Book Review: All the Rage by Courtney Summers
Book: All the Rage
Plot: 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.
Rating: 3/5 stars
Review:
Its Incomplete
Perhaps I am going to earn the wrath of many for my review but I felt I had to put it out what I genuinely felt about the book rather than frame a review in the fashion that many had done for the book. I really appreciate and even touched by the reviews for the book as some of them had brought out personal experiences which in my opinion is the bravest thing to be able to do because the things that were talked were not easy enough to be shared with family let alone be shared on a public platform but on the other hand, sometimes it is much more easier to share these experiences with a stranger than your family and friends who would bluntly refuse to hear your side and would be on the prejudice bandwagon
Anyways my point is that a lot, in fact the 90% of review I saw for the book was in lieu of the sensitivity of the theme of the book: Rape. Yes I understand that. As a component of the female species that has to bear the consequences of being born with a pair of breasts and vagina, I am too well aware of the pain and troubles many have discussed here and the book has pointed out but my concern is that while everybody has treated this as a platform for sharing our struggles as a lamb in country of lions, we are forgetting the book… Hold on… before all feminist ideologists starts sharpening their pitch forks let me be clear that when I refer to us females as lamb what I meant is not being meek and weak but that we are nothing different than what a lamb would appear to a herd of lion. Meat
So coming back to what I was saying. I completely agree with one of the review that said that she enjoyed reading these reviews than the book and I stand with that and completely agreeing to that. While each of these reviews shared very valid points about rape and the society’s attitude to it and the need of the hour to raise our voice, we are forgetting the main topic. THE BOOK. Just because the book took a very sensitive topic doesn’t mean it has to be treated sensitively. For me the book was not the right portrayal of the cause because the whole messages and goodness of the book was lost in the lack of details. I am not saying that the author should have spoon fed or written down everything but then again it also doesn’t mean that everything should be in codes and clues.
Everything seemed to be following the logic “let’s not talk about it”. Each chapter or paragraph starts of saying something and then leaves it half way in a manner saying… “oh its too sensitive..lets not talk about… let the readers fill in the gap” if the book itself is too sensitive and fragile to talk about rape , how do you expect the society to talk about it? . The book itself is afraid to say it out loud as to what happened, in fact so afraid that it is all left in bit and parts over the book and the readers end up busy picking these pieces . so where in the process of gluing together everything in the book, to make sense, is actually the message being conveyed ?.
To me the book was incomplete. It lacked details that would have made a huge difference. It was completely out of control, sometimes saying something so profound and the very next page, you have no idea what the character is saying or doing that is the kind of book this was. Extremely moody.
