Rage by Stephen King

Okay, well I wanted to find a good book to start this blog off with and by that, I mean an interesting one. And what could be more interesting than a banned book by one of my favourite authors? Rage by Stephen King is all about a school shooting and it was withdrawn from publication after copies of the book were found in the possession of several real school shooters. Having read it now though, I can't help but wonder if it's withdrawal had more to do with how it ends...

 Rage tells the story of Charlie Decker, a teenage with (you guessed it) a lot of rage. After one too many clashes with the establishment and his father, he brings a gun into school, shoots two of his teachers and then holds his class hostage. The rest of the book is basically like a therapy session for them all, with each student confessing/sharing a story from their past while Charlie explains what led him to do this.

 

This carries on for about 160 pages or so before finally Charlie lets everyone go, promptly gets shot and surprisingly, actually survives. This leads us to my big problem with the novel-in the end, the shooting is sort of portrayed as being a good thing. None of the students themselves get shot and apart from poor Ted, they're all happier and a lot more emotionally-balanced after the shooting takes place. This, while certainly being an interesting ending, is more than a little uncomfortable to read given the vast amount of real-life shootings which have taken place. Ultimately it spoiled my enjoyment of the book too because of how uneasy it made me feel. I'm not one of those people who believes fiction should shy away from difficult topics but there's a difference between telling a story about a school shooting and telling a story which paints a school shooting in positive light.

Was it enough to ruin the book entirely for me? Of course not. This is still a fascinating read and as always, King manages to create a compelling cast of characters. They are perhaps a little less defined than in some of his later work but given its short length, I would still say Rage is definitely worth checking out. Not King's best but certainly not his worst either.

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