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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
When I was young I read the Dutch edition, but rereading it in English after all the school shootings that happened between the two reads its an even more sinister experience.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Given the history of this book, I expected the story to have more, you know, murder in it. It's not a school shooting story. It's a kinda sloppy teenage character study with a few shootings involved.
King wrote this when he was a freshman in college, and it shows.
King wrote this when he was a freshman in college, and it shows.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings
Not King's best work, but an earnest attempt at imagining the mindset of a school shooter years before that was an actual thing. Kind of Breakfast Club meets Lord of the Flies.
dark
tense
fast-paced
Stephen King says he won’t reprint this book because of its violent content involving school children. I think it’s that and also because it’s the weakest book of his I’ve read.
The first hundered pages of this were a slog. The main character is so annoying and whiny. Once the hostage students started telling their stories it definitely picked up.
This reminded me of The Catcher in the Rye and The 80’s movie The Breakfast Club. Catcher’s Holden was a much better protagonist and Salingers message was much clearer and meaningful.
Charlie’s motivation was so weak. He kills 2 teachers and holds a class hostage because his dad was occasionally mean to him and said misogynistic things about his mom.
I had absolutely ZERO empathy for him.
Another annoying thing was Stephen King’s lack of firearm knowledge. If you’re going to have a gun be a major plot point in your story, please research the correct terms and mechanics of it so you don’t sound like a complete idiot when the character loads “Shells” into the “Clip” of his nondescript 22. Caliber hand gun.
The first hundered pages of this were a slog. The main character is so annoying and whiny. Once the hostage students started telling their stories it definitely picked up.
This reminded me of The Catcher in the Rye and The 80’s movie The Breakfast Club. Catcher’s Holden was a much better protagonist and Salingers message was much clearer and meaningful.
Charlie’s motivation was so weak. He kills 2 teachers and holds a class hostage because his dad was occasionally mean to him and said misogynistic things about his mom.
I had absolutely ZERO empathy for him.
Another annoying thing was Stephen King’s lack of firearm knowledge. If you’re going to have a gun be a major plot point in your story, please research the correct terms and mechanics of it so you don’t sound like a complete idiot when the character loads “Shells” into the “Clip” of his nondescript 22. Caliber hand gun.
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-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
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The first novel released by Stephen King under his darker pseudonym of Richard Bachman. This is the one SK removed from print in the 90s after multiple school shooters/mass shooters had this on their person or stated it influenced
Like each of the other “Bachman books”, this is a novel meant to instill one theme/emotion and just hammer that point home. For “The Long Walk” there was pain. For “Roadwork” there was loss of control. For “The Running Man” there was paranoia.
And for Rage the theme I found was justification. The main character (who just killed 2 adults and is holding his class against their will) unintentionally causes the reader and his classmates to gain perspective and empathy for him as he explains his troubled childhood. His classmates in turn share their stories, struggles, and truths to justify their mistakes and trials. And in the end, like the children on the island in “Lord of the Flies”, they (the class minus the killer with the gun) come together to take down the one student who deems himself above them, who doesn’t need to justify his lies and poor choices, to the point that he is in a mental hospital with no chance of recovery.
Not a comfortable read but had to be done to complete my goal of reading all of SK’s books!
Like each of the other “Bachman books”, this is a novel meant to instill one theme/emotion and just hammer that point home. For “The Long Walk” there was pain. For “Roadwork” there was loss of control. For “The Running Man” there was paranoia.
And for Rage the theme I found was justification. The main character (who just killed 2 adults and is holding his class against their will) unintentionally causes the reader and his classmates to gain perspective and empathy for him as he explains his troubled childhood. His classmates in turn share their stories, struggles, and truths to justify their mistakes and trials. And in the end, like the children on the island in “Lord of the Flies”, they (the class minus the killer with the gun) come together to take down the one student who deems himself above them, who doesn’t need to justify his lies and poor choices, to the point that he is in a mental hospital with no chance of recovery.
Not a comfortable read but had to be done to complete my goal of reading all of SK’s books!