Title: All the Rage Author: Courtney Summers
Published: April 14, 2015
Genre(s): Realistic/Contemporary
Page Count: 321
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:The sheriff’s son, Kellan Turner, is not the golden boy everyone thinks he is, and Romy Grey knows that for a fact. Because no one wants to believe a girl from the wrong side of town, the truth about him has cost her everything—friends, family, and her community. Branded a liar and bullied relentlessly by a group of kids she used to hang out with, Romy’s only refuge is the diner where she works outside of town. No one knows her name or her past there; she can finally be anonymous. But when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing after a party, and news of him assaulting another girl in a town close by gets out, Romy must decide whether she wants to fight or carry the burden of knowing more girls could get hurt if she doesn’t speak up. Nobody believed her the first time—and they certainly won’t now — but the cost of her silence might be more than she can bear.
I have a somewhat strange relationship with Courtney Summers’ books. I have a ton of admiration for her and for her work, but I often find that I’m emotionally distant from her writing, not drawn in the way I want to be and should be. I’ve been waiting to read All the Rage since its impending release was announced in 2012, and while I liked this book and think it talks about important topics, I’m not sure that it was particularly impacting or will prove to be memorable in the long run.
What I do like about All the Rage, however, is that it attacks rape culture and the victim-blaming and sex-shaming that go along with it head-on. Summers doesn’t flinch away from the topic, and she’s thorough. Whether we’re talking about how the media will side with a rapist who had “such a bright future ahead of him” or how people dismiss a girl’s accusations because she was wearing a short skirt at the time. These are important facets of our society that affect teenagers and their lives directly, and it’s incredibly important for the topic to be discussed and for teens to be made aware of it. So, that aspect is great, and I’m glad this book was written because of it.
Yet at the same time, nothing about this book as a story drew me in. I actually found it confusing in spots, because there were unclear time-hops and bolded passages that made me uncertain about the plot’s chronology. Once I got the heart of it and began to understand, I found myself detached and uninvested in Romy’s story. I really wanted to feel for her, and I was intellectually interested in her situation and what it represents, but that was all. Just as Romy kept everyone in her life at a distance, I feel that Summers kept the readers of All the Rage distant from the narrative.
These things could all be only me and my experience, certainly, but nevertheless, I can’t help but feel disappointed that I wasn’t more drawn in. I’ve never really loved Courtney Summers’ books, but I generally enjoy them a lot. Yet thought I liked this book and admired what it did, I felt almost apathetic while I read. And considering the subjects at hand, I don’t think that really a good thing.
This is an important book for no other reason that it’s one of the few young adult titles I’ve heard of that challenges modern rape culture so boldly. I really appreciate the motive behind this text, but I find that I’m not as appreciative of the book itself. The story, characterization, and prose in All the Rage were only so-so for me, so I’m left feeling cautiously in favor of the book. I liked it on an intellectual level, but my emotions were not touched.
