All the Rage by Courtney Summers

I thought about skipping today. I'm sick (not even bad sick, just a stupid sore throat and stuffy nose and it's the worst EVER) and my office is currently a mess (but it's not my fault, so that has to count for something). But then I got some soup (chicken and dumpling) and some medicine (sore throat lollipops) and grabbed my laptop (Vaio) and put on some Buffy (Netflix), and I'm ready to go.

I finished this book last week and wrote a rather hasty review on Goodreads, and now that I've had a few days to let it soak in, my hasty review holds true. But, first, let's see what all the rage is about (DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE?):

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.

The title pretty much sums up my feelings: all the rage. All of it.

I was barely ten pages into this book when I started feeling angry. I had to set it aside for a little while because I wanted to reach in and slap the junk out of so many characters. Why did the boys get to be rude while the girls had to prance around being perfect and beautiful? Why weren't the parents paying attention to anything their jerk sons and daughters were doing?

Well, then it wouldn't be this book.

I suppose that's what Courtney Summers wanted the readers to feel, though. Romy Grey is two different people in one body, and while I know that it's fiction, another part of me is so angry because it's really not. And that made me more upset than anything. I've never gone through something as harrowing as Romy went through, but I know the feeling of wanting people not to look at you a certain way. Poor Romy is just trying to get through the rest of her high school career and it seems like everyone is hell bent on making that short time the worst for her. It made me remember how mean high school can be, and I wanted to shake all these horrible people and tell them that they better enjoy this time because it's downhill from here for them.

This was an absolutely amazing book. I don't want anyone to think that I'm putting it down or that I hated it. I loved it. I counted down the minutes until I could come home and read it. It's beautiful and depressing and heartrending and crazy. Basically, Courtney Summers perfectly captured every emotion that is supposed to come out of a tragedy that was Romy and Penny. And the ending - WOW. Throughout the book, you sometimes forget that there is a mystery to be solved and when it finally is...holy canoli. It' sad and wonderful at the same time.

The book comes out April 14, so mark your calendars. Seriously. Don't forget about this book.