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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
3.5 a goodreads reviewer said holden caulfied takes the breakfast club hostage and that about sums it up. one should never dismiss teenage angst.
Tentative 4 for now. This book was…a lot. Like it was really good but I’ll need 2-4 business days to process what I read.
What I can say for now is that I read this in one sitting, and that King’s choice to unpublish this is an understandable one. Charlie is a deeply disturbed individual, and as a (mostly) sane person, his actions are abhorrent. But if there’s one thing King does well, it’s make you truly understand the villain. We are in Charlie’s head the entire story. You get to see the inner workings of his depravity. And while this is a story about a school shooter, it’s moreso a story about grappling with authority, your place in the world, coping (or not) with abuse, and who people really are when faced with life and death.
I commend him for pulling this out of easily accessible market since it was written before gun violence in schools was as much of a far spread issue as it is now in the US.
That being said…. I was also forced to read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult in 8th grade….take a guess which book is more graphic and traumatizing.
What I can say for now is that I read this in one sitting, and that King’s choice to unpublish this is an understandable one. Charlie is a deeply disturbed individual, and as a (mostly) sane person, his actions are abhorrent. But if there’s one thing King does well, it’s make you truly understand the villain. We are in Charlie’s head the entire story. You get to see the inner workings of his depravity. And while this is a story about a school shooter, it’s moreso a story about grappling with authority, your place in the world, coping (or not) with abuse, and who people really are when faced with life and death.
I commend him for pulling this out of easily accessible market since it was written before gun violence in schools was as much of a far spread issue as it is now in the US.
That being said…. I was also forced to read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult in 8th grade….take a guess which book is more graphic and traumatizing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mass/school shootings
Moderate: Gun violence
Minor: Racism
5⭐
Inesperadamente me gustó mucho.
Es un libro con una historia muy trigger warning por las situaciones de violencia que tristemente suelen vivirse continuamente en USA.
Podría parecer una tontería el hecho de la actitud de los involucrados frente a situaciones de muerte, sin embargo, la forma en que las personas normalizamos la violencia, en menor o mayor medida, habla mucho de la sociedad en la que vivimos.
A pesar de que el protagonista sea el malo, podemos entrar dentro de su mente y tal vez entender un poco su personalidad por medio de experiencias vividas y me terminó enganchando demasiado.
A decir verdad la ineptitud y estupidez de las autoridades me irritó bastante, sé que no es el punto de la historia pero que rabia que nadie reaccionara como una persona racional.
Inesperadamente me gustó mucho.
Es un libro con una historia muy trigger warning por las situaciones de violencia que tristemente suelen vivirse continuamente en USA.
Podría parecer una tontería el hecho de la actitud de los involucrados frente a situaciones de muerte, sin embargo, la forma en que las personas normalizamos la violencia, en menor o mayor medida, habla mucho de la sociedad en la que vivimos.
A pesar de que el protagonista sea el malo, podemos entrar dentro de su mente y tal vez entender un poco su personalidad por medio de experiencias vividas y me terminó enganchando demasiado.
A decir verdad la ineptitud y estupidez de las autoridades me irritó bastante, sé que no es el punto de la historia pero que rabia que nadie reaccionara como una persona racional.
emotional
tense
medium-paced
dark
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Mass/school shootings
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Drug use, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Definitely not my favorite King, but mercifully short and it oddly had a few really great quotes I'm keeping track of too. Oh ho ho we are teenage edgelord angsty today.~
The Good:
- Like I said, there were some absolute -winners- of quotes. King as a whole is insanely quotable and comes up with amazing lines in every book I read from him, and this is no exception. A short one I really liked is: "When you turn off the main road, you gotta be prepared to see some funny houses." when describing his fellow strange classmates' behavior in the situation they find themselves in.
- Main character - We've got a live one here folks, definitely the height of angsty teenage boy, filled with hormones and anger, but ultimately I didn't loathe him as much as I should have and in some places he was quite sympathetic, despite his actions.
-It was really short. Had it been longer I would have been given more time to like it even less.
The Bad:
- All the other characters. What fuckin' Kool-aid were they drinking and can I have some? I don't understand their behavior and actions at all. Like, Charlie was the most sane person in this classroom, and what the fuck is up with that? If it was intentional, well done King because holy hell...
-Plot - I don't know what I was expecting here, but whatever it was I didn't get it. I assumed there was going to be a lot more deaths than there were and I still don't know what the point of everything was. Lots of rambling going on, and trust me, I loved The Long Walk, so I adore a good Stephen King ramble, but this one was so not it for me.
The Ugly:
- TW school shooting, violence, suicidal ideation, underage sexual encounters, child abuse (physical, not sexual).
Overall I can't say I recommend this one to anyone. It definitely reeks of the truth that King wrote it at an extremely young age (while in high school or shortly into college, I believe), but there are a few worthy nuggets for perusal if you can stand to read a novella-length work of overall meh/wtf-ness for them. If you can find it anyways, that is. Factoid that this book is no longer in print at all going on decades because of real-life school shooters having a copy of it and King pulling it due to feeling a personal responsibility for any influence it may have had on real-life events. You can only find very expensive older single copies or equally expensive older copies of a bind-up of The Bachman Books (which is what I own). Typically all are going for over 100$, but I found a copy at my local used book store for 35$, so I snatched it up. Even though this wasn't my favorite story, I look forward to reading Roadwork and The Running Man later on in my journey through Stephen King within this volume.
Current King Rankings in order of Enjoyment:
1. The Long Walk
2. The Stand
3. The Shining
4. 'Salem's Lot
5. Four Past Midnight
6. Carrie
7. The Gunslinger
8. Rage
The Good:
- Like I said, there were some absolute -winners- of quotes. King as a whole is insanely quotable and comes up with amazing lines in every book I read from him, and this is no exception. A short one I really liked is: "When you turn off the main road, you gotta be prepared to see some funny houses." when describing his fellow strange classmates' behavior in the situation they find themselves in.
- Main character - We've got a live one here folks, definitely the height of angsty teenage boy, filled with hormones and anger, but ultimately I didn't loathe him as much as I should have and in some places he was quite sympathetic, despite his actions.
-It was really short. Had it been longer I would have been given more time to like it even less.
The Bad:
- All the other characters. What fuckin' Kool-aid were they drinking and can I have some? I don't understand their behavior and actions at all. Like, Charlie was the most sane person in this classroom, and what the fuck is up with that? If it was intentional, well done King because holy hell...
-Plot - I don't know what I was expecting here, but whatever it was I didn't get it. I assumed there was going to be a lot more deaths than there were and I still don't know what the point of everything was. Lots of rambling going on, and trust me, I loved The Long Walk, so I adore a good Stephen King ramble, but this one was so not it for me.
The Ugly:
- TW school shooting, violence, suicidal ideation, underage sexual encounters, child abuse (physical, not sexual).
Overall I can't say I recommend this one to anyone. It definitely reeks of the truth that King wrote it at an extremely young age (while in high school or shortly into college, I believe), but there are a few worthy nuggets for perusal if you can stand to read a novella-length work of overall meh/wtf-ness for them. If you can find it anyways, that is. Factoid that this book is no longer in print at all going on decades because of real-life school shooters having a copy of it and King pulling it due to feeling a personal responsibility for any influence it may have had on real-life events. You can only find very expensive older single copies or equally expensive older copies of a bind-up of The Bachman Books (which is what I own). Typically all are going for over 100$, but I found a copy at my local used book store for 35$, so I snatched it up. Even though this wasn't my favorite story, I look forward to reading Roadwork and The Running Man later on in my journey through Stephen King within this volume.
Current King Rankings in order of Enjoyment:
1. The Long Walk
2. The Stand
3. The Shining
4. 'Salem's Lot
5. Four Past Midnight
6. Carrie
7. The Gunslinger
8. Rage
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A book only a school shooter could love. Did Rage inspire school shootings? Stephen King seems to think so. He has maintained that his decision 20+ years ago to take it out of print was the right.
School shootings are an unfortunate part of our lives, and it's important that we have media that addresses them with nuance and tact. Rage, however, leads disaffected readers to think they can somehow come away the hero after the school shooting, and that holding their classmates hostage will lead to a therapeutic version of The Breakfast Club. That seems less of a risk now, when the horror and reality of shootings can be seen easily and readily through the internet and when kids live in fear that they'll be victimized, but it's hardly a surprise that so many shootings were linked to the novel before the topic became so publicized.
School shootings are an unfortunate part of our lives, and it's important that we have media that addresses them with nuance and tact. Rage, however, leads disaffected readers to think they can somehow come away the hero after the school shooting, and that holding their classmates hostage will lead to a therapeutic version of The Breakfast Club. That seems less of a risk now, when the horror and reality of shootings can be seen easily and readily through the internet and when kids live in fear that they'll be victimized, but it's hardly a surprise that so many shootings were linked to the novel before the topic became so publicized.