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Rage: A Love Story

(2009, Fiction - Coming of Age, Written by Julie Peters)

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 15, age appropriate for kids over 18; suggested age 16.

  • Is it any good?

    2.0

  • Common Sense says

    Intense read about an abusive lesbian relationship.

Themes in this book include:   gender issues, physical abuse, substance abuse

Why We Rated This iffy for Ages 16–18

The good stuff

  • Educational value:

    Some educational value in this portrayal of physical abuse in a teen relationship, in this case a lesbian teen relationship.

  • Role models:

    Johanna holds down a job and works hard to keep it. She also volunteers at a hospice. She has her own apartment over the garage of the house where her estranged older sister lives. Explanations of why she is so willing to stay in an abusive and dangerous relationship are not clearly revealed until the end of the book.
 

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    This may be about how someone can fall into an abusive relationship and stay, but Johanna has emotional problems before she begins dating Reeve.

  • Violence:

    Uses graphic descriptions of spousal abuse, physical abuse including burning with cigarettes, and sexual abuse of children; the main teen character physically assaults her brother, friends, her girlfriend, and nearly beats her girlfriend's best friend to death. A murder.

  • Sex:

    Johanna has erotic fantasies about her crush long before they begin dating. Some descriptions of their sexual acts. Johanna's best friend uses her apartment to have sex with her boyfriend on several occasions. Reeve's mother has sex for drugs and drug money.

  • Language:

    Language ranges from "f--k," "c--t," "a--tard," "piss," "dick," "bull dyke," "hell," "whore," and "slut."

  • Consumerism:

    Not an issue.

  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Johanna and her friends drink; Johanna and Reeve go to a hookah bar. Reeve's mother is addicted to heroin and uses meth. Reeve's mother and her boyfriends heavily abuse alcohol.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About Rage: A Love Story

Parents need to know that this is a very intense book about an abusive lesbian relationship. The main characters, Reeve and her twin brother, live with the daily horrors of all kinds of abuse by their mother's boyfriend. Their mother is an addict and they live in abject poverty.  The violence and language are not gratuitous but they are intense and adult. There are too many serious issues in the book for them all to be treated as sensitively as they could be: The cycle of domestic violence, the traumatic effects on abused children, gender issues, the loss of parents, hospice life, mental health counseling, cutting, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and more are all thrown into the pot. What readers will most likely come away with is a picture of kids growing up in a violent world, where love is hard to find and perhaps impossible to give. The issue of why Johanna, the abused partner in this "romance," puts up with the abuse, and why the abuser takes out her rage on others, is not dealt with until the very end of the book, and then it is wrapped up too neatly.

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Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about sexuality and gender issues, and their own family values surrounding these issues.
  • Families can also discuss the warning signs of abusive relationships and what to do if a friend or loved one is involved in one. What should you do if a family member is threatened or injured physically? And why is abuse a sure sign of an unhealthy relationship?
  • How has the mother's drug addiction affected her family?
  • How common is child abuse? What are some ways communities work to prevent it from happening?
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