Saturday, May 18, 2013

Book Review/Discussion: The Rapture by Liz Jensen


Every now and then I discover an author, quite by accident, that I become completely enamored with. Liz Jensen is one of those authors. After reading her latest book, The Uninvited, I then read two more in rapid succession: The Ninth Life of Louis Drax and The Rapture, which I just finished. 

For those who have not yet read The Rapture 

The Rapture is an amalgamation of things that could easily stand on their own, filling a novel entirely and then some:

Dealing with sudden paralysis. What is means to be a woman. Severe mental illness. Ecological disaster. Religious fundamentalism. 

Our protagonist, Gabrielle Fox, is working at a hospital for severely, dangerously mentally ill children. At the same time, she is also dealing with the aftermath of a severe car accident that left her life irrevocably changed. One of her charges in the hospital, Bethany, seeks to change Gabrielle's life even more. 

This novel is set in an undefined future in England, a future in which severe national disasters have shocked the world and thousands upon thousands of British citizens have turned to Christian fundamentalism in order to cope. Bethany's father was one of those caught up in the "Faith Wave," but Bethany is anything but a goody-two-shoes churchgoer: foul-mouthed, angry, and painfully cruel, Bethany sets out to, let's just say, not cooperate with Gabrielle. But that's not the half of it: Bethany also begins to predict natural disasters with shocking precision. And she's right

Gabrielle, with the help of a physicist friend, is now left to make sense of Bethany's predictions. Because if they keep coming true, not acting is not an option. 

Like all of Jensen's work, The Rapture moves quickly and lyrically at the same time. Despite the natural disasters at the forefront of the novel, this would NOT be made into a Michael Bay disaster pic. It is beautifully nuanced, and I found myself so rooting for the characters. I also found myself not wanting the novel to end, but being unable to put it down as it raced towards its finished line. 

Recommended? 

I heartily recommend all of Jensen's work, including The Rapture. Five stars for sure! 

Tip

Check your local library. That is where I found my copy. They also carried The Uninvited and The Ninth Life of Louis Drax.

For those who HAVE read The Rapture




Fair warning! What comes below contains SPOILERS! Scroll down if you want to keep reading!



 



Okay! So all who are left are those of us who have read the book, right? Swell! Hold on one sec, I'm going to go get a glass of wine and I'll be right back. 


That may or may not be true. Anyways, The Rapture. Is anyone else in love with Liz Jensen's work? I love things that are strange or odd but I also love humanistic, character-driven works and I think Jensen's work delivers on both of those things beautifully, which is hard to do (I should know, I'm attempting to do the same thing in my unfinished novel). 

I am not a romance novel girl. At all. I just never liked them, they don't appeal to me. But damn it if I wasn't just melting over Gabrielle and Frazer's relationship (by the way, please forgive any misspellings of names I may make; I just returned the book to the library so I can't double-check). I think the relationship also helped Gabrielle, and we the readers, examine what it really means to be a woman. In fact, I thought the whole paralysis issue was handled really well. The one thing that annoyed me about their relationship (and really the only thing I didn't like about the novel) was the whole Kristin thing, when Gabrielle thought he was cheating. I just feel that it's a really overplayed trope and it's never really something anybody wants to read about. Well, maybe that's not true, but I sure don't want to read about cheating when there wasn't any actual cheating and it was just a big misunderstanding, oh no! Cue make-up sex! 

Bethany was tough to take, as I know Jensen intended. She was a nasty, cruel, manipulative character. But I felt sorry for her at times, because I think she was broken. But Jensen bravely also chooses to leave the possibility that she is just a bad person on the table, too. I don't think we can even necessarily take Bethany's word about the whole exorcism thing, either, but I tend to believe it's true, which really says a lot about how she might have turned into a sarcastic, foul-mouthed girl. 

Speaking of Bethany....How could she predict the disasters? Was she actually causing them as Joy supposed? Was the electric shock therapy somehow involved? Was it purely supernatural? Honestly, no real explanation is offered, which usually bothers the hell out of me because it often feels like sloppy writing, but in Jensen's skilled hand it didn't bother me a bit. I think we can all at least confidently say that Bethany was accurately predicting disasters. Given the evidence Gabrielle had about Bethany's correct predictions, I would have believed the impossible, too, and I'm the world's biggest skeptic. 

So...how about the ending? I wasn't surprised to see Bethany finally succeed in what she had tried to do for so long. I think she knew she had played the only cards she had and there was nothing left for her. The revelation about Gabrielle's pregnancy wasn't a total shock, as the seeds were planted there (no pun intended!), but the circumstances around Gabrielle finding out were totally shocking. I felt so dang bad for her. She finally gets her Max, and it's at literally the worst point in human history to have a baby. 

I think a sequel would be really cool but I doubt we'll ever get one. Jensen doesn't seem like the sequel-writing kind of author, and that's okay. I think we can pretty much tell what is going to happen to these characters. It's not going to get better, and now without Bethany, they won't even know where disaster will strike next. Cue "The End of the World as We Know It" minus the "and I feel fine" part. At least Gabrielle and Frazer have each other. For a moment I was really afraid one of them was going to make it out of the stadium and the other would be tragically left behind.

The Rapture ended on a note that was horrible for the characters, but as a reader I was very fulfilled. It was one of those books that was like a good meal, but for my brain. 

So, let's pretend for a moment that people actually read this blog, and I'm going to ask some questions. Please post answers in the comments if you feel so inclined, and tag with spoiler alerts if necessary!

-Why do you think Gabrielle often referred to Frazer as "the physicist" instead of by his given name? My theory is that it was to distance herself, to wrap the relationship in a bit of mental bubble wrap. What do you think? 
-Exactly what WAS up with Bethany's predictions? 
-Do you think the director of the hospital should have ignored Gabrielle's warnings after he'd heard the same thing from Joy a few months earlier? 
-Did Gabrielle and Frazer have a moral obligation to act once they knew Bethany was the real deal, even though they knew people would be hard-pressed to believe them? 
-What purpose did Gabrielle being paralyzed serve? 
-What do you think is going to happen after you turn the final page? 

Thanks for reading! 




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