Rage: A Love Story

Johanna is in love with Reeve from afar and has been since she first saw her.  But Reeve has never taken notice.  Reeve hangs with the LBD (LesBo Dykes) crowd and Johanna is more of a loner, hanging mostly with Novak who also uses Johannas apartment as a rendezvous with her boyfriend.  A request by a teacher that Johanna help Robbie with his senior essay, sets the stage for Johanna and Reeve to meet.  Robbie is Johannas brother.

Johannas wish is finally granted and before you know it, Reeve and Johanna are girlfriends, or are they really?  Do either of them really know what love is?  Johanna drives by Reeves house one day only to get a view of what Reeves life is really like.  She encounters Reeves uncle Anthony dragging her addict mother out of the car by her hair, a stream of foul language coming out of his mouth.  As the days pass, Reeves story of abuse by both her uncle and her father unfolds and the by products of that become all too evident:  Reeve has an abusive streak of her own.

Johannas history:  Her father died of Parkinsons disease and her mother of cancer.  She took care of her mother during those last months, her sister Tessa being away at college.  Now Tessa is back home with her husband Martin.  Once close, Tessa and Johanna rarely speak, and certainly not about important things.  As a result, Johanna is going through this love affair on her own, having abandoned Novak because of Reeves jealous streak.

Abusive families breed abusive children.  Isolated children seek love, in whatever form it comes.  The combination of the two can be horrendous, as in the case of Johanna.  She will take the physical abuse, knowing that Reeve really loves her and doesnt mean to hurt her.  She is willing to lose so much for the sake of love&including her self respect. 

Peters writing in Rage:  A Love Story, true to form, has produced an engrossing look at Johannas dreams and her reality.  Johanna and Reeve and Novak are real characters that readers will relate to, care about, sympathize with, and like or dislike intensely.  As with many books on this topic, readers will want to figuratively bang Johannas head against the wall (Reeve does it literally) and tell her to wake up and smell the roses.  While the conclusion is bittersweet, it is a viable ending that readers will accept.  Fans of Julie Anne Peters will devour Rage and non-fans will become fans after reading the book.

For other versions of this story, read Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn or Dreamland by Sarah Dessen.