A review by jayneyh314
Rage by Stephen King, Richard Bachman

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

“Rage” was first published under the name of Richard Bachman back in 1977 and centres around a school shooting with protagonist, Charlie Decker, killing two people and taking his class hostage. After several real life shooting incidents in the 1980s and 1990s were apparently linked to this book, Stephen King (by then known to have been the author behind the Richard Bachman name) decided to let it fall out of print and it has remained so ever since. 

In my efforts to complete King’s entire body of work before my 40th birthday I was starting to think “Rage” might be a book I have to admit defeat on. There are a few second hand copies available on eBay and sites like that but they generally are quite expensive, obviously due to the rarity of it. I was fortunate to find a pdf copy on Etsy and whilst it’s hard to be sure I do think it is the genuine article, based on things I’ve read about it. 

I’m not generally a fan of book bans and whilst I can see why King let this fall out of print at the end of the day it hasn’t changed anything. Just reading “Rage” wasn’t what made people become school shooters. 

This is definitely not King’s best work, even in comparison to others around that time or others in the Bachman collection. It felt a little disjointed for me and the characterisation, which is something I normally love about King’s books, wasn’t there either. It was quite repetitive and, I hate to say this about a Stephen King book, pretty boring! Theres nothing hugely distinguishing about the characters to help differentiate them so it makes it a slightly more difficult read than it should have been.

Overall, not a book I’ll rush to read again and not necessarily a bad thing if you can’t get hold of a copy.