Rage by Jackie Morse Kessler

Rage:
Missy didn’t mean to cut so deep. But after the party where she was humiliated in front of practically everyone in school, who could blame her for wanting some comfort? Sure, most people don’t find comfort in the touch of a razor blade, but Missy always was . . . different.

That’s why she was chosen to become one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War. Now Missy wields a new kind of blade—a big, brutal sword that can cut down anyone and anything in her path. But it’s with this weapon in her hand that Missy learns something that could help her triumph over her own pain: control.

A unique approach to the topic of self-mutilation, Rage is the story of a young woman who discovers her own power and refuses to be defeated by the world.

This is the second book in the Four Horses of the Apocalypse series by Jackie Morse Kessler, and this was even harder to read than the first of the series, Hunger. This book was absolutely riddled with anger and violence, and it was so hard to watch Missy suffer. Kessler has a unique way of approaching difficult subjects and she does not let her characters take the easy way out. This entire book is a struggle for both the readers and the characters; creating an emotional, stimulating journey. I must admit that the very first sentence was a little off-putting, and then I kept picturing Missy as being this cruel, heartless person; but that is not who she is at all. Missy is a kind and caring person, despite the cruelty she has endured at the hands of her peers. As Missy fights her need to self-harm and learns her role as War, she loses something important to her but in doing so she gains something much more important: hope.