All the Rage by Courtney Summers

All the Rage
by Courtney Summers
Release date: April 14th, 2015
from Goodreads:

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?

A word about the cover: The blurry image. The uppercase font. Perfect for this book.

My thoughts:

I read this in two sittings. On my way to work, and back. There was an 8 hour interval in between, because, you know, work - which almost killed me because HOLY CHRIST THIS BOOK. 
I love Courtney Summers. She is fucking fabulous. The things that Some Girls Are did to me, oh gosh, I can't even gush enough. And Cracked Up To Be. My brother and I still debate over which we think is better. (We still haven't come to a conclusion)
And then This. All The Rage. ALL THE RAGE. This book is everything that Cracked Up To Be and Some Girls Are built up to. It's like both those books actually were leading up to this. The running themes of sexual-assault, rape-culture, victim-blaming, slut-slamming - everything culminates in here and wow. 

I have to say, I don't think the blurb does the book much justice. It appears too straightforward, when really, the devil's in the details. Courtney Summers is such a brilliant writer. Her minimalist style is like poetry. She doesn't tell, she casts shadows and in the shadows of what isn't told, you get the chills.

I don't know how to sound cohesive about this. It's such an explosion of a book. And it talks of all the things that surround us all the fucking time but which we conveniently choose to ignore., because, hushmychildspeaknoevil.

In many ways, All The Rage reminded me of Fury by Australian author Shirley Mar, which is one of the best books I've read. I felt the same surge of anger and helplessness as I had felt when I'd read Fury some 4 years back. The rage. Yes, the rage is the unspoken kind, the one that bubbles just beneath the surface for months and years till it spills over. It's such an universal rage against the way girls are treated in this world, at every fucking step, that lewd whisper in your ear as you go shopping or that silent eye-undressing that happens everysingleday - I thought I would burst because there finally was a book that gave language to that. (Living in a country that doesn't recognize marital rape as a criminal offense and takes pains to victim-slam before arresting rapists, such rage is an everyday story.)

So I would like to thank Courtney Summers for writing this book, for putting it out there, for making people think about the very things they quickly sweep under the carpet after a furtive glance around, for the rage.

I wish every teenage girl could be given this book. Every one of them. Before they are silenced.