Rage - Blog Tour

Rage
by Jackie Morse Kessler
Publication date: April 4, 2011

Missy didn’t mean to cut so deep. But after the party where she was humiliated in front of practically everyone in school, who could blame her for wanting some comfort? Sure, most people don’t find comfort in the touch of a razor blade, but Missy always was . . . different.

That’s why she was chosen to become one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War. Now Missy wields a new kind of blade—a big, brutal sword that can cut down anyone and anything in her path. But it’s with this weapon in her hand that Missy learns something that could help her triumph over her own pain: control.

A unique approach to the topic of self-mutilation, Rage is the story of a young woman who discovers her own power and refuses to be defeated by the world.(description from back of book)


Wow. I had been blown away by the first book in this series, Hunger, and I am even more impressed with this addition. This book was not easy to read by any means...cutting is a very hard topic to address...but Kessler is a master. Truly.

This book was raw, gripping...I'm having trouble describing exactly how it made me feel. I have always had issues dealing with blood, gore, that type of thing...so books like this, about cutting, have always kind of been a pass for me. The melding of self-mutilation with the fantasy aspect of becoming War, one of the four Horsemen of th Apocalypse...not passable!

Don't get me wrong. There are descriptive passages in this book that I basically had to skim - and not always just because it was graphic. Sometimes the emotions behind the cutting urge were so dominant and...heartwrending...that I needed to take a step back.

Then, as Missy begins to take control. I became more and more emotionally vested in her success and her triumphs became mine as a reader! When I closed this book, there were tears in my eyes, my throat felt tight...but I was satisfied. As tough as this was to read, I would do it again, and again. I cannot wait to see how Kessler tackles Pestilence in book three!

Definitely a must read for 2011.

Full disclosure: ARC received as part of Book It Forward ARC Tours for review