ALL THE RAGE APRIL: Why Early Readers Loved All the Rage!

Hello, once again!

I hope everyone had wonderful Easter Weekend! ALL THE RAGE APRIL is back and today I have some lovely early readers talking about why they loved All the Rage. There are so many reasons to love and appreciate this book. It's one of the best books I've ever read. But don't just take my word for it! Here are some lovely peeps on why they loved All the Rage!

By the time I read ALL THE RAGE, I had already read all of Courtney Summers books. I binge read most of them one weekend which, if you’ve read Courtney’s works, you would know how emotionally draining such a task can be from the witty, humourous lines to the heartbreaking moments. These books dig inside you not because of the great prose or admirably complex characters but because of the topic they all share. Women are silenced every single day. We’re silenced physically by being asked to occupy as little space as possible in public - cross your legs. keep them closed - or through the threat of sexual violence (you were asking for it). We’re told to not make out presences known (don't be so loud and boisterous. you're a LADY) or opinions heard (shut up u dumb BITCH!). This culture has even caused women to help tear each other down (ugh you slut). What’s terrifying about this culture is the little ways we’re silenced or policed (don't go out at night. don't go anywhere by yourself. don't get raped) and how much we internalize it as the norm. While Courtney Summers’ other books have dealt with these issues, they haven’t called out society in the visceral way that ALL THE RAGE does. They don’t pull apart the systematic, institutional and social binds that make being a woman a disadvantage, a crutch in life.

There’s a moment in the book where Romy hopes that the baby that’s being born isn’t a girl because of the difficulties that will could bring that child based on their sex/gender identity. The most powerful stories are the ones that need to be told and are told well. This book is both. I hope you pick this up, feel all the rage before putting that rage into your everyday life to make sure that tomorrow is better than today. 

 - Ardo Omer, @ardoomer

There's more ways than one to kill someone's spirit and I love that in All the Rage we get to see the battlefield Romy fights on to keep hers alive. All the Rage is a realistic, painful story about rape and rape culture and grief and growth, loss and gain, and so many things and it's all so wonderfully executed. All the Rage is honest and unsettling and embodies everything that makes this one of the most powerful, possibly the most powerful book I will read all year. Thank you, Courtney. 

- Melody Simpson, @melodysimpson

It is a heartbreaking and honest story. Showing the truth of victim blaming.  

- Emily Britton, @MagnifiedPlaid

 

One of my biggest fears, in addition to internal parasites, falling off of an impossibly tall building, and having to wear corduroy pants, is being silenced.  Being forced to do something without any regard for my thoughts or feelings.  This, along with Courtney Summers' amazing writing and frightening realistic characterization, is what made All the Rage grab my heart and give it a good twist.  Last year, the son of the local sheriff raped Romy at a party.  Far from being helped to heal, Romy is branded everything from a liar to a slut.  She's forced to internalize the shock and horror and complete inhumanity of what happened to her.  To keep the myriad ways her classmates torture her to herself because God knows no adult will believe her.  She was, after all, asking for it.  

Romy says that she's a dead girl.  Her murderers are legion: not just the boy who raped her, but the justice system that preferred prejudice over truth.  Classmates that want a victim, not a saint.  A parent who tried, but whose efforts weren't good enough.  I cried as I read of Romy's unceasing torture and pain--not just because I am afraid of being silenced, but because I know that there are millions and millions of girls out there in Romy's place.  Or worse.  And they might not ever have a chance to speak out.  Listen to them.  Listen to us, to the girls.

- Pamela Penza, @PamelaJean0 

Have you read All the Rage? What did you love about it? Let me know in the comments! ALL THE RAGE APRIL is off tomorrow but we're back on Thursday with a lovely guest post!

- Ciara (Lost at Midnight)