1 out of 4 stars
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Anger to Rage by Alex R. Price promises a lot. Listed in the science fiction category, the Amazon blurb promises "gifted children" and an Ex-Army Ranger tracking down an "unknown organization ... trying to kill him and his family." Unfortunately, the book doesn't quite live up to its expectations.
Gerald Rington has information about a captive being held in Columbia by a drug cartel. William Cordova thought he'd make a bit of extra cash to help his family, but the job didn't turn out to be as simple as it sounded. Gerald comes to his rescue, though, and Will learns that Gerald is his biological father. Sadly, two of Gerald's companions don't make it out of the skirmish alive. This leaves Gerald a little short-handed, so he asks Will to help him out in his future endeavors.
Will then meets the rest of the family. Gerald's wife is named Iska, and together they have 4 children. They are all uniquely talented, but none quite so much as Leala. Leala has a way of knowing what's about to happen and tends to direct the family to just the right place and time. At only 4 years old, Leala has a knowledge beyond her years; her attitude is still that of a 4 year old, though. Together the family goes where Leala tells them which makes for some interesting adventures.
I thought the idea of the plot was quite interesting. Children with special abilities helping their father? I love science fiction novels, so I thought this book would be great for me. Unfortunately, there isn't enough technology, other worlds, advanced civilizations or futuristic society to classify this as such. Yes, Gerald and his children have special abilities. But it's never really explained where they came from or why or how. It seems to me that it should be reclassified as action or a thriller.
Putting aside that it isn't science fiction, there were great big gaping holes in the plot. As I mentioned above, Leala has a way of predicting the future. She makes sure to stop and see a "friend" of hers named Nick. She goes to the trouble of introducing Nick (who is a grown-up) to a nice lady friend named Nikole that she says he should marry. Right after that meeting, Nikole gets mad at Nick and storms off. We never see either character again. It was disconcerting as I really did want to see if Leala's matchmaking was as good as her prediction abilities.
There also wasn't enough to tie the plot together. It seemed to plod on going from one adventure to another with no real cohesiveness. The blurb promises that the family fights against some "unknown organization." However, it really is unknown. This organization isn't even introduced to the readers; I guess it's just that secret.
Moving along, there were several scenes that were especially offensive to me as a reader and unnecessarily graphic. I am no stranger to abusive situations in books, but there should be some level of skill in crafting these. I could barely stomach reading through these scenes, and I really am not usually queasy about such matters. They were just extremely detailed and vulgar. While some of these were necessary to the furtherance of the plot, they could have been handled with much more delicacy.
Along those lines, there was one scene in particular that was neither necessary for the plot nor extremely realistic; in fact, it was downright offensive. In one instance, a woman imagines having sex (in detail) with someone she has only just recently met. I found this very distasteful as this woman has just suffered from horrific abuse for several weeks. Only a day or two before this scene, she was in the hospital having had major surgery because of this abuse. In her present frame of mind, I just can't fathom the thought that she is thinking of having sex with anyone without some major professional help.
Last but not least, there were a number of grammatical errors that led me to believe this book was not professionally edited. These errors were much worse at the beginning, but they are present throughout the novel. These included punctuation in the wrong spot as well as misspelled words.
While the plot has potential, the execution is severely lacking. Therefore, I rate Anger to Rage 1 out of 4 stars. In its current form, I am unable to endorse this book or recommend it to any type of reader.
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Anger to Rage
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