A Secret Rage

A brave, unflinching confrontation of rape,

Charlaine Harris wrote " A Secret Rage" back in the mid-80's, long before she became famous for her mysteries and her vampire series.

It can be read as a short, well-constructed mystery that keeps the reader guessing while giving an insight into life in a small college town in the South, but it is much more than that.

At its core, " A Secret Rage" is a hard-hitting, unflinching look at what rape is, what it does to the people it is inflicted on and to the people around them.

The rape scene is brutal and vivid without being exploitative. The descriptions of the impact of the rape, of the rage it produces, of the scars it leaves, of the bravery needed to face it and the love needed to respond to it show more are emotionally hard-hitting because they feel authentic and unfiltered.

This is a novel with an agenda: no woman deserves to be raped and no rapist should be allowed to go unpunished.

It is also a story about how women can help and support each other or how they can inflict more pain through shame and blame.

Recorded Books produced "A Secret Rage" as part of the "Southern Voices" series. Johanna Parker's performance brings these voices to life and anchors the story in an authentic setting that makes it harder for the reader to distance themselves from the story.

This is not a light read. If you aren't in tears, if your rage isn't stirred, if your revulsion is not awakened, then you weren't listening to the same book I was.

Much as I love the Sookie Stackhouse books (so much better than the TV series) and the Harper Connelly books, I think this is the book of hers that I will remember the longest. show less

Charlaine Harris gives us a satisfying mystery set in small-town Arkansas. New York model Nicky returns to the south after years of success, but her homecoming is poisoned by a viscious rapist. Harris obviously did some great research on the psychology of rape victims and rapists, because her characterizations ring chillingly true. Her knowledge of the Arkansas, of course, is first hand. The result is finely drawn characters and setting, and a mystery that rises above a simple whodunnit to give the reader a deeper understanding of victimology. This is not a comfortable book to read, but the charms of the south give some spots of lightness and the ending a satisfaction that makes the journey worthwhile.

This was a tense little story. There's not very much action - it focuses on the psychological impact of living in a town with a serial rapist who's specifically targeting you and people you know - and I think it's actually more effective for that. It's a brief book, and the ending is viscerally satisfying if a little too perfect. I like Harris's better-developed characters more overall but this is a solid little one-shot.

I normally check goodreads before picking up new books just to get a general feeling for what people thinks of books. I don't always follow the crowd recommendation, but on this one I should have checked first. I thought, hey, I've read most of the other books by this author, how different could it be? Overall, not very different, but the graphic nature of the content was unexpected. Not that her other books aren't graphic, but the rape theme was hit really hard over and over and over again in this one. I'm sure there was some insight the author was able to give on this, I just had trouble with one particular reaction. And...

Spoiler to follow...

So the brother of her friend has wanted to hook up with her for ages, and they both decide show more that right after the rape is a good time to do it? Again, ok, I'm sure that's true to reality for some people. But this guy is a psychologist who is counseling the rape victims. And SHE IS HIS PATIENT. That just tanked this book for me. Yes, I predicted who the bad guy was, and other foreshadowing was pretty heavy. I was being pulled along with the story in spite of these things, but the bit with the brother just brought this down a few notches. show less

One of the best books I've seen by a very talented writer. This is a tale of a small Southern town and an academic community suddenly terrorized by a serial rapist who eventually turns to murder as well. Harris does an excellent job of getting inside the head of a rape survivor; in fact, the only downside of the book is that its realism might be triggery for survivors of rape or sexual abuse. A deeply disturbing book, but one that will keep you turning pages.

This was one of Charlaine Harris’s first books, written before she began any of her series. I thought it was pretty good. It’s the story of Nickie, a model who has reached the end of her career and is a little bit at odds about what she wants to do. She ends up moving in with her best friend, back in the town where she spent her childhood in boarding school. Unfortunately, someone else has been showing up in town… a serial rapist. After Nickie herself is attacked in her own bedroom, she feels the need to conduct her own search for the rapist. In most ways this book is a whodunnit, but it’s also about rape and how it affects not only the victim, but those around her. This is definitely worth a read if you’re a Charlaine Harris fan.

Very, very dated, but that's part of what makes this so fun. (The most notable example is when the police are working to determine the rapist's blood type, but no mention of DNA evidence is made.) I'm not sure why this hasn't been made into a Lifetime movie yet. Or maybe it has? Almost impossible to guess whodunit, probably because by the end of the book I had completely forgotten who the character was, even when told his name.