Rage

Rage
Jackie Morse Kessler
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011
228 pages

Kessler's Four Horsemen novels are not necessarily easy reads. They take real teen issues such as eating disorders and self-mutilation, rip them open and lay them out bare for the reader to see. Trust me, it's not pretty. Rage is the second of these novels and deals with self-mutilation, specifically cutting. Missy is a typical teenager but with one difference - she cuts to relieve herself of the pain and humiliation she experiences in her life. One day, after a particularly horrifying experience, she cuts a little too deep and accepts Death's offer to become War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Through her experiences as War, Missy learns about control and acceptance of who she is.

Interested readers should start with the first book in the series Hunger as there are some references in Rage to the previous book. Don't expect a picture perfect ending to these novels - life doesn't work like that.

Book Count: 9 read, 191 to go!