lukesullivan013 's review for:

Rage by Richard Bachman

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This definitely *feels* like a book originally written by an eighteen year old, but I was surprised by its depth. It's strange to me that people can complain that it's boring or dated, because it feels genuinely of its time. Yeah, teenagers have weird sexual politics and traumas that they often hide from themselves and others. These people at the verge of adulthood come together, forced to evaluate themselves from a kid who deeply disturbed, someone who doesn't understand himself, someone desperate to be seen. Maybe I s9ound nuts because I'm ostensibly sympathizing with a fictional school shooter, but... Charlie only kills and lashes out directly at figures of authority. Are they innocent, arguably yes. Charlie is still a *bad person,* but he is a fascinating character. It's a blood-soaked treatise written by a King who was a teenager in a particularly oppressive version of America. Anyone who claims the books causes school shootings missed the point; if a school shooter claimed the same thing, they'd also have missed the point.