl is beautiful and comments about how nice her long legs are, a character got pregnant at 16, a character recalls having sex with someone in some detail, a character has sex with her boyfriend every night but doesn't even really love him, a mention of being able to "smell the sex", characters make out
Drugs/Alcohol: Ed's dad died from drinking too much, the characters casually get drunk and smoke all the time, with no consequences (it's not underage because the legal age in Australia is 18), a man offers his child some alcohol in their house
Violence/Gore: Characters get beat up, and a character almost kills another character but doesn't
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