Nope!! That’s my thought on finishing this novel, just nope.
Rage is a novel about high school student Charlie Decker murdering a teacher and holding his classmate’s hostage. While the police try to negotiate with Charlie, he turns his classmates into a group therapy session about his woes. It’s a heavy premise, and unfortunately, it’s not well-executed, partly because the bile that Charlie spills out is difficult to stomach.
It’s also an early work of Stephen King, while Rage was released after his first three novels research shows that it may be his first effort at writing a novel. This is slightly confused as other sources state The Long Walk is, but the style of writing in this feels much rougher. It’s this roughness that I struggled with most and has led me to coin the phase Headache Book, on account of actually getting a headache reading some of its passages.
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Charlie’s opinions ooze from the sentences of this book like poisonous sulphur to the point where this reader felt like King was on the side of Charlie. Rage is notorious for having been removed from publication following the discovery of copies in several school shooters’ lockers. While I agree with this choice it has led to the book taking on a mystically kind of significance in the minds of die-hard fans. I wasn’t able to find a copy until I stumbled across it in a charity book store at twenty-nine. I wonder sometimes if the same fans that revere this book associates its rarity with high quality. They shouldn’t, and really should only seek it to complete reading all his work, not for the content.
Tier: Headache Books
Companion Books: We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Both novels deal with heinous acts of violence committed at high schools only We Need To Talk About Kevin tells its story well. Yes, both are horrifying, but the latter does not leave the reader feel like inflicted with a migraine.
Jamie Stewart
Author
Jamie Stewart started writing stories at the age of nine inspired by R.L Stein's Goosebumps series and the Resident Evil franchise that he was far too young to play in hindsight. He is the author of I Hear the Clattering of the Keys and Other Fever Dreams, a collection of horror stories, and Mr. Jones, a coming-age-novel. He is also the co-editor of Welcome to the Funhouse, a horror anthology for Blood Rites Horror. He has also self-published four horror novelette’s that have all peaked at Number 1 on Amazon's Best Seller's List and have been reviewed by the Night Worms team. He has published short stories in SPINE magazine as well as had audio versions made for various podcast such as Into the Gloom and Horror Oasis.
He can be found on Instagram @jamie.stewart.33 where he reviews and promotes books.
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