Ratings127
Average rating3.2
I read two thirds of the book. I couldn't get into the story or the characters at all. I didn't like it at all. I also found the way the characters talked exhausting.
Contains spoilers
While there are certainly moments here that feel way too edgy for its own good, overall it’s a pretty stellar novella.
I low-key feel like this is just what the first Joker movie thought it was. Rage works better because it’s not an outright endorsement of Charlie Decker as a person.
The last moments are what’s really disturbing here. Over the course of the book, each character slowly starts to side with Charlie. Despite him being an incellian loser, they start to treat him like a hero. It all culminates in everyone violently beating on the popular kid.
Everyone supports Charlie because often people don’t really want change. People support violent causes because they find catharsis in violence.
The final chapter of the book is a letter that a student wrote to Charlie in his mental hospital. Everyone loves Charlie and their lives are all peachy.
Nothing ever happens.
Had to read this for a DI project, greatly altered my brain chemistry, I’d buy the physical copy right now if I had the money
3,5⭐
Es un libro de lectura rápida. Te hace cuestionar el estado mental tan frágil e influenciable que se tiene en la adolescencia. No solo por Charlie, sino por los demás personajes del libro quienes terminan caminando por el mismo sendero de locura que tenía el protagonista ( incluyendo algunos que cambiaron como supone el final del libro).
No lo considero de los mejores libros de King, pero si es un libro de gran impacto cultural, teniendo la época en que se escribio.
Shocked. No use of the N word.
BUT leave it to King to add other problematic thinking nonetheless.
More interesting than I thought it would be, but written as to sympathize and root for Charlie. Which felt too much like a incel wet dream sequence especially the reaction the classmates have.
I swear I already did a review of this book.
sigh Guess I need to do it again.
Oh my Lanta, I hated this book so much. It was utterly boring. I went into this expecting something with Stephen King's essence that he sometimes put into his thriller books. All I got from this was a whiny teenager who conducted a school shooting and still whined about life.
There are heavy topics in this book but it was handled so “awkwardly/immature” (not even sure if that is the correct word(s) I want to use.
sigh
Now, it is not the worst book I have ever read about school shootings/horrible situations that minors are in. But... It is not the best.
I wish Stephen King would rewrite this.
The rating is 2.5/3
I don't even think I would recommend this book to those who are just getting into these types of books over books like Hate List or Nineteen Minutes
The worst book I have ever read.
Not my least favorite, though, because Catcher in the Rye and Ready Player Two exist. But this book is definitely worse.
Beyond the real world repercussions, this book is just utter garbage. It is an affront to literature. To art. To the written word. It's an affront to the actual feeling of rage. Rage deserves better than to have this book named after it. I cannot believe Stephen King wrote this. I also can't believe the rating for From a Buick 8 is like .4 less than this paper concussion. This should never have been published, this should have never been shown to publishers. This should have embarrassed King too much to ever show someone. Before the real world repercussions.
As for those, well. King was absolutely right to let this be out of print. Normally when people shoot up schools and the media points out everything they've ever owned as a possible cause, I roll my eyes. “What, the shooter liked Hubba Bubba Max?! Burn it all!”. But this book glorifies school shooting in such a fucking insane way that I am just completely perplexed at the decision to write this. Zero stars. Negative one stars, actually, for causing real world harm.
This book made me a worse person. Prior me had hope in humanity. It's gone now
was very happy to have gotten the chance to read this book with all the controversy surrounding it. I loved the deeper message within the story-you have to read it to understand. it's a shame people had to take this to other levels. really enjoyed characters and “getting it on” if you know, you know. if not, you should read it 👍🏼
this cost me $55 to read because it's an out of print book but trust me when i tell you i would've paid a grand for this book.
I think this is the perfect bite sized King book that you could give to someone who has never read King. The story is short but the characters are so well built and you feel like you really get to know them. This is the perfect segway to his other books. It's not scary or anything but a great look into human behaviour (which most king books are about) and how emotions can be the scariest thing in the world.
Loved the cast of characters and i will miss them!
2.5 stars
This was a pretty quick read and I found myself pulled in immediately wanting to know how it ends but by the end I was left feeling underwhelmed and confused about something that happened in the end. For a story about a school shooting, it was less about the shooting and more about the back stories of some of the kids being held hostage and what led Charlie to do the things he did. I guess I was expecting more especially after King himself had it pulled because of its disturbing nature and how much people seem to love it. Overall, I'm glad I can mark this off of my King books to read but this one just wasn't for me.
I had kind of a hard time getting thru this one. For those that don't know, it's a school shooting book. He kills his teacher and takes the class hostage.
I did not want to DNF this as I want to read EVERYTHING he's written. Glad it's done, time to move on...
This was a pleasant surprise. Everybody seems to hate it and while the beginning is really edgy and bad the book gets progressively better until it kinda morphs into Lord of the Flies. If it was better written, less edgy (I think that's how King tried to mask his style), if the killings weren't mindless but those people actually hurt Charlie it could've been even better, more relatable. The way it is I feel like it only reinforces the school shooter stereotype of mindless killing which is a shame.
~English/Español~
I have read a few books by King, but this is the most disturbing one. No wonder that he cancelled upcoming publications.
This book is like being afraid of the monster in the closet, just to find out it's a mirror, because the monster is oneself.
I came across Guns where he referenced this book a few times. I had to search google to find it to read. I was blown away by how good it was, this is the first time I read something by Stephen that was not a horror novel.
This can be adapted to an excellent screen play if there wasn't so much controversy surrounding this book. I could relate to Charlie with being fed up with teachers and parents, however his course of action was extremely wrong, and he was failed by everyone around him.
One review mentions Charlie's lack of depth and I agree spot on. Charlie felt very one dimensional and seemed to be written so that you feel sympathy for him. Not once throughout the story did he take responsibility for his actions, instead he told stories about his life that shaped the person that led him to his algebra classroom
Imagine ‘The Breakfast Club' with a murderous psychopath pulling the strings in a thought-provoking short read.
This was the 4th book in The Grand Stephen King Experiment for www.tannerwillbanks.com.
I was intrigued to read this book because of the fact that it was both the first book to be published by Stephen King as Richard Bachman and it is the only book of Stephen King's that has ever been taken out of print(willfully by the author and his publisher). It deals with an issue that is a hot button in a post-Columbine America, the subject of school violence. However, while it could strive for sensationalism, and probably would in lesser hands, this book is actually presented in a very straight-forward and interesting manner. It is slightly unnerving to read a first-person account of a high school senior taking his classmates hostage, especially when you realize it was written by an 18 year old King, but it is still a book worth tracking down if you get the chance.