• Written by Stephen King
• narrated by Bob Askey
• Length: 5 hrs 
• Unabridged Audiobook

PLS NOTE THIS IS A SUPER RARE,UNAVAILABLE TO GET NEARLY ANYWHERE ELSE,THIS WAS NEVER MADE IN NEW AGE AUDIO,ITWAS QUICKLY RELEASE ON AUDIO CASSETTE 20+ YEARS AGO,so pls dont expect 2022 audio quality

RAGE, written while the author was in high school and college, features teenagers wrestling to the point of violence with angst and frustration.

The Bachman book that Stephen King has done everything in his power to keep out of print for the last 20 years aside from having it banned

Summary

The narrator is Charles Everett "Charlie" Decker, a senior at Placerville High School in Placerville, Maine. The story begins on a pleasant Spring morning, when Charlie is called to the principal's office from his Algebra 2 class. His principal, Mr. Denver, wants to speak to Charlie about an incident that occurred two months earlier, where Charlie had viciously and inexplicably struck his chemistry teacher, Mr. Carlson, in the head with a heavy wrench, leaving the man with severe brain damage and unable to continue his teaching career.

For as yet unrevealed reasons, Charlie snaps and responds with a series of insulting and vituperative remarks towards Mr. Denver, including accusing him of attempted rape, prompting Denver to expel Charlie. Charlie storms out of the principal's office and retrieves a semiautomatic pistol from his locker. After setting the contents of his locker on fire -- and saving his Titus padlock, which he slips into his shirt pocket -- he returns to his classroom and fatally shoots his teacher Mrs. Underwood. The locker fire sets off an alarm and students are beginning to be evacuated. Charlie tells his classmates to stay seated and then shoots another teacher, Mr. Vance, after Vance enters the classroom to notify students of the alarm. The students and teachers exit the school and police, fire companies and the media arrive on the scene. Charlie announces to the class "this is what's known as getting it on" and he intends to hold them hostage for an indeterminate time. 

Throughout the remainder of the school day, he shares with them key events from his life that he feels brought him to his current mental state. Charlie grew up with an abusive and aggressive father and a mother who would spoil him and prevent her husband from punishing their son. Charlie relates an incident when he was four when he implusively broke nearly all the storm windows his father was putting up in autumn: his father, enraged at the broken windows, picked Charlie up and threw him violently on the ground. When Charlie screamed in pain, his mother grabbed and hugged him and forbid her husband from hurting Charlie further or simply meting out any punishment. On a hunting trip with his father that Charlie joined him on at the age of 10, Charlie wakes up late at night an overhears the drunken men talking round the campfire. The subject of marital infidelity is broached and Charlie's father says that if he ever caught his wife having sex with another man he wouldn't kill her or the other man but would instead castrate the man and slit his wife's nose according to a tradition he claims the Cherokee used. Charlie also talks of humiliation he suffered when his mother insisted that he wear a gaudy corduroy suit to a casual birthday party when he was a preteen and about the time he nearly lost his virginity when he accompanied his brother to a college party. The drugs that Charlie had been sampling all night left him with erectile dysfunction and he leaves the party embarrassed. 

In one of his last stories, Charlie talks about how his father planned to beat him with his belt following the incident where Charlie maimed his teacher. The two fight in the garage, Charlie actually winning the upper hand when he manages to get the belt away from his father and hits him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. The two grab garden tools from the walls but soon decide to cease the violence and take Charlie to the emergency room to stitch up a severe cut on his cheek, making up a story about Charlie having an accident. 

Charlie also has a violent verbal conversation with the school psychologist. With the classroom door still locked they speak via the school's intercom system. Charlie sets one rule; the psychologist is not allowed to ask a single question or he'll shoot one of  his classmates. Charlie engages him with a rapid-fire series of inquiries, many of them offensive and personal until he blindsides the man by asking him what Jesus said while being crucified ("Father, why hast thou forsaken me?"). Having been tricked, the psychologist pleads with Charlie not to shoot anyone, but Charlie fires into the floor. He then cheerfully confesses that he didn't actually kill anyone. 

Outside the classroom, the police plan to have Charlie shot by a sniper. They call in the county's finest sharpshooter who is given a high-powered rifle. When the man shoots Charlie, the shot hits the padlock Charlie had put in his pocket. Though he's flung back violently, Charlie is able to hold onto the pistol and still keep the class at bay. 

Charlie also encourages his classmates to share their own difficulties with him. Ill feelings that had festered between several students come to the surface and result in a violent slapping match between two girls after they first exchange insults. The class eventually turns on one of the school's most popular students, the seemingly straight-laced Ted. Right before he lets them all go, the class has tied Ted up and beat him into a catatonic state. After the students are set free, the chief in charge of the police outside enters the classroom. Charlie, unwilling to go quietly, raises his pistol and is shot four times but survives.

The story closes with Charlie having been remanded to a mental institution. He speculates that he'll probably never be set free. Charlie's best friend, Joe, sends him a letter when Charlie is allowed correspondance, but much of the letter is redacted as being potentially upsetting. In the end, Joe is still able to wish Charlie well and tell him that many of their old friends are pulling for him to get better and be released.