Rage by Jackie Morse Kessler

Missy is a self injurer and whenever things are too much to handle she cuts herself with a razor. One night after a terrible party where she is exposed to the entire school, Missy cuts too deeply. In comes Death offering her the job of War the red horsemen of the Apocalypse. Missy takes the job and finds herself in an internal battle with the spirit of War and with herself.

At times Missy was very difficult to relate to. Understanding the impulse to injure yourself as a way of feeling control is difficult to understand, particularly since as a general rule people fear pain. I think that writing about a cutter is just more difficult. I did think that the author did a good job of showing the kind of alienation and the huge emotions that she was experiencing both before and after everyone knew what Missy was doing.

I absolutely loved the interactions between all of the Horsemen, it was nice to see Famine again although I wish they had let us know earlier that she retired from life b/c I was really confused trying to remember what happened. I thought Pestilence was scary in a very cool way. I am hoping that the next book is about him I really love how Missy's powers are all about passion, not just literal war and arguing; and again seeing how Missy was able to use her powers to help not just harm was pretty cool.

I think that so far this series is doing a great job. While they are obviously issue books they don't feel like issue books because of the fantasy component of the Horsemen. I also think this series works well to bring a series of issues to a group of kids that wouldn't necessarily read "issue" books.