Source: Bought
Melissa Miller has a strange way to deal with her emotions: she cuts herself. After one particularly rough day, when kills her cat, she takes it too far. Before she slices her artery open, Death gives her the chance to become War, the Red Rider. Missy ignores him, but then her ex-boyfriend humiliates her, and she does go too far. As she begins to bleed out, Death prompts her to take the package he gave her; sword in hand, Missy begins her rocky career as War.
Rage doesn't exactly pick up right after Hunger, and it can be read as a stand-alone, although I definitely recommend reading these books in order, because the plots parallel each other really nicely, and there are some scenes involving Famine that were both amusing and interesting to read through given the context of what happened in the first book (and, seriously, that scene was absolutely fantastic). Speaking of plots, this story is very narrowly focused on a pretty specific period of time, as was Hunger. The story revolves around Missy's humiliation at a party and the weekend and the school day after. Within that weekend, Missy's dealing with real-life conflicts and grappling with what being War requires of her. The plot is parallel to Hunger in that balance and control are predominant ideas, and her conflict with her power (here, her conflict with War/the sword completely taking her over and blocking out rational thinking) combined with her struggle to control her urge to cut.
Another cool thing was the scene between Missy and Pestilence, who was only briefly introduced in the last book. He seems like a really interesting character, I must say-in the scene, he was having a bad day and was basically babbling nonsense, so I'm really curious to see what his story will be like. On that note, though, it's important to note that world-building isn't really a priority. These are definitely character-focused books, so details on the Horsemen, their function, how the system works, etc., aren't really in the book. I felt like I had a better concept of what they did, though, after reading the conversation between Famine and Missy, although it's still a little confusing. I really get a lot out of the emotional development of the characters, and how they grapple with their issues, so I'm able to not get hung up on figuring out how everything works. Still, there was one plot detail that did bug me (how she actually killed her cat), which was explained at the end; I just didn't understand why it wasn't initially explained, mainly because Missy thought about the cat often. It got irritating to read about someone who was obviously an incredibly important part of her life for a long time and not know how she died.
Like Hunger, the issue at stake in the story is one that makes people uncomfortable, and is often inaccurately portrayed. Self-injury being something that is used as a coping mechanism for incredibly powerful and overwhelming feelings was really well-portrayed. In the afterword, Ms. Kessler talked about how she did a lot of research on self-injury to portray it accurately, and I thought she did a fantastic job. There are definitely some tough scenes, including one where Missy is bleeding out on the floor, and there's lots of description of her scars. If the concept of blood or cutting through flesh makes your skin crawl, steer clear!
Missy was an incredibly refreshing character. I must say, I get sick of characters who tend to wallow in self-pity, or who shut down or get depressed. It seems like that's used much more than a character who gets furious, especially in YA. There are definitely characters who've had epic angry moments (like Daine from Tamora Pierce's Emperor Mage), but I feel like I don't see them too often. Missy's entire world is focused on keeping her emotions in check enough to function in her school and at home (there's a really nice way this is described, the glass jar that she forces her emotions into, so she can put on her "dead face"). Like Lisabeth, Missy has a major show-down with her issue/role as Horseman, although it was done in a different way, which was not quite as cool as the War vs. Famine showdown. Also, this isn't an all-is-well ending, as Missy dealing with her need to cut as a coping strategy doesn't magically go away by the end.
Overall, I liked this book. The plotting was similar to Hunger, although I was frustrated a few times with lack of details. I feel like the Horsemen are being fleshed out more, and there are more interactions between them all. Again, I mainly read this for the raw emotions and the development of the character, so I really got a lot out of the book. I definitely can't wait for Pestilence's book (and, of course, Death's).
Grade: 3.5/5, leaning towards 4
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