The lovely, talented, and athletic Linda Benson sent me the new Julie Anne Peters' book, RAGE, to review for a future issue of VOYA. Peters enters relatively unexplored territory as she tackles an abusive relationship between two teen girls. Johanna spends a great deal of her life daydreaming about Reeve. Reeve seems unattainable, but Johanna is determined. However, the "relationship" when it happens is not quite what Johanna fantasized. Reeve is abusive. Johanna, eager to fulfill her dreams, makes excuses. In another YA book, the abusive relationship between a couple would be old familiar ground. However, it is new terrain in a story about two women by and large. Bravo to Peters for not flinching from the awful honest truth about abusive situations. As Alex Flinn did in BREATHING UNDERWATER, Peters presents a quite unlikable character and offers readers insight (not sympathy) into their behaviors. Readers who know Julie Anne Peters expect the truth; she does not disappoint them here.
