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The Rage
Early draft. Author preparing re-write.
202 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 10, 2016
17 people want to read
About the author
Mathew Babaoye
4 books106 followersI am a writer. You can find me on Amazon, Goodreads, and a number of other websites.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 28, 2018
Dark, raw and gritty, THE RAGE by Mathew Babaoye is a dark and murky tale of one man as he devolves into a less than human monster. Is this a metaphor for personal rage that grows within the unhappy, the dissatisfied, those who feel they deserve more than they have?
Damon clearly finds nothing positive in his life. Sure, he has a girlfriend who loves him, but even their relationship is shadowed in his mind by her mother, who hates him. He feels he excels in his job and doesn’t get the rewards he feels he earns. His apartment is in a bad part of town, pretty much life sucks.
His response to life is to fuel a hidden rage that manifests in his mind and overflows into his life, his actions, and his reactions. Is there more to the changes that he sees in himself?
Murky and chaotic, being in Damon’s brain is almost painful. Perhaps as a matter of setting the atmosphere, there is excessive vulgarity, which, to be honest, isn’t even original or varied.
In the end, I had to feel bad for Damon, and yet, I wondered just how much was of his own doing? Did he become a monster through his uncontrolled rage or did the rage he manufactured to blame his circumstances come from somewhere else?
A huge potential for a horrifically dark, psychological horror tale just fell short for me through lack of real depth.
Publication Date: February 10, 2016
Publisher: Mathew Baboye
Genre: Paranormal Horror
Print Length: 296 pages
Available from: Amazon
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News: http://tometender.blogspot.com
Damon clearly finds nothing positive in his life. Sure, he has a girlfriend who loves him, but even their relationship is shadowed in his mind by her mother, who hates him. He feels he excels in his job and doesn’t get the rewards he feels he earns. His apartment is in a bad part of town, pretty much life sucks.
His response to life is to fuel a hidden rage that manifests in his mind and overflows into his life, his actions, and his reactions. Is there more to the changes that he sees in himself?
Murky and chaotic, being in Damon’s brain is almost painful. Perhaps as a matter of setting the atmosphere, there is excessive vulgarity, which, to be honest, isn’t even original or varied.
In the end, I had to feel bad for Damon, and yet, I wondered just how much was of his own doing? Did he become a monster through his uncontrolled rage or did the rage he manufactured to blame his circumstances come from somewhere else?
A huge potential for a horrifically dark, psychological horror tale just fell short for me through lack of real depth.
Publication Date: February 10, 2016
Publisher: Mathew Baboye
Genre: Paranormal Horror
Print Length: 296 pages
Available from: Amazon
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News: http://tometender.blogspot.com
April 3, 2016
**** 3.5 - 4 Cranky Stars ****
Mathew Babaoye is a strong and powerful writer. This is the first work I've read by him and it has certainly left an impression.
The Rage is dark and salty; the language strong and abrupt.
The story centers on Damon, a young man dissatisfied with life and an anger that is a living entity. He hates his job, he hates his living conditions, his inter-personal relationships are false, he has no family to speak of, he loves his girlfriend but not what she's attached to, and their relationship brings more tension than peace.
Damon begins to transform. Physically and emotionally. The rage he keeps on a tight leash begins to uncoil.
In some ways, Damon's dis-ease is symptomatic of the place of masculinity in modern society, our attempts to appease our unhappiness and anger by clamping it down. But Damon's story has more layers to it than that.
This was, at times, an uncomfortable read. Damon is a train wreck. He is exhausting to read and bear witness to. Reading this story, Damon's rage was infectious.
By fifty percent, I wanted to escape or have some movement/development as to where the story would go. It was well-established that Damon was rage-filled and I wanted the plot to be moved along.
I was willing him to turn his life around, make changes, and get a handle on himself. Damon's life did change, but in unexpected ways.
Answers to the puzzle that is Damon are revealed, but left me with more questions. This is far from a negative. It makes me curious as to what Babaoye is going to do next.
February 12, 2016
I was given a free copy of this book by the author in exchange for my honest review. I loved it! It reminded me a little bit of the Hulk; that is because when the character gets angry is when his transformation occurs. There's a bit of mystery about "Them", a group of people Damon sees in his dreams and is terrified of them. They don't really appear until the end. It shows a regular man trying to live his life by going to work, dating his girlfriend, and seeing his friends. He has an anger issue that he can barely control. There is excessive use of the f-bomb, but as long as language doesn't bother you, this book is great. The ending is shocking and I can't wait to read the authors next book to find out what happens! I believe Mathew Babaoye will appear on the bestseller list in the future. This is definitely an author to watch!
May 1, 2016
This is a dark character study. Very strong language but considering the title I wasn't surprised.
April 27, 2016
Damon goes through his daily life in an endless struggle: he has a girlfriend he loves, but whose family hates him. He has a job that barely pays the bills and he loathes every second of every day. He has to deal with co-workers he loathes and a boss he despises. His friends have all the depth and subtly of a hammer and are a constant aggravation. He has no family, his home is terrible.
And he has The Rage. The constant, all consuming rage that powers him through his day. The vast well of fury that is slowly changing him even as it gives him the power to keep going. But as The Rage gives him the strength to keep moving it also could destroy everything.
This book begins very interestingly. We have our protagonist utterly consumed by constant, overwhelming, all consuming rage. Every moment of his life is spent reigning it in, living with it, trying to control it, trying not to completely lose himself to it. It affects his every interaction, his every relationship, his every single moment of every single day.
There are many books where we have supernatural creatures battling against the supernatural induced rage – but I don’t think I’ve ever come across a book that so accurately portrays what an overwhelming exhausting struggle it is. How painful it is, how extremely hard it is to live with such incredible rage all the time.
On top of that the rage looks sharply at the society Damon lives in – in our society. He looks at a world where every day he gets up, goes to work, suffers miserably with a wretched job, even doing extremely well at it, with no pleasure, no joy and not even enough to earn a decent living from it. Every day he works, loathing every second of it, hating his boss – and in the end of all that effort, all that suffering even all that success, he’s not even earning enough money to live anywhere but a slum. He’s not even earning enough money to placate his girlfriend’s mother.
This book touches many of the unjust elements of Damon’s life and, through it, our society in general – the patriarchal expectations forced on him trying to be “worthy” of Monica (and worth is strictly linked wealth and earnings. This is so strongly laid down that even her abusive ex is considered a better candidate, even with his abuse, because he’s a good earner and goes to church: the fact he is violent and hurt her never comes close to mattering as much as his bank account and social position.). How effort and even performance is no real guarantee of getting that much worth. Of how women often have to tolerate constant sexual harassment at work without saying anything. Of living a life which is nearly always consumed by doing things we hate just to find a few brief moments of happiness.
The only issue I have wit this depiction is that Damon’s all consuming rage pretty much puts everything on the same level. His hating his job and being judged for it is rage inducing – but so is waiting in line in the supermarket or someone talking to him at the bus stop. Is this social commentary or is it just supposed to be Damon’s irrational rage at “normal” things?
The commentary and depiction is excellent for about 50-100 pages
The problem is that this keeps going and this book is over 200 pages long. Rage and fury continues with the off moments of super strength, over and over. We don’t really have anything added to after the first, say, 80 pages of the book so much as a lot of repetition. Damon continues to live his wretched life. Continues to hate everyone. Continues to fill page after page after page of expletives. Continues to loathe how he lives, continues to loathe the people around him, continues to lay out the endless irritations of daily life that plague all of us that constantly stress him into a frenzy. He continues to go out with his friends and not really enjoy himelf, but it’s required. He continues to date Monica but never find acceptance with her family. He continues to rage and rage and rage his way through daily life
I suppose that in and of itself may be a stylistic choice. The monotonous rage of Damon’s life is reflected by the monotonous repetition of the book itself.
And nothing really goes anywhere except him steadily getting more angry until we finally reach a climax which is basically an Incredible Hulk scene with him rampaging around as some kind of super human. But we have no real explanation of this, not real plot or resolve or world building or development. It’s like the whole book exists to be a rage filled seethe against the problems of modern society (which isn’t a bad thing) but doesn’t really have anything else to back it up. The points it had to made it made in the first hundred pages and I’m not sure what the point of the rest of the book was or what the ending was even supposed to be.
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And he has The Rage. The constant, all consuming rage that powers him through his day. The vast well of fury that is slowly changing him even as it gives him the power to keep going. But as The Rage gives him the strength to keep moving it also could destroy everything.
This book begins very interestingly. We have our protagonist utterly consumed by constant, overwhelming, all consuming rage. Every moment of his life is spent reigning it in, living with it, trying to control it, trying not to completely lose himself to it. It affects his every interaction, his every relationship, his every single moment of every single day.
There are many books where we have supernatural creatures battling against the supernatural induced rage – but I don’t think I’ve ever come across a book that so accurately portrays what an overwhelming exhausting struggle it is. How painful it is, how extremely hard it is to live with such incredible rage all the time.
On top of that the rage looks sharply at the society Damon lives in – in our society. He looks at a world where every day he gets up, goes to work, suffers miserably with a wretched job, even doing extremely well at it, with no pleasure, no joy and not even enough to earn a decent living from it. Every day he works, loathing every second of it, hating his boss – and in the end of all that effort, all that suffering even all that success, he’s not even earning enough money to live anywhere but a slum. He’s not even earning enough money to placate his girlfriend’s mother.
This book touches many of the unjust elements of Damon’s life and, through it, our society in general – the patriarchal expectations forced on him trying to be “worthy” of Monica (and worth is strictly linked wealth and earnings. This is so strongly laid down that even her abusive ex is considered a better candidate, even with his abuse, because he’s a good earner and goes to church: the fact he is violent and hurt her never comes close to mattering as much as his bank account and social position.). How effort and even performance is no real guarantee of getting that much worth. Of how women often have to tolerate constant sexual harassment at work without saying anything. Of living a life which is nearly always consumed by doing things we hate just to find a few brief moments of happiness.
The only issue I have wit this depiction is that Damon’s all consuming rage pretty much puts everything on the same level. His hating his job and being judged for it is rage inducing – but so is waiting in line in the supermarket or someone talking to him at the bus stop. Is this social commentary or is it just supposed to be Damon’s irrational rage at “normal” things?
The commentary and depiction is excellent for about 50-100 pages
The problem is that this keeps going and this book is over 200 pages long. Rage and fury continues with the off moments of super strength, over and over. We don’t really have anything added to after the first, say, 80 pages of the book so much as a lot of repetition. Damon continues to live his wretched life. Continues to hate everyone. Continues to fill page after page after page of expletives. Continues to loathe how he lives, continues to loathe the people around him, continues to lay out the endless irritations of daily life that plague all of us that constantly stress him into a frenzy. He continues to go out with his friends and not really enjoy himelf, but it’s required. He continues to date Monica but never find acceptance with her family. He continues to rage and rage and rage his way through daily life
I suppose that in and of itself may be a stylistic choice. The monotonous rage of Damon’s life is reflected by the monotonous repetition of the book itself.
And nothing really goes anywhere except him steadily getting more angry until we finally reach a climax which is basically an Incredible Hulk scene with him rampaging around as some kind of super human. But we have no real explanation of this, not real plot or resolve or world building or development. It’s like the whole book exists to be a rage filled seethe against the problems of modern society (which isn’t a bad thing) but doesn’t really have anything else to back it up. The points it had to made it made in the first hundred pages and I’m not sure what the point of the rest of the book was or what the ending was even supposed to be.
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May 3, 2016
My rating 3.5. The more I think about the story I do think the writing and the idea were good - without the excessive and repeated "F" word. Sorry - the language pretty much ruined the rest of it for me.
Damon is an unhappy, angry young man. He lives in a tiny apartment in a ‘gutter’ neighborhood and rides a bus to work. At work Damon is the top appointment setter who is annoyed by his co-workers and annoyed that all he gets for his efforts is a pat on the back and greater expectation from his boss. Damon is dissatisfied with his life but only half-heartedly willing to try to change it.
The only bright thing is his beautiful girlfriend, Monica. But even that has problems in the form of an overly eager little sister and a mother who really dislikes Damon and wants Monica to return to her ex-boyfriend. Plus Monica insists that Damon keep his weekly visit with the psychiatrist.
Damon has always had a lot of anger but lately his inner rage seems to be growing beyond his ability to maintain control in social settings. Damon is initially distressed by this. Then he and his basketball playing friends realize that Damon’s body is changing. He is getting leaner and stronger; they can barely recognize him. The hotter his rage grows the more his body changes until Damon, as he knows himself, is consumed.
My initial comment on this book is that it should come with a warning for extreme bad language with the "F" word filling up a good portion of the book. Had I looked at the sample before accepting the story for review I may well have said ‘no thank you’. At 25% I was ready to stop but then decided to push along to see where the rage was taking Damon. I was sort of thinking this was a story like the Hulk, but no.
About a third in, although still put off by the language, I enjoyed the basketball action and thought, okay… now we are getting somewhere. I really wanted to know where the story was going when finally, beyond three quarters in, an interesting transformation occurs. The language stops and a different type of action picks up. This leads to a full out chase and escalating confrontation. The ending brings along a twist which was hinted at and had great potential. Unfortunately for me the ending left me disappointed and wondering what the purpose was.
Sorry – but this really didn’t work for me. Half of the book was bad language that could have been removed and left some interesting character building. I had hopes for the hinted-at conspiracy but the ending left me with no satisfactory feelings. The writing moved along well, except for the excessive bad language and some typos that may be fixed in the published version. Readers who like horror and aren't bothered by bad language might find this an interesting character study.
I received this from the author for an honest review.
Damon is an unhappy, angry young man. He lives in a tiny apartment in a ‘gutter’ neighborhood and rides a bus to work. At work Damon is the top appointment setter who is annoyed by his co-workers and annoyed that all he gets for his efforts is a pat on the back and greater expectation from his boss. Damon is dissatisfied with his life but only half-heartedly willing to try to change it.
The only bright thing is his beautiful girlfriend, Monica. But even that has problems in the form of an overly eager little sister and a mother who really dislikes Damon and wants Monica to return to her ex-boyfriend. Plus Monica insists that Damon keep his weekly visit with the psychiatrist.
Damon has always had a lot of anger but lately his inner rage seems to be growing beyond his ability to maintain control in social settings. Damon is initially distressed by this. Then he and his basketball playing friends realize that Damon’s body is changing. He is getting leaner and stronger; they can barely recognize him. The hotter his rage grows the more his body changes until Damon, as he knows himself, is consumed.
My initial comment on this book is that it should come with a warning for extreme bad language with the "F" word filling up a good portion of the book. Had I looked at the sample before accepting the story for review I may well have said ‘no thank you’. At 25% I was ready to stop but then decided to push along to see where the rage was taking Damon. I was sort of thinking this was a story like the Hulk, but no.
About a third in, although still put off by the language, I enjoyed the basketball action and thought, okay… now we are getting somewhere. I really wanted to know where the story was going when finally, beyond three quarters in, an interesting transformation occurs. The language stops and a different type of action picks up. This leads to a full out chase and escalating confrontation. The ending brings along a twist which was hinted at and had great potential. Unfortunately for me the ending left me disappointed and wondering what the purpose was.
Sorry – but this really didn’t work for me. Half of the book was bad language that could have been removed and left some interesting character building. I had hopes for the hinted-at conspiracy but the ending left me with no satisfactory feelings. The writing moved along well, except for the excessive bad language and some typos that may be fixed in the published version. Readers who like horror and aren't bothered by bad language might find this an interesting character study.
I received this from the author for an honest review.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews