Hello fellow bookworms and friends and welcome to my blog! Today I’m sharing my review of Rage by Sue Rovens, which I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of in return for a free and honest review on my blog. So thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial.
You can read the synopsis of Rage on Goodreads here.
Overall rating – 2 out of 5 stars.
Judging from the other NetGalley reviews and Goodreads reviews I’ve seen I am in the minority of people who really disliked this book…
From the start I found it difficult to really “get” the plot, and by the time I got to the end of the story it felt as though there was no real substance. I, hand on heart, couldn’t tell you what this book was actually about, I really would struggle to give you a run down of the story itself.
I don’t think the way Rage was laid out lent itself to my disappointment in it either. I thought that it would have been better to focus the story on Weston, and to have Lindsey just as the therapist, without flitting between them for chapters. It felt disconnected and as if we were reading two different books with a very weak link between them.
The chapters including Lindsey where she just vented about her marriage and got drunk were irrelevant for me, and added no value to the story.
For me, Rage was also let down by the writing and quality of the dialogue. At points, the writing was good, it did draw me in and build intrigue (I’ll admit, I did need to finish this book as I was so caught up in what was going to happen and the intrigue that the author built up was on redeeming quality of this book).
Another redeeming quality was the characters, against my better judgement I loved all of our characters (except Lindsey) and I found myself growing attached to them throughout the story. Jay was the shining star of this book, everyone needs a friend like him! Jeremy and Weston also lent themselves well to the story as a whole.
A little note – Around 75-80% of this book I was really in two minds about whether or not I was enjoying it, granted it wasn’t amazing, but it certainly was intriguing me and drawing me into the story! But as I got closer to the end… Well, you’ll see!
From around 80% onwards I just felt incredibly underwhelmed by Rage. I completely guessed the ending before we even reached it and it felt like the most horrendous cop out by the author to finish it the way they did… It was blindingly obvious what was going to happen.
And as for Lindsey’s ending… Well it’s as if the author knew her POV chapters were completely pointless because her character ARC never reached a proper conclusion. It felt like I’d wasted my time reading the Lindsey chapters.
I finished Rage feeling really underwhelmed. While it was never what I would say an excellent book, it was keeping my interest and was OK, but then the ending just spoiled everything and I found myself full of rage (pardon the pun!) that I’d stuck my way through the whole story.
Again, thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the free copy to read and review.
Until next time, Em xxx
What Em's Reading 