Rage

Author: Richard Bachman pseudonym of Stephen King 

Genre: Thriller
Original publication date: September 1977
Book description: A disturbed high-school student with authority problems kills one of his teachers and takes the rest of his class hostage. Over the course of one long, tense and unbearable hot afternoon, Charlie Decker explains what led him to this drastic sequence of events, while at the same time deconstructing the personalities of his classmates, forcing each one to justify his or her existence.

Thoughts:

This is a very short book. I was not sure what to expect. The title and the description did not seem to match in my opinion. The whole thing takes place in a very short amount of time, yet it feels impactful. The fascination Charlie has with Ted is not explained and I was not able to grasp it. 
It feels amazing how realistic this situation is especially now. I am not sure how it was in the time period it was originally published in, but school shootings have happened in USA and other countries as of late and people generally do not get to ask why. 

The hostages, do not feel truly in danger or better said they cope with it very well. The class is forced to share some of their deepest secrets, some against their will but most of them when baring their souls find peace and acceptance of themselves. 
The group of people here, most had to listen to their classmates and see them for the first time, its high school people act the way they do due to expectations or to cover their image or you just don't know them at all. They act a certain way and yet inside their mind a whole different world.

The ending was not what I expected and yet it kind of makes sense, except that Ted's reaction is not something I can fully grasp, maybe its just me.

It was interesting. 

I liked it, but it was not groundbreaking amazing, just an enjoyable read, I might need to reread it eventually. 


This is the fourth on my list of SK works. We'll see if I can actually follow through and read them in chronological order. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bird Box

Mid Month Wrap up (Hous Pocus + #AYearAThon)

The Diabolic

Frankisstein: A love story