Review: Rumble by Ellen Hopkins

Rumble by Ellen Hopkins relates the story of an eighteen-year-old boy named Matt reeling in the wake of his younger brother's suicide. Blatantly atheist, Matt blames the religious folk in his school for bullying his newly outed gay brother into killing himself. Much of the book takes place in Matt's mind, revealing his inner rants towards those he hates. And, quite frankly, it seems like he hates nearly everyone.

The spark of light in his life is his girlfriend Hayden, although it is fairly easy for the reader to dislike her from the very beginning. As she grows in her faith, she puts distance between herself and Matt, becoming the epitome of the person that he so dislikes. Matt tells us that the two of them have been together for quite a while, that she greatly aided him in his recovery and emotional healing, that things used to be quite different between them. Good times are hinted at, but never actually shown. I personally felt nothing but disdain and resentment for Hayden. There was absolutely no ambivalence at all.

Then there is Alexa, Hayden's ex best friend and an object of lust for Matt. Once again, it's quite clear to the reader that this is who Matt should really be pursuing. Although not a perfect person, she is quite perfect for him. A little too perfect, if you ask me. Her character is written to easily make us like and accept her, to make it especially easy for us to justify Matt cheating on Hayden.

His parents are so bad it's almost unbelievable. His mother is detached and selfish; his father is punishing and volatile. Neither outwardly exhibits any remorse for their son's suicide or for their living son's struggle. The father is more concerned about reconnecting with his college girlfriend and his mother is more immersed in opening a boutique with her sister.

All in all, Matt does not have good friends, nor does he have good family. It's incredibly understandable how he has grown to be so cynical, hateful, and just angry. Although I hated reading it, even his ongoing relationship with Hayden is understandable. Of course he doesn't want to let go of the one good thing in his life, or at least in his eyes is the one good thing.

As all of Ellen Hopkins's other books, this is very well-written. However, I struggle to like it as I did all of the other ones. It's not that I find it boring or dragging or any other thing like that. It's more that the book's description led me to believe it was going to be about his struggle to overcome his family and peers, his struggle to discover his own faith, and his struggle to surmount the tragedy that has befallen him.

Those struggles do happen, but the overcoming and the discovering and the surmounting do not. At least not until the very end. His moral questions and change of heart do not show up until the climax, which is roughly 30 pages from the end in a 560 page book. Intended to be a grey world, it is instead very black and white. There are Matt's versions of good and evil, and never once does he waver from these beliefs until a new tragedy forces him to.

When he finally does have his questions, it is the result of a horrible accident. There is no question in my mind that his faltering would not have come about had it not been for an accident. Furthermore, people tend to be grateful for life after such an event and they do change, but sometimes just for a short while.

By the time his questions and inner changes come about, they are so close to the end that they are unbelievable. They are especially not welcome changes as he has spent over 500 pages making us hate and resent the other people in his life and making us believe in the absoluteness of his views. The transition is much too sudden, rendering it fantastical. This element of falsehood is especially disappointing, as all of Ellen Hopkins's other books have left me breathless with the stark reality they portray.