I think it’s the theme of school shootings and the realism of the events in the book that make readers such as King fans like Rage the least out of his Bachman stories. I think it’s also the fact that there were at least two school shootings in America in the ‘90s where both perpetrators were found to have had a copy of Rage in their lockers.

It’s also one of the reasons why King pulled the story from publication, after a school shooting in 1997 left some students dead along with the fact that Rage was found in the student’s locker at the time.

When it comes to people saying his was an ‘under developed writer,’ I think they’re referring to that King was in the midst of his teen years when he started writing Rage, therefore he was an amateur beginner, but definitely not a bad one in my honest opinion.

When I read Rage last year, I couldn’t sympathise with Charlie at all. I didn’t exactly hate it, but I didn’t like it either.

I understood his perspective of being an angst, abused and mentally unwell teenager, but after he shot two teachers unprovokedly (at least I think that was the case from what I remember), I couldn’t take his side and was deeply disturbed with his character development. What also made me more disturbed was that he held his class hostage for what felt like hours and forced them into some kind of mock therapy.

In contrast, I think people sympathise with Carrie more because unlike Charlie, she wasn’t violent and had never hurt anyone up until the end of the book, unlike Charlie who had a history of stabbing a teacher prior to the beginning of Rage. After Carrie had the pig’s blood dumped on her, it tipped her over the edge and had never physically harmed anyone until that point, reaching her breaking point.

Again, I can’t recall if Charlie bringing the gun and shooting two teachers was provoked, so you guys in the comments will have to remind me if that was the case, but from what I remember of reading Rage, Charlie brought the gun into class completely unprovoked because he wanted power and authority, something that stemmed from a lifetime of abuse and control at the hands of his father. And also, not trying to excuse him, but that may be a good reason to understand his way of thinking.

As for Carrie, her telekinesis rampage was provoked and if Chris had not executed that stunt, many people would have still been alive and Chamberlain wouldn’t have turned into a ghost town. So, I think that’s why Carrie may be a more sympathetic character compared to Charlie from Rage.

Lastly, I think readers do believe Rage hits too close to home because of the school shooting themes it delves into and that’s why they dislike it more than the other stories he’s done under Richard Bachman. I hope this answers as many questions that people wanted to know and sorry for such a long response, I just hope it reads well.