After thinking a lot about how to rate and review "Rage", the first novel Stephen King published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman, I still have no clue what to think of this (really short) novel. "Rage" is not available anymore as King decided to take it off the market since it was feared the novel would inspire people to run amok, and due to the socially relevant and interesting subject this novel deals with, I was very interested in reading the actual text. But after finishing it this morning, all the impressions the novel leaves in my thoughts consist of disappointment. The more I think about it, the more does the opinion that King utterly failed to depict the novel's core in his work become manifest in my considerations. 
 It's about Charlie Decker, the spree killer himself, who kills his teacher in school and then takes several hostages in the aftermath of this escalation. King spends a lot of time inside Charlie's head, exploring his thoughts, his inner turmoil and his plagued past. Although his character is well-developed, his deeds themselves remain unexplained, which may be the most significant factor for why I wasn't able to get into the story. Spree killers may have been victims in their past, but they become perpetrators the moment they commit their crimes, and Charlie's crime is a horrible one - however, King depicts him as the victim during the entire course of the story, not only by telling the book from his first-person point of view, but also by making the hostage-taking feel like an afternoon coffee party. Some scenes appeared dubious and unrealistic to me, while - in addition - King's writing talents are not performed at their best in this novel. Apart from that, I thought "Rage" shares a lot of similarities with "Carrie", King's first published novel, which was interesting to investigate. 
 Finally, what is left to be said about "Rage"? It is no huge loss to the world of literature that it isn't officially available anymore, and although it deals with a socially important subject, King leads the story into absurdism. 2.5 stars, rounded down to 2 stars for the lack of explanations of the protagonist's actions. 
 (Why is this book shelved as 'horror' by 412 users? Had it been written by any random author, it would have been shelved anything but that. In my opinion, "Rage" is a thriller with dramatic components, but does not belong into the section of King books meant to be horror novels.)