ALL THE RAGE APRIL: Guest Post by Kim from Pingwing's Bookshelf

Hello, lovely blog readers!

Welcome back to ALL THE RAGE APRIL! If this is your first time stopping by, check out the master list of posts from this month and catch-up on what you missed! Today we have our second guest post of the month, coming from a dear friend of mine (and fellow Ottawa Blogger!) Kim from Pingwing's Bookshelf. I love what Kim has to say here, and I hope you guys love it too.

After I finished reading All the Rage, I wanted to write something honest.

I’m honestly tired of women’s bodies being used against them. I’m tired of a woman’s personhood being ignored and being reduced to body parts. I’m tired of reading women’s stories, all heartfelt and some all-too familiar, only to have their experiences questioned, scrutinized, doubted, and discounted.

I’m tired of reading click-bait articles and their despicable comments. I’m honestly tired of reading the comments – ranging from hate-filled threats of bodily harm and death aimed at women, to less terrifying yet still infuriating trolling.

But I don’t stop reading. It could be so easy, too easy, to pretend that nothing outside of my own experience exists, and I don’t want to be wilfully blind. I am tired though of having a voice and being afraid to use it.

These are the things that were going through my mind as I read All the Rage. There was so much about this book that resonated with me, e.g. Romy’s thoughts at times about not wanting a body, wishing she didn’t have one. I feel that way sometimes. Our bodies are so often not our own, and we see in this book how they are used against us.

I am a big fan of Courtney Summers’ books, but I know by now how intense they can be, how gritty and visceral, so I prepared myself going into this one.

In typical Courtney Summers fashion, this book’s honesty was heartbreaking. So much of All the Rage is too true and familiar. The portrayal of sexism, misogyny, rape culture, privilege, bullying, ‘mean girls’, and the wilful blindness and ignorance to these issues is infuriating and exhausting. This book’s portrayal of these issues had me nodding my head in recognition, and this recognition is heartbreaking. How can the things that happen in this book be real and true?

How can this be the lived experience for so many people? Why aren’t we all shocked and outraged? Why don’t we all care more?

And then the end - oh man, there's this thing at the end, at once so small yet so hugely representative of the problems in our society, that had me come as close as I ever have to throwing a book in anger and frustration. What makes it worse is that it comes after what I saw as a moment of hope, and then this thing that is so gut-wrenchingly accurate comes along and it just got to me.

I feel like this would have been a terrific book to read when I was in high school and discuss as a classroom full of teenagers. I mean, honestly, I want EVERYONE to read and discuss this book, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what I would have thought and said about this book and its ideas if I had read it as a teenager.

Part of what really stood out for me in this story is the way other girls participate in the bullying that Romy experiences. It was so real, and I wanted to reach into the book and shake these girls. It was enraging.

Tying everything together in All the Rage is the mystery of what happened to Romy the night of a big party, and what happened to her ex-friend Penny who, unlike Romy, never made it home after that night. I loved the mystery aspect of this book. It added an extra layer to the story that made for a gripping, tense read.

I love the way Courtney Summers writes. This may be, in my opinion, her best book yet. I am supremely biased in favour of her book This is Not a Test, because there are zombies in it and I love zombie stories so much, but the way this book impacted me emotionally, the way I am still thinking about it so much after finishing it, the way I couldn’t put it down once I started reading, has me thinking that this could be my new favourite Courtney Summers book.

I absolutely recommend this book. It's a must-read for so many reasons! I wish I could make everyone read it and discuss it and recognize the importance of what the book is saying, because it shows that we are failing girls in so many ways. 

***

Check out Courtney Summers' #ToTheGirls campaign and support it on April 14, 2015. You can participate by writing and sharing your own message on social media.

You can purchase All the Rage via the links below, and for the time being, you can pre-order and receive your choice of a previously-released book by Courtney Summers for free! More info here. - Kim from Pingwing's Bookshelf

Thank you for your guest post, Kim! I really appreciate you lending your voice for this amazing novel.

Stop by tomorrow, lovely readers! We have another guest post coming your way!

Find This Book: Amazon | Chapters/Indigo | The Book Depository 

- Ciara (Lost at Midnight)

ALL THE RAGE APRIL: Why Early Readers Loved All the Rage!

Hello, once again!

I hope everyone had wonderful Easter Weekend! ALL THE RAGE APRIL is back and today I have some lovely early readers talking about why they loved All the Rage. There are so many reasons to love and appreciate this book. It's one of the best books I've ever read. But don't just take my word for it! Here are some lovely peeps on why they loved All the Rage!

By the time I read ALL THE RAGE, I had already read all of Courtney Summers books. I binge read most of them one weekend which, if you’ve read Courtney’s works, you would know how emotionally draining such a task can be from the witty, humourous lines to the heartbreaking moments. These books dig inside you not because of the great prose or admirably complex characters but because of the topic they all share. Women are silenced every single day. We’re silenced physically by being asked to occupy as little space as possible in public - cross your legs. keep them closed - or through the threat of sexual violence (you were asking for it). We’re told to not make out presences known (don't be so loud and boisterous. you're a LADY) or opinions heard (shut up u dumb BITCH!). This culture has even caused women to help tear each other down (ugh you slut). What’s terrifying about this culture is the little ways we’re silenced or policed (don't go out at night. don't go anywhere by yourself. don't get raped) and how much we internalize it as the norm. While Courtney Summers’ other books have dealt with these issues, they haven’t called out society in the visceral way that ALL THE RAGE does. They don’t pull apart the systematic, institutional and social binds that make being a woman a disadvantage, a crutch in life.

There’s a moment in the book where Romy hopes that the baby that’s being born isn’t a girl because of the difficulties that will could bring that child based on their sex/gender identity. The most powerful stories are the ones that need to be told and are told well. This book is both. I hope you pick this up, feel all the rage before putting that rage into your everyday life to make sure that tomorrow is better than today. 

 - Ardo Omer, @ardoomer

There's more ways than one to kill someone's spirit and I love that in All the Rage we get to see the battlefield Romy fights on to keep hers alive. All the Rage is a realistic, painful story about rape and rape culture and grief and growth, loss and gain, and so many things and it's all so wonderfully executed. All the Rage is honest and unsettling and embodies everything that makes this one of the most powerful, possibly the most powerful book I will read all year. Thank you, Courtney. 

- Melody Simpson, @melodysimpson

It is a heartbreaking and honest story. Showing the truth of victim blaming.  

- Emily Britton, @MagnifiedPlaid

 

One of my biggest fears, in addition to internal parasites, falling off of an impossibly tall building, and having to wear corduroy pants, is being silenced.  Being forced to do something without any regard for my thoughts or feelings.  This, along with Courtney Summers' amazing writing and frightening realistic characterization, is what made All the Rage grab my heart and give it a good twist.  Last year, the son of the local sheriff raped Romy at a party.  Far from being helped to heal, Romy is branded everything from a liar to a slut.  She's forced to internalize the shock and horror and complete inhumanity of what happened to her.  To keep the myriad ways her classmates torture her to herself because God knows no adult will believe her.  She was, after all, asking for it.  

Romy says that she's a dead girl.  Her murderers are legion: not just the boy who raped her, but the justice system that preferred prejudice over truth.  Classmates that want a victim, not a saint.  A parent who tried, but whose efforts weren't good enough.  I cried as I read of Romy's unceasing torture and pain--not just because I am afraid of being silenced, but because I know that there are millions and millions of girls out there in Romy's place.  Or worse.  And they might not ever have a chance to speak out.  Listen to them.  Listen to us, to the girls.

- Pamela Penza, @PamelaJean0 

Have you read All the Rage? What did you love about it? Let me know in the comments! ALL THE RAGE APRIL is off tomorrow but we're back on Thursday with a lovely guest post!

- Ciara (Lost at Midnight) 

ALL THE RAGE APRIL: Guest Post by A. C. Dillon

Hello, all!

Welcome to day three of ALL THE RAGE APRIL! Today, we have our first guest post of the month coming from A. C. Dillon. Here she talks about her own experiences and why All the Rage is important to her. I'm not going to give much more of an induction (I want to post to speak for itself) I'll only say it's a really powerful post guys, and I hope you'll take the time to read it.

**TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual Assault** 

When I was nineteen, I was sexually assaulted in my dorm room.

I was with a male friend of several years, who happened to be a former boyfriend as well (briefly).  We’d flirted off and on throughout the years, but it wasn’t serious; both of us were in relationships at that time, anyway. Not that it should matter.  We’d been drinking, as friends reuniting after several months do.  Not that it should matter.  Because he was a long-time friend, I thought nothing of shouting, “Oh, make me one too!” when he got up to mix another drink.

Half an hour later, I couldn’t hold myself upright.  I slid off the couch onto the floor.  I crawled upstairs to my room at some point.  I lost ninety minutes of my life. I was lucky, in that Alice Sebold sort of way: I woke up mid-assault and that startled him so badly, he fled.  Still disoriented and out of it, trapped in a delirium of drug-induced euphoria blended with violation and confusion, I crawled into bed, where my frantic girlfriend phoned me.  It was how I learned I’d lost so much time: she’d been calling me.  Repeatedly.

It took me three days to fully assimilate what had happened, to understand that he hadn’t take advantage of me while I was drunk and passed out (inexplicably, given my alcohol consumption).  It was so much worse, in my mind, because it had been far more premeditated than I’d wanted to believe. He’d drugged me, then assaulted me.  It took me just three minutes, based on my program of study (Psychology and Criminology), to decide not to report the incident.  Indeed, I chose to tell only a scant handful of friends, a family doctor and eventually, two professors.

Because in three minutes, I understood these truths about the world:  a) with no rape kit and no blood tests for drugs from that day, I had no physical evidence to support my allegations; b) my dating history with the assailant would immediately discredit me; c) rape victims seldom see any justice, and instead, are shamed and interrogated into submission; and d) even if somehow, with the odds completely stacked against me, he was charged and convicted, he’d see no real punishment.  On the other hand, reporting the assault meant I’d be forced to be re-victimized, over and over again in a police station, then again in court.  All the while, I would have to hear how a so-called “good Catholic boy and member of the Canadian Armed Forces” was “accused of terrible things.”

I knew all of this because a Criminology professor of mine had espoused these views of college women leading men on and ruining their lives during a class lecture.  A class I paid for.  I’d complained and eventually been forced to drop the course because of his punitive “revenge marking” (my identity was not protected by the Dean).  The professor continued to teach.

I stayed silent because I knew that in this world, my words meant nothing.  My pain would be shrugged away.  The assailant certainly wouldn’t confess; he’d flat-out denied wrong-doing in an email exchange after that night.  I was alone.

When I first read the synopsis for Courtney Summers’ All The Rage, I felt like I needed to find her and shake her hand, or even embrace her in gratitude.  Because someone needed to go there—to go beyond the experience of navigating the world as a survivor, and outright attack the thriving rape culture that feeds on coded language and misogyny, the culture that explains why every single female friend I have has experienced some sort of sexual violence or domestic violence — often both.  When I read the opening excerpt, I burst into tears and quietly cried at my computer.  Because the details may differ, but it happened to me.  Because it’s still happening—to our daughters, our sisters, our friends and coworkers.

Having read Courtney’s previous work, I know that she doesn’t flinch.  I know that she’s taken this book exactly where it needs to go.  And that makes me desperate to read it. Because inside of me, there is a nineteen-year-old woman, sitting in the dark on her dorm room floor, clutching a phone and trying to make the math add up to anything but this. There is a twenty-year-old woman hiding in the bathroom stall of a mall, because she just saw him in the food court.  And there is a thirty-something woman sitting here now, rewinding the entire supposed friendship and realizing that she can trace back the history of a man and see the warning signs that eventually, he would take what the world was telling him he was entitled to—the same world that told her she wasn’t worth protecting from him.

I need to read it—but more importantly, you do.  You.  And you.  And him.  And her.

Because until we all can see the ugly truth in the shadows, we’ll never be able to dismantle it in the light. - A. C. Dillon

Thank you so so much A. C. for being brave enough to share your story.

- Ciara (Lost at Midnight) 

Why Do People Want to Read ALL THE RAGE?

Hello, all!

Welcome to day two of ALL THE RAGE APRIL! Today I have some lovely Twitter peeps on the blog talking about why they want to read All the Rage!  Here's the jacket copy in case you haven't read it yet.

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.　

With a shocking conclusion and writing that will absolutely knock you out, All the Rage examines the shame and silence inflicted upon young women after an act of sexual violence, forcing us to ask ourselves: In a culture that refuses to protect its young girls, how can they survive? (Summary from Goodreads)

There's so many reasons to be excited about this book, guys. It's beautifully written, it's gritty and intense, and it tackles such a difficult subject with honesty. I can't wait for you guys to read it! But, don't just listen to me. A couple week's back, I tweeted out asking why people wanted to read All the Rage and got some lovely responses! Here are why some other readers are excited about the book!

"I am looking forward to reading ALL THE RAGE because Courtney Summers is a master at writing relevant issues. Ever since reading SOME GIRLS ARE, I have been enamored. She touched on a subject very close to home. Courtney Summers is not afraid to broach the hard subjects in a manor that is respectful and informative. I am very excited to see what she has planned for ALL THE RAGE." - Elissa, @_Ellie_G_

 "Because Courtney Summers' books are awesome, and never disappoint!" - Anna, @princess2293

"Because I have read and enjoyed the other books she has written." - Tanya, @tanyalc28

"How about because WE NEED BOOKS THAT SUPPORT GIRLS IN AWFUL SITUATIONS WHEN OUR STUPID SOCIETY IGNORES THEM. Go Courtney Summers!" - Jess, @MsJessR

"Courtney's books take me to the darkest places, but always somehow bring me back again alive" - Rebecca, @ReeCroteau

Thanks everyone for your lovely responses! I can't wait for you guys to read it as well!

Why do you guys want to read All the Rage? Let me know in the comments! And be sure to stop by tomorrow where we'll have our very first guest post (and it's a powerful one, guys).

- Ciara (Lost at Midnight) 

ALL THE RAGE APRIL is here! (+ GIVEAWAY)

HELLO LOVELY READERS!

Welcome to ALL THE RAGE APRIL! *tosses confetti* *happy dances* 

I'm so excited to finally launch the feature that has been bouncing around my head for a good long while. I truly believe that this book should be read and talked about by everyone, and I'm happy to get to spend a month telling you why.

So, how is this month going to work? ALL THE RAGE APRIL will feature a bunch of different guest posts (thank you in advance all you lovely peeps!) some spoiler-filled discussion post of All the Rage (all spoilers will be marked, I promise) a couple of reviews and maybe (possibly) a Q&A! And, I hope, lots of interesting comments by you lovely readers!

I also want to take this time to highlight the campaign Courtney has put together for the launch day of All the Rage. It is called #ToTheGirls and it's all about telling girls out there that they matter. You can tweet about girls that have inspired you or talk about why it's so important to hear girls stories or, really, whatever you want! I will be spending a lot of my time April 14th on Twitter talking about this important campaign, and I hope you will too.

Read more about the campaign here and join the Thunderclap! 

To celebrate the launch of ALL THE RAGE APRIL, I'm giving away one pre-order of All the Rage for a lucky reader! Enter through the Rafflecopter form below (and be sure to read the rules!)

Giveaway Rules:

- Must be 13 years or older (if under 18 must have parental consent).

- US/Canada ONLY (apologies, international peeps! I hate having to restrict it but Book Depository is being weird and I want to make sure it goes through!)

- Not responsible for lost or damaged prizes (sorry!)

- I reserve the right to disqualify as I see fit (aka don't fake entries pretty please!)

- Fill in the Rafflecopter form to be entered!

The giveaway will last from NOW until April 6th at 11:59pm!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget! If you pre-order All the Rage (or win this pre-order!) you can sign-up to get one of Courtney Summers' backlist titles FOR FREE.

If you miss any of the posts this month, I'm going to be using this page as a master list with links to all the different things going on.

Announcement

Day Two: Why Do People Want to Read All the Rage?

Day Three: Guest Post with A.C. Dillon
Day Four: Why Do Readers LOVE All the Rage?
Day Five: Guest Post by Kim from Pingwing's Bookshelf
Day Six: Guest Post by Siobhan from Conversations of a Reading Addict
  Day Seven: Q&A with Author Courtney Summers
Day Eight: Guest Post by Kathy from A Glass of Wine
Day Nine: Guest Post by Emilie from Emilie's Book World
Day Ten: Guest Post from Susanne 
Day Eleven: Guest Review from Meaghan at Feeling A Little Bookish
 Day Twelve: Guest Post from Indigo from Adventures in YA Fiction
Day Thirteen: My Review of All the Rage
Day Fourteen: Guest Post by Jess from Read My Breath Away 
Day Fifteen: Guest Post by Kelly
Day Sixteen: Why All the Rage Matters to Me 

Thanks for stopping by, all! Up tomorrow, why readers want to pick up All the Rage!

- Ciara (Lost at Midnight