Rage was an odd little book. When you know that King originally wrote it as a teenager and later spruced it up as an adult, you can see how it all fits together. The plot is almost pure twisted adolescent fantasy, the sort of thing a young writer in comfortable touch with his dark side might cook up. The dialogue and the writing carry the adult King's verve and sheen, full of odd little sayings, unique random observations, and casual flow.

The Good: Rage is a quick, easy read, smoothly put together and told in the interesting narrative voice of Charlie Decker, who is crazy. The dialogue is generally strong, and the story has about as much fun as a school shooting story can reasonably have.

The Bad: As an adolescent revenge/respect fantasy, the plot stretched my disbelief to the breaking point and then snapped it clean off by the end. The way most of the characters react to what happens is either highly disturbing or highly unconvincing, and I choose the latter. Though the dialogue is good, it doesn't feel all that realistic either. The whole thing, overall, smacks of a sort of indulgent artificial plot-wrangling that bugs me even though I enjoyed most of the actual writing.

On my Stephen King Quality Meter (my highly subjective rating of how a book stacks up as a Stephen King book, not how it compares to other novels), I give Rage a 45/100.

The ranking so far:

1. The Shining (88)
2. 'Salem's Lot (70)
3. Rage (45)
4. Carrie (40)

Next: Night Shift (Stephen King's first short story collection)