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May 28, 2010

elissa rated it:

Took me almost 2 mos to read this, not because I didn't like it, but because the abuse was hard to read about, so I could only take it in small doses. That speaks to the powerful writing here. The ending was very strong and realistic, so I'm glad that I stuck with it, as it was worth it. The characters were all likeable, including the abusive girlfriend. It was very easy to believe that they would all behave the way that they did. First love can be very complicated (or any love, really). P More...

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Jun 20, 2011

Kerryy rated it:

I Just Got Finish Reading Rage By Julie Anne Peters. This Book Was Very Interesting. I Learned That Johanna Really Cares About Reeve. She Did Anything For Her. She Even Left Her Bestfriend For Her. In This Book Johanna Was Asked To Help This Boy Named Robby With His Senior Essay So He Can Graduate. Johanna Whould Sit With Robby Every Afternoon After School And Help Robby With His Essay. Then, One Day Robby Wrote Something About Him Killing His Mother. So, Johanna Said That She Was Going To Step More...

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Jun 20, 2011

Gina rated it:

2.5 Stars
Rage: A Love Story is a good enough book about two girls--one a goody-goody with dead parents, one a bad seed with parents she wishes were dead--who fall in love. Okay, maybe it's a lot less like love and a lot more like denial and abuse, but still..you get the idea.

As previously stated, Rage is a decent story. The pace is excellent. The story is written in the voice of the characters and is very true to them. Rage brings up the topic of abusive relationships in a realist More...

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Apr 21, 2011

Melissa rated it:

I can’t lie. Rage is a very difficult book to read. It would be difficult for anyone to read even if they haven’t been in any sort of an abusive relationship. But for someone who has been in an abusive relationship, it’s extremely difficult. However, Julie Anne Peters writes with such a poetic grace that you cannot help but be sucked in.

Reeve is probably the most realistic character of the book. Her pain is real and obvious. She hates what she does to Johanna and yet, she doesn’t kno More...

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Jan 18, 2011

Alicia rated it:

This was a different kind of amazing-- it wasn't the writing but the shock value of the characters' plights. Johanna is living alone as a senior in high school after her father and mother have both passed away and her sister has chosen to unsupportingly move away with her husband. But everyone in the story is dealing with a loss. Tessa (Johanna's sister) has lost two unborn babies (and her parents). So, when Johanna meets Reeve and her autistic twin brother Robbie, her world becomes tumultuous t More...

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Dec 07, 2009

Bunker rated it:

This tale of lesbian courtly love gone awry features Johanna, a reliable and compassionate eighteen-year-old whose life seems destined to be defined by loss, and Reeve, the young woman Johanna has fallen in love with from afar. Johanna has lost her mother and father, and her much older sister, Tessa, who has recently moved back home with her husband, has remained distant ever since Johanna revealed her sexuality. Assigned to tutor Reeve's twin brother, who is autistic and violent, Johanna slowly More...

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Sep 23, 2011

Ami rated it:

I don't know why but there seems to be more written about the cases of heterosexual domestic violence than there are about homosexual domestic abuse. This was a very important book just for the act of getting people's attention that domestic violence knows no racial, sexual or religious differences. There are books that you read, like and forget as soon as you pick up another book. With Peters' "Rage: A Love Story" I know that's not going to be the case. I know that the characters with More...

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Apr 09, 2011

Ab rated it:

The greatness of this book doesn't come particularly in the writing, or the plot -- the presentation of the characters, who they are, what they feel, all of that, is very real ... I feel like this book has successfully climbed out of the alluring mire of the "woe is I -- a gay teen in high school". This girl, Johanna, is gay. She knows it. She figured it out, it was maybe a tough thing to tell her family, etc., but she's past it, and still in high school. She's majorly crushing on anot More...

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Dec 05, 2009

Ricki rated it:

I feel like this book took me for a roller-coaster ride. I was hooked and unable to put it down, but there were many aspects of the book that bothered me. Johanna is a fragile girl who falls for an abusive girl, Reeve. Reeve's twin brother has autism, and she comes from a home with a drug-addicted mother and abusive father. Johanna's sister doesn't seem to accept Johanna is gay, and she also is emotionally affected by her miscarriages. To add to all of this, Johanna's parents both died, and she More...

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Nov 02, 2009

Brittany rated it:

Johanna is a good girl, who wants a bad thing. That bad thing is Reeve. Johanna's dad died in an accident and soon after her mom slowly fades away. Her sister isn't really there for her emotionally, especially after having a miscarriages. Johanna volunteers at a hospice and holds peoples hands to comfort them as they pass on. This is the one thing Johanna wants for herself, the one thing she craves. Everyday she seems to venture off into "Joyland", the place where her and Reeve are tog More...

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Sep 10, 2009

Nancy rated it:

Johanna has been nursing a wild crush on Reeve, who she scarcely knows. She grasps at the opportunity to make a place in Reeve’s life for herself, even as Reeve pushes her away, and as her friends, and ex-lovers of Reeve’s warn her that she’s getting into trouble. Reeve lives in a home permeated with violence, drug and alcohol abuse. She struggles to survive and protect her brother Robbie, who is perhaps autistic. She can’t risk letting anyone get close to her, and violence is the only way she k More...

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Dec 09, 2011

Robyn rated it:

Rage: A Love Story, a rather misnomer in my opinion, but go ahead, I'll bite.

Firstly, I would like to congratulate the author, Ms.Julie Anne Peters, her book is officially the shortest book I have ever read that took me 10 days to finish. *claps in mock enthusiasm*
Honestly that is not a jab at her more so at me. There are very few books I have found in this world that make me so uncomfortable I literally cannot read them. So Bravo. Well written. (and that is complete honesty). More...

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Jan 11, 2010

Karin rated it:

Knopf – September 8, 2009

Johanna, a responsible and friendly girl, has admired the wild and dangerous Reeve from afar for a while. She spends a lot of her time daydreaming about her and Reeve in romantic situations in Joyland, a place that only exists in Johanna’s mind. Reeve doesn’t appear to know Johanna exists and one thing holding Johanna back from revealing her feelings for Reeve is the fact that she hasn’t “come out.”

Johanna doesn’t know when she agrees to tutor R More...

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Sep 25, 2011

Car rated it:

I'm sorry I guess I'm just a little immature to some of you people but EW. I did not pick up a book to only read about how much this girl wants to get it on with the other girl. Um no sorry this book isn't worth my time then. I read about a hundred pages. The story itself was ok if your interested in that kinda stuff. But I'm not I thought I'd give the book a go. You know it may be about girl on girl stuff. ( sorry trying not to sound mean ) but I just don't want to read about joyland the people More...

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Dec 28, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

This book teaches you that when you think you have it rough someone else is going through something much worse. I think this book hits well on a lot of difficult subjects. I think that this book would be great for teens and young adults to read that are beginning to date as it talks about an abusive relationship. This book is really real and not sugar coated. I like how it went full circle and we were able to see consequences of ones actions. This book depicts an absuvie relationship well a More...

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Feb 03, 2011

Tams rated it:

This story disturbed me because I once again saw what someone in an abusive relationship thinks. And the lack of self esteem in a young girl makes me sick to my stomach. I was very glad that even with everything else going on in all the secondary characters lives, they still had time to help her and see that she was in trouble. I was very proud of her for admitting that she needed help. I am glad she turned into an even stronger person for having been through all of that. Although, I know how mu More...

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Jun 20, 2011

Vanessa rated it:

Hm okay so this brief review has some spoilers but not a lot.

I guess this novel was kind of hard for me to read because it reminds me of me and my ex-gf. While she wasn't physically abusive to me, she intentionally hurt me with words. It was emotionally abusive, I guess you can say. Reeve reminds me of her. She's so torn and destroyed on the inside that she inflicts that same pain on other people. Violence is all she knows. While the story was good and kept a good pace, I found myself More...

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Aug 05, 2010

Emily rated it:

I had picked up other works by Julie Anne Peters before, but due to a number of reasons I had never finished them. This one, on the other hand, I finished in about a week; I couldn’t put it down.
The book touches on a topic that many people are unfamiliar with: the abuse that someone who identifies as LGBT can face by someone whom they are in a romantic relationship with. What drew me to this book was the fact that it had addressed a topic that I had yet to seen written about before, much l More...

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Jul 20, 2010

Alienne rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jan 09, 2010

Jamie rated it:

Johanna has a huge crush on Reeve, one which is based almost entirely in fantasy as opposed to reality. She also has lost both her parents and her older sister lives with her as a practically absentee guardian. Rather than feeling victimized by everything, Johanna tries to make things right with those who don't deserve it while ignoring those who need her, something that I found very realistic. The lesbian sex fantasies are quite spicy, and they also show the difference between your fantasy of s More...

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Jan 19, 2012

WillowBe rated it:

I think this is a great book for GLBT teens. FYI, there is no ACTUAL sex. There are is frank sexuality in daydreams and longing, but there is much more SENSUALITY than sex. And I didn't find it offesnsive at all. It took a while to get to the climax, and watching Johanna's descent was painful. I felt like- why isn't anyone SEEING this child?? Why can't they look beyond their own needs and expectations to guide a young person who is desperate for deep connections?? but then we all know the answ More...

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Apr 21, 2010

BookWhisperer rated it:

This is definetly not my kind of book. I have very few morals that actually restrain me from reading a book, but this is one of them. So I will not be finishing this book.

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Feb 05, 2011

S. rated it:

Johanna is a young orphaned senior high school teen living in the upstairs apartment from her sister and her husband in her childhood home. Johanna, the ever helpful model student, volunteers at the hospice and is pushed into tutoring a violent and autistic senior into writing his culminating essay. Johanna agrees to help this senior because Reeve, his sister, is Johanna's crush and there is only 14 days left in school. However, as Johanna and Reeve become more involved romantically, Johanna bec More...

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Sep 19, 2011

Dominique rated it:

Rage:
A well wriiten exciting love story which caputures the attention of hopeless romantics,gay or lesibian readers & most youth. Julie Anne Peters writes of a young girl(Johanna)hopelessly in love with a trouble highschool girl (Reeve). The story of thier ups & downs in thier relationship can really relate to those of an average teenage girl & or boy. You know how they say 'The things we do for love', it fits perfectly into Johanna's situation with Reeve. This story will suck you in & spi More...

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Sep 24, 2011

Jayde rated it:

I found myself incredibly disappointed in this book. The pacing and the plot were technically good but I found it to be rather predictable. I found mysrlf incapable of connecting to a single character and at times felt that the storyline and soul behind Johanna was rushed for the sake of length. Maybe I am desensitized from working with LGBTQ teens, some of which coping with abuse, but I didn't find the abuse scenes particularly difficult to read or insightful. All in all, I'd say it suceeds at More...

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May 16, 2011

Desiree rated it:

I wanted to read this after reading Keeping You a Secret, but I was pretty disappointed. I was hoping for more interesting LGBTQ books but I wasn't a fan of this one. There were two main reasons that I didn't really like this book. One: It wasn't really what I was looking for, mostly regarding the ending. Two: The remarks the narrator had about Reeve's mentally challenged brother Robbie really bothered me a lot. My brother is autistic and in the beginning of the book the comments she made about More...

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Apr 04, 2011

Alba rated it:

Ok...so this is my first Julie Anne Peters book!! and boy!what a book! I can't believe everything I've been missing out by not approaching any of her books earlier...but enough of that...on to the book
I found myself holding my breath almost through out all of the book...the main character-Johanna- is a lesbian who has come out almost to every body she knows...both her parents are dead and she's always been there for everyone when they needed her...but she's secretly in love with hot-rude-do More...

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Aug 28, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

This is an interesting and generally good book with a few annoying parts. It follows the story of a very fragile girl who watched her mom die, is queer and feels very alone in that and was abandoned emotionally by her older sister. She is obsessed with another girl Reeve, and when she finally "gets" her, the obsession only increases. Reeve, is even more damage3d comes from poverty, violence, drug abuse, and sexual abuse. She is violent and manipulative, and in her fragile state J More...

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Apr 06, 2010

Savannaa rated it:

Rage made me Rage, i got really angry because the girl in this book is so stupid, she just let her hit her over and over again, because she really did love her i guess, it wasnt love to me, it was cruel. an obsession reallly. this might be mean but she probably should get hit harder to knock some sense into her. that would probably be for the best, but also not a good idea.. this book was a love story about two lesbians, they werre in love and one partner hit her girlfriend, repeatly but she kep More...

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Dec 06, 2009

Staci rated it:

I've read some of the author's other YA GLBT books(Luna, and Keeping You A Secret) and enjoyed them a lot more than I did this one. I was actually looking for a more developed relationship between the two girls. Because without that, the actual abuse that occurs doesn't totally ring true to me. Even though I was a bit let down I still think the author wrote about an important topic- Domestic violence. It occurs in all types of relationships: gay/lesbian, straight..violence knows no labels or sex More...

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