Rage: A Love Story
Grade 9 Up—Johanna, 17, watched her mother die while her older sister escaped to college, and she fantasizes about a relationship with Reeve Hartt. Reeve's mother is a junkie prostitute, and her mother's boyfriend, no surprise, physically and sexually abuses Reeve. Reeve is hypersexual and violently angry, and she beats Johanna. The abuse in the Hartt house is so public and over-the-top that real-world children's services would have removed her long before the novel takes place. Everything happens too fast here, with YA tropes—battering, drug abuse, sexual confusion, abandonment—in place of deep character development. Both the plot and pace ofRageare so frenetic that there's no time to feel anything for the characters. The only vivid character is Robbie, Reeve's intelligent, deranged brother. Teens may feel set up, though, when Peters martyrs him. Johanna's fantasy segments are forced instead of sexy, intrusive instead of illuminating. Though Peters exposes girl-on-girl abuse, Janet Tashjian'sFault Line(Holt, 2003) and Chris Lynch'sInexcusable(S & S, 2005) remain better choices.—Johanna Lewis, New York Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.