I've been waiting a loooong time for a new Courtney Summers book, and it's finally here!!! She's my favorite author. Forever ever. I was so excited to be asked to be a part of the blog tour, but also nervous because I had hyped this book up in my head for so long. I'm glad to say hype didn't kill the book for me. I read this in a day because it's just so stark and gripping, I couldn't stop. Courtney Summers really makes you pay for connecting with her characters. They're so unforgiving and angry... but that just makes me want to get under all that anger and see what's really going on. Anyhow, here's how I felt about this book:

For the first time in my reading life, I feel like I've just read something I have no business reviewing. In all my other reading experiences, I've always felt like I'm IN the book when I'm reading... like somehow the character's stories cross over into my life and I feel them too. And because of that, I feel like I can say whether or not I agree with their actions, whether I understand them or not, and whether that is a good or a bad thing. With this book I SO didn't feel like that. I felt like this was Romy's story to tell, and I didn't have any right jumping in there with her and having feelings about the way she was dealing with the things going on in her life.

I will tell you that this book is so much different than I was expecting. It's just not a typical book. The writing style is difficult to get used to, the story is hard to hear. There were so many times when I just didn't know what to do with what I was reading, which frustrated me... not in a bad way, just in a frustrating way. There aren't answers to this book, just like there aren't answers in real life to all the terrible things that happen.

This should definitely be a book club book. Oh my are there things that need to be discussed!!! I wish I could start a convo right here and now about it, but I don't want to spoil anything that happens in the book for anyone. I'll just tell you it's a REAL story. It doesn't feel like fiction, it sugarcoats nothing. When I was done I literally just wanted to type one word here: DAMN.

OVERALL: The most honest book I've probably ever read. A definite book club book. Read at your own risk though because shit is real in this book... and it's gritty, heartbreaking, cold, and painful.

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Romy is not well-liked at school. Her father was a drunk and it has melded into her life with the other citizens in town, including her classmates. She feels as if no one wants her alive at all.
She works as a waitress at Swan's and there is a boy there that she is becoming close to. He brings feelings back to her that she is really trying to forget about her past.
Her once best friend, Penny, becomes the one person that she tries to hate the most. She tries to separate herself from how much she and Penny were so close at one time.
There will be the annual Wake Lake party for the seniors of the high school and this is where all the rough stuff in the novel takes place.

I really liked how the author makes it easy for us to understand the duality of having been through Romy's situation and trying to make herself feel whole. ( )

Gritty and beautifully written. The subject matter is depressing though; I would love if Courtney wrote a fluffy romance one of these days... ( )

All the Rage by Courtney Summers is a dark and gritty young adult novel that needs to be on everyone's reading list. It deals with difficult subject matter in such a realistic manner it is impossible not to feel the heartache and pain that Romy Grey is experiencing.

A dream date with the young man she has a crush on goes terribly wrong and a year later, Romy is still trying to come to terms with her horrible ordeal. No one believes her story and her classmates harass and bully her daily. Romy's only solace is her job at a diner where no one knows about her past so Romy is absolutely furious when her ex-best friend Penny Young shows up one evening during her shift. Romy inexplicably follows Penny to the annual senior bash at the lake and the next morning, Romy is found on the side of the road with no memory of the previous night. Romy is stunned to learn that Penny has disappeared without a trace and once again, Romy feels the weight of her fellow students' enmity as weeks pass with no new information about Penny's disappearance.

It is impossible not to feel empathy for Romy as she wrestles with her shame and self-hatred while at the same time dealing with the taunts and bullying of her classmates day in and day out. She is incredibly isolated and lost as she tries to move forward without any help from anyone around her. This is partly her fault since she cannot bring herself to talk about what happened despite the fact her mother is genuinely concerned and worried about her. Her self-loathing escalates after Penny vanishes and Romy makes things worse when she begins making some very questionable decisions.

One of the bright spots in the story is Romy's tentative romance with Leon, a young man from the diner. However, Romy is frightened by her feelings for him and she alternates between wanting the relationship while at the same time pushing Leon away. Poor Leon is incredibly confused by her conflicting behavior but he always respects her boundaries. One of the things that draws Romy to Leon is the fact that he knows nothing about her past and when he unwittingly steps in the middle of the drama, she reacts so badly that it does not seem possible that their relationship can survive.

While All the Rage is a riveting read, it is a little hard to follow at times. The time shifts are rather confusing and on the whole, the story feels a little disjointed. The middle part of the novel is a bit slow but the pacing picks up after Penny's disappearance. The mystery aspect of the storyline is quite intriguing and Courtney Summers does an excellent job keeping the perpetrator's identity hidden. The conclusion is satisfying although not all of the loose ends are wrapped up, but this makes the ending feel more realistic.

All in all, All the Rage is an honest and achingly poignant novel that I highly recommend to readers of all ages. ( )

This book broke me. I’m gonna try to review it, but if it comes out as gibberish, sorry.

I was looking forward to reading All The Rage, I saw the description of it a few months ago and it caught my attention. Rape culture has been in the spotlight lately, but still nothing has really changed and this book is based on the rape culture problem. I never read a Courtney Summers book. So i wasn’t sure what to expect from All The Rage. Romy is an outcast and treated like shit at school because she was raped by a popular student who happens to be the sheriff’s son, but no one believes her because nothing happened to the boy who did it. But the story opens up with Romy remembering it and waking up in the woods, this confused the hell out of me for like a third of the book because the next chapter says 2 weeks earlier yet everyone is shunning her already so the rape already happened, yet the first chapter made it seem like it had just happened and the story was now going back before it did, but no. Once I got all that straightened out I was more captivated by the plot.

How Romy is treated is awful, how she feels about herself is hard to read, and how she lashes out and keeps everything to herslef almost makes you dislike her, but you get why she is behaving that way. The ending took me by surprise, it felt unfinished though, so maybe a sequel? I cried my eyes out at times and I don’t want to go into much detail about what happens, you just need to read it. It’s a hard read emotionally, but a good story that needs to be read. ( )