The sheriff’s son, Kellan Turner, is not the golden boy everyone thinks he is, and Romy Grey knows that for a fact. Because no one wants to believe a girl from the wrong side of town, the truth about him has cost her everything—friends, family, and her community. Branded a liar and bullied relentlessly by a group of kids she used to hang out with, Romy’s only refuge is the diner where she works outside of town. No one knows her name or her past there; she can finally be anonymous. But when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing after a party, and news of him assaulting another girl in a town close by gets out, Romy must decide whether she wants to fight or carry the burden of knowing more girls could get hurt if she doesn’t speak up. Nobody believed her the first time—and they certainly won’t now — but the cost of her silence might be more than she can bear.　 With a shocking conclusion and writing that will absolutely knock you out, All the Rage examines the shame and silence inflicted upon young women after an act of sexual violence, forcing us to ask ourselves: In a culture that refuses to protect its young girls, how can they survive?
5 stars
"You know all the ways you can kill a girl? God, there are so many."
Courtney Summers has done it again. Every book I've read by her manages to break my heart in new ways that I didn't even think was possible, and All The Rage is no exception. I devoured this book, so wrapped up in Romy's story, in hoping that someday, somehow, she will be okay. Or as okay as she can be. This is a heavy book, raw with the brutal honesty of what happens when those who should believe you, don't.
Summers has a unique fineness of truly capturing the language of teenage girls, all they are capable of and all their insecurities. I spent so much of this novel hating almost everyone except Romy and her family, and it is a unique skill to take characters I so strongly dislike and make them tolerable by the end. I don't know how Summers manages that; not many authors can. Each character in this novel has a story, and even the ones we want to hate show some semblance of humanity that makes it hard to write them off completely (except for a select few).
Our main character is Romy Grey. A year prior to the start of the novel she has been raped by the town's golden boy, who also happens to be the sheriff's son. No one believes Romy when she says what happened, and this leads to relentless bullying from the people who used to be her friends. I can't imagine anything worse than telling the truth, knowing this truth in your bones, and having no one believe you. That is heartbreaking and terrifying.
Teenagers can be vultures, picking away endlessly at the first sign of weakness. I don't know how Romy dealt with it all. I just kept hoping and praying that someone would help her; she couldn't bear this burden alone. The one friend who should have been there for her, who should have believed in her, didn't. What's one more thing done to a dead girl, anyway? But Romy has another challenge before her. Can she be brave enough to stand up to those who didn't believe her before, to face them again and speak her truth, to stop another terrible act from happening?
My only small complaint about this novel is the ending. As with all the books I've read by Summers, this ending feels just a bit too abrupt. But I guess that is just me wanting more of her stories and words, so maybe it's not such a bad thing.
All The Rage is a veracious novel, showing all those ugly truths we try to hide about the silence that is inflicted upon survivors of sexual assaults. It's filled with flawed characters, and painful to read. People don't speak up about what's happened to them, because more often than not, they are branded a liar. This story is about what happened to Romy when her truth was rejected, and how she navigates this new world after the horrible act that's been done to her. It is gut-wrenching, this novel. I don't know what else to say except: read it.
"Maybe it would be better if we all got apologized to first. Maybe it would hurt less, expecting to be hurt."
About the Author
Courtney Summers is the bestselling, critically acclaimed and award-winning author of several novels. Her first book was published in 2008, when she was 22. Her newest novel, Sadie, is a New York Times bestseller, Edgar Award Winner, John Spray Mystery Award Winner, Odyssey Award winner, Audie Award winner, received six starred reviews, appeared on over 30 Best of 2018 lists and was the 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards Runner-Up for Best YA Fiction with over 21,000 votes. In February 2020, a reissue of her debut, Cracked Up to Be, was released featuring a redesigned cover, updated text and a new introduction. Courtney has reviewed for The New York Times, is the founder of #ToTheGirls, a 2015 worldwide trending hashtag, and in 2016, she was named one of Flare Magazine's 60 under 30. She lives and writes in Canada.