BOOK REVIEW: All the Rage by Courtney Summers

Title: All the Rage

Author: Courtney Summers

Publication Date: April 14, 2015

Print Length: 336 pages

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Summary: 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.

My Review: I’ve read several of Courtney Summers novel (Some Girls Are, Fall for Anything, Cracked Up to Be) so I love her poetic writing style. All of her characters are relatable and genuine. So as soon as I read the summary for this book I was instantly intrigued, ready to see how her normally relatable main character would deal with this situation. Unfortunately, Romy fell flat. The beginning of the book was very confusing, therefore hard for me to get into. Eventually the story started to even out and make more sense but Romy wasn’t relatable at all. I found myself annoyed by her actions and didn’t feel for her plight. It also didn’t help that not much is explained about Kellan and what exactly happened until the very end and even then didn’t make me feel.

Having just finished Fall for Anything and being so caught up in everything that Eddie was going through, I specifically sought out another Courtney Summers book. Sadly, this book disappointed me. I didn’t feel anything for the main character or her family or her situation. In fact, the most interesting part of the book was the side story/mystery about the 'not-as-mean' mean girl. Wanting to find out what happened with her kept me reading.

All and all, the book was just ok. Don’t get me wrong her words are poetic. Ms. Summers can string together some sentences that give you all the feels. The problem

with this book was the characters. Of the three Courtney books I’ve read I liked this one the least. However, I will probably pick up another one of the novels to read in the future. This one just didn’t reach me.