Rage

Rage Richard Bachman/Stephen King Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: New English Library Ltd (February 1, 1983) Language: English ISBN-10: 0450053792 ISBN-13: 978-0450053795 Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.4 x 0.9 inches At 9:05 a.m. in Room 16 of Placerville High School Mrs. Underwood realised that she had to go back to the basics in Algebra. The exam results had not been good. At 9:50 the change-of-class bell rang. But in Room 16 Algebra was already long over. For Mrs. Underwood, over for ever. She lay dead on the floor, shot through the head, her eyes still wide open, her blood already dark and congealed as a fly settled hungrily on her bare neck. Mr. Vance was dead as well. The bullet had caught him full in the throat as he came through the door. The kids were still there, not hurt but not going anywhere. The boy with the gun, sitting so casually on the edge of the teacher's desk, had decided that. He watched and waited as outside the police circled and conferred. School had been evacuated. Except for Room 16 where the kids still had a lot to learn. The end of the first lesson. Time for a second, a third. A whole timetable of terror stretching ahead of them... Written by Richard Bachman. In quiet Placerville, Maine, a slightly twisted boy named Charles Decker holds the 24 other students of his algebra class at gunpoint after shooting 2 teachers. Abused by his father as a child, he describes the important parts of his life, and in the process, lets a lot of the students he holds hostage tell the rest of the class their "Dirty Secrets". Things almost come to an early end when Charles is shot by a sniper, but the bullet hits a padlock he had placed in his pocket earlier. As things progress, the students become more and more responsive to their captor, all except Ted Jones. The students get their own back, and play one last nasty trick on another student before being released unharmed. But Charles is out of luck... This was initially titled "Getting it On" (After Deckers favourite saying) but was later renamed Rage, and released under Bachman's name. It has not been reprinted in the last few years as Stephen King thought it too violent, and similar to many killings in some American Schools. This is a pity as it is an excellent insight into the mind of someone that it walking the thin edge of sanity. A disturbed high-school student with authority problems kills one of his teachers and takes the rest of his class hostage. Over the course of one long, tense and unbearable hot afternoon, Charlie Decker explains what led him to this drastic sequence of events, while at the same time deconstructing the personalities of his classmates, forcing each one to justify his or her existence. ([source][1]) ---------- Also contained in: - [The Bachman Books][2] [1]: https://stephenking.com/library/bachman_novel/rage.html [2]: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL81591W/The_Bachman_Books_(Rage_The_Long_Walk_Roadwork_The_Running_Man)