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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
I thought this book was ok. Probably biased since I really love SK's writing style and voice a ton. It honestly reminded me a lot of The Breakfast Club but with a school shooting.
What I liked was it being from the perspective of the troubled teen and glimpses of how chaotic the writing is to obviously match the narrator's state of mind. I can see how people would view this book problematic since SK is trying to make you feel empathy for someone labeled as a monster. Unless I missed it, the narrator really didn't go through this insane traumatic event or series of events that made him go nutso. His parents seemed to have drug and alcohol issues, he was awkward around people, in particular girls, and he overheard his dad saying he would cut his wife's nose off if she cheated on him. Idk if this was SKs way of saying anyone can literally snap at anytime about anything but (I kind of feel horrible for saying this) his backstory wasn't traumatic enough for me to care about his whole dramatic display of attention and control. Honestly, felt like a warped Holden Caufield with this whole woe is me troupe.
All in all, it was ok and a quick read to plow through in-between TBRs...also good to experience if you're curious to read a book that even the author itself wants banned.
What I liked was it being from the perspective of the troubled teen and glimpses of how chaotic the writing is to obviously match the narrator's state of mind. I can see how people would view this book problematic since SK is trying to make you feel empathy for someone labeled as a monster. Unless I missed it, the narrator really didn't go through this insane traumatic event or series of events that made him go nutso. His parents seemed to have drug and alcohol issues, he was awkward around people, in particular girls, and he overheard his dad saying he would cut his wife's nose off if she cheated on him. Idk if this was SKs way of saying anyone can literally snap at anytime about anything but (I kind of feel horrible for saying this) his backstory wasn't traumatic enough for me to care about his whole dramatic display of attention and control. Honestly, felt like a warped Holden Caufield with this whole woe is me troupe.
All in all, it was ok and a quick read to plow through in-between TBRs...also good to experience if you're curious to read a book that even the author itself wants banned.
dark
tense
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I mean, I don’t understand how this novel could inspire anyone to commit murder, but maybe that says more about me than it does the book.
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The story is just pointless and you feel like you took crazy pills while reading it. You don't understand why characters act they way they do. The worst Stephen King book I've ever read and worst ending by far.
I first started reading Stephen King when I was eleven years old. I think he might have been the first proper author I got into. I remember looking him up, trying to find what book of his I should read next, and I stumbled upon Rage. The website I was reading said it had been banned, which I now know isn't exactly the story. I told my mum about it. She also liked Stephen King, she was the one who handed me Carrie, the first book by him I had read. I asked her about it, I asked her if she had read it, if she knew what about it was so bad that it had to be banned. She told me that yes, she had read it, and in fact, she thought she might have known where it was. She left the room for a couple of minutes, and came back with an old, yellow-paged copy of it, which she had bought at least twenty years earlier. She handed it to me, mumbling something which I was too young to quite grasp about how I should always read banned books, so I could know what it was that they didn't want me to know (there can be a thin line between anarchism and paranoia with persecutory delusions, and boy my mother is a tightrope walker).
I found it quite intense at the time. Once again, I was a child in primary school. The scariest movie I had seen was Coraline. I sort of understood why they didn't want me to read it.
I recently remembered the whole incident, and I decided to to re-read it. Sure, it's edgy. It's not written amazingly: as all other Stephen King novels, it's full of women breasting boobily in the background. It does capture the sentiment of being seventeen and full of anger, anxiety, and confusion. It's nowhere near as bad as I remembered, though. Sure, maybe don't hand it to your eleven year old children. But we're living at a point in time where with a simple google search you can find and read both of the Columbine shooters' journals. I don't think a book where, as someone else has worded it, Holden Caulfield holds the Breakfast Club hostage should be put out of print and made to forget like it is. It's really not that impactful.
I found it quite intense at the time. Once again, I was a child in primary school. The scariest movie I had seen was Coraline. I sort of understood why they didn't want me to read it.
I recently remembered the whole incident, and I decided to to re-read it. Sure, it's edgy. It's not written amazingly: as all other Stephen King novels, it's full of women breasting boobily in the background. It does capture the sentiment of being seventeen and full of anger, anxiety, and confusion. It's nowhere near as bad as I remembered, though. Sure, maybe don't hand it to your eleven year old children. But we're living at a point in time where with a simple google search you can find and read both of the Columbine shooters' journals. I don't think a book where, as someone else has worded it, Holden Caulfield holds the Breakfast Club hostage should be put out of print and made to forget like it is. It's really not that impactful.