National Book Award finalist Julie Anne Peters offers an illuminating portrait of a relationship that's sure to speak to anyone who's experienced love's thrill and thorns. She lives in Lakewood, Colorado. Visit her on the Web at www.julieannepeters.com.
Gr 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 of Rage are 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's Fault Line (Holt, 2003) and Chris Lynch's Inexcusable (S & S, 2005) remain better choices.-Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
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