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    The Rapture
    The Rapture
    The Rapture
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Rapture

    Written by Liz Jensen

    Narrated by India Fisher

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In a merciless summer of biblical heat and destructive winds, Gabrielle Fox's main concern is to rebuild her career as a psychologist after a shattering car accident. But when she is assigned Bethany Krall, one of the most dangerous teenagers in the country she begins to fear she has made a terrible mistake...
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateDec 1, 2009
    ISBN9781407454191
    The Rapture
    Author

    Liz Jensen

    Liz Jensen is the bestselling author of eight acclaimed novels, including the Guardian-shortlisted Ark Baby, War Crimes for the Home, The Ninth Life of Louis Drax, The Rapture, shortlisted for the Brit Writers' Awards and selected as a Channel 4 TV Book Club Best Read, and, most recently, The Uninvited. She has been nominated three times for the Orange Prize for Fiction and her work has been published in more than twenty countries. Liz Jensen lives in Wimbledon, London. www.lizjensen.com

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    Reviews for The Rapture

    3.5/5

    184 ratings30 reviews

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    • 4/5
      From fantastic fictionWith gothic intensity, Liz Jensen conjures the unnerving relationship between Gabrielle, a physically and emotionally damaged therapist, and her patient, sixteen-year-old Bethany, who is incarcerated in a British psychiatric hospital for the brutal murder of her mother. Delving deep into the psyche of her fascinating, manipulative patient, Gabrielle is confronted by alarming coincidences between the girl's paranoid disaster fantasies and actual incidents of geological and meteorological upheaval. Coincidences her professionalism tells her to ignore - but which her heart cannot.As Bethany's warnings continue to prove accurate beyond fluke, and she begins to offer scientifically precise hints of a final, world-altering cataclysm, Gabrielle is confronted with a series of devastating choices. Only to discover that in a world on the brink of apocalypse, belief is as precious - and as dangerous - as life itself..May contain spoilers:I found this book very well written but with its content quite depressing. We have Gabrielle who has been involved in a fatal car crash with her married lover and has been left paralyzed and in a wheelchair. Her patient Bethany who has killed her mother with a screwdriver. Then there is the extreme weather that is causing disasters all over the world with many deaths. The religious groups in the story believe that Armageddon is upon them and only the righteous will be saved when the Rapture arrives.I had to keep reading the book to find out if Bethany had got physic powers as to her ability to predict the weather disasters or was she some sort of a con artist who wanted to gain Gabrielle’s trust just for her own means. I found the book quite interesting and complex and very scientific in places. A good read but as I have said it does have a depressing content.Would I recommend this book, well yes but don’t read it leading up to Christmas as I have done.
    • 3/5
      Reason for Reading: Apocalyptic fiction is one of my favourite sub-genres. Summary: It is the not too distant future and the world has entered a new phase, one where global warming has happened and temperatures, weather and climates are no longer what they used to be. Gabrielle Fox is a wheelchair bound art therapist who has started a new job at a Psychiatric Hospital, home to Britain's most dangerous children and she has been assigned the most dangerous of all, Bethany Krall, who brutally stabbed her mother to death with a screwdriver when she was 12. Bethany also predicts the future, not just any future but future natural disasters (storms, earthquakes, etc.) and as Gabrielle realizes each one comes true she begins to believe her patient and feels guilt for not warning the thousands of people who die. A strange bond develops between therapist and patient with the position of authority often switching.Comments: I'll start by saying I neither believe in the evangelical concept of the Rapture nor that global warming has anything to do with human produced carbon dioxide. These are the two main controversies presented in this book. I will also say that ultimately, I did enjoy the plot; the story of the Gabrielle and Bethany, the predictions and the ultimate race for survival as the apocalypse approaches.Within this world there are two extremist groups; one The Planetarians who know humans are but a blip in the age the Earth and our time is over as dominant species and nature is taking its natural course as it has over millions of years in the past and a new organism will take our place as dominant species. On the opposite end there is The Fifth Wave, a mass convergence and conversion to Christianity who believe The Rapture is at hand. They strive to bring their friends and loved ones to the Lord so they to may rise above the clouds in the rapture. These people happily await the coming of the rapture. Neither of these extremist groups take a major part in the story until well into the book but near the beginning, being a Catholic, I wondered "well, what about Catholics? The author must know we don't believe in the rapture?" My answer came by page 75 when the main character states during a discussion of disparaging religion is general:" I was taught by nuns," I tell him. " They couldn't see how tribalistic they were. Or how pagan. As for the traditions, it seems to me that the Catholic Church enjoys just making things up as it goes along. You could almost admire its creativity."Right, anti-Catholic view expressed, noted and understood. Catholics are not ever referred to again in the book. I was not impressed with the overall anti-religion attitude carried on throughout the whole book. Though I don't share the same convictions as the Christians portrayed here it was insulting the way they were shown as smiling, happy, ignorant people joyfully walking to their probable deaths. No respect was shown when conversation turned towards this group. The reveal that comes out about the leader is cliched and unoriginal. While on the otherhand the leader of the Planetarians is treated with respect, while professional people scoff at his ideology, he is, afterall, a man of science.I was also underwhelmed by a love affair that happened and felt completely out of place within the story and otherwise out of character for the strong roll Gabrielle was playing elsewhere. There were pages and pages of this romantic misunderstanding drivel that I just wanted to shout "Get over it already!".Otherwise, the book is well-written, it reads fast. The momentum is there slowly picking up and ending with a crash. Bethany was an outstanding character, the one who really shines through and kept me reading. Even with the religious problems I had, I realized the slant very early on, and accepted it as part of the story. It is fiction after all. I liked the book but didn't love it. I think other reviewers will say they have felt emotional over the book; it didn't affect me emotionally at all. I couldn't see myself as plausibly being in this world Jensen created. However, I do think this book will appeal to many people. The topic of climate change is one many readers will want to explore in this visionary apocalypse of our planet's downfall from human doings.
    • 3/5
      This is the third book I’ve read by Liz Jensen and I can definitely say that I thoroughly admire and enjoy Liz Jensen’s intelligence and literary talent. She’s my type of author, and I doubt there would be anything that she wrote that I wouldn’t find enjoyable on some level or other just because she is so technically brilliant. But I was hesitant to review this novel when I finished it three months ago. I’d given the first two novels very high ratings (“The Uninvited” and “My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time”). But I was far less pleased with “The Rapture.” It enjoyed it, but at the time I finished it, I just couldn’t put my finger on why I did not like it as much as the other two books. Now, that time has past, I think I understand. I’ll let you gather more detailed plot summaries from other reviews, because that information has dimmed since I finished this book many months ago. What is clearer now is how I feel about the book in general and in retrospect. I remember that it was an exceptionally dark, brooding, and strange book that read more like an unfolding horror story. I’d been prepared for a supernatural thriller, but not for a psychological horror story. That surprised me and disturbed me. I remember being very dissatisfied with the ending. It did not seem to fit together well with the rest of the book. The plotting seemed unbalanced. I thought I was reading a dark, realistic, strange suspense novel; then it morphed at the end into an unrealistic supernatural horror story. There should have been a smoother transition. In a nutshell, that is what bothered me.I am pleased that I read the book. It took me into some very interesting dark and uncomfortable psychological territory, but it left me feeling like the trip was a bit of a fraud…like a lot was missing to tie the whole together better.
    • 1/5
      Tedious, predictable, so dull I couln't be bothered to finish it.
    • 2/5
      This one was pretty disappointing. It wasn't bad- it just lacked focus. I really like the premise and it sounded like an interesting plot but it was poorly executed. I felt that the story and characters were all over the place and it wasn't very compelling. Bethany started out as a really interesting, crazy young girl but she randomly turned quite normal. I liked the idea behind the book but it did feel a bit preachy and unfocused. It wasn't awful...just nothing to get excited over.
    • 3/5
      Spoilers. A rather depressing book. I enjoyed the 2nd half better than the first when it became a clear sci fi book rather than a psychological thriller. I'll give it credit for being about the lead up to the end of the world rather than starting at that point. But the characters didn't do much for me and the weird Mills and Boon aspect really grated. Closing curtains = affair - I mean seriously!I've given it an average score but I probably wouldn't recommend it.
    • 4/5
      I have gleaned this much from my fraught fellow workers: I've been assigned Bethany Krall as one of my main cases because no one else wants to deal with her. As the newcomer, I have no choice in the matter. Bethany has been labeled intractable by everyone who has dealt with her so far, with the exception of Joy McConey, whose notes are not in the file - very possibly because she never wrote any. While I'm not exactly nervous about having Bethany Krall on my list, I am not enthusiastic either. My perspective on physical violence has shifted since my accident. I now want to avoid it at all costs, and have taken every possible measure to do so, with the exception of having my strangulation-length hair cut short, because I'm vain about it. But perhaps with Bethany Krall on my list I'll be visiting the hairdresser after all: according to the case notes, my new charge is something of an extremist in the aggression department.What I like about Liz Jensen is that her books are all unique - she's not one of those authors who keeps on writing the same book over and over again. In this one, a psychotic teenage girl, who has been incarcerated in a secure psychiatric hospital after murdering her mother, starts predicting catastrophes such as eruptions and earthquakes after her ECT sessions. Her previous therapist has been suspended for getting sucked into Bethany's 'fantasies', and now her new therapist, wheelchair-bound Gabrielle Fox, is also starting to believe her.Gabrielle starts a relationship with a local physicist, Frazer Melville, who becomes convinced that one of Bethany's visions shows an event that could exacerbate global warming and cause devastation on a global scale. Their fight to prevent the accident that will tip the planet into chaos, takes place over an unbearably hot summer and autumn, against a background of rising religious fundamentalism, and establishment disbelief. It's a pity that Gabrielle is not a more sympathetic character and that her actions and relationship with Fraser Melville do not really ring true. She is still severely traumatised by the accident that left her paralysed, and I think that her previous employers were right in saying that she was not ready to return to work. She blows minor events out of all proportion and does not believe that Fraser Melville really loves her (maybe that accounts for the strange way she always refers to him by both his names).
    • 4/5
      Quite a disturbing read makes you think into how life as we know it could be eliminated due to nature and how we take it for granted that it will never happen...the book itself was a good read
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this apocalyptic thriller and it being set in the very near future made it all the more scary. It's well researched, and in the main, it flows well - although occasionally the descriptive element got in the way of the pace. The characterisations could have been stronger too. I loved that the plot seemed so plausible.
    • 5/5
      Totally gripping.I was completely engrossed in this book, which I listened to on Audible (unabridged). The book I was supposed to be reading for a book group was only half read by the day of the discussion and I was looking for jobs around the house that I could do with my headphones on!!Unfortunately a couple of niggling annoyances left it as a 4 1/2 star read. Firstly the constant reference to Frazer Melville rather than Frazer - who uses their whole name all the time? References to him as 'The Physicist' weren't much better. In addition I cringed at the repetition of the lengthy Spanish (Portugese?) phrase related to the painting in Gabrielle's house.Gabrielle Fox is an Art Therapist on the rebound from a crippling accident that has left her confined to a wheelchair, paralysed from the waist down. This leaves her very vulnerable when she is confronted by Bethany Crawl, a psychotic teenager who killed her own mother by repeartedly stabbing her with a screwdriver. Gabrielle makes a noble attempt to behave professionally with Bethany but the teenager is wise to all the 'psychobabble' and soon sees through her.Bethany claims to be able to predict environmental disasters and when she is repeatedly correct it becomes more and more difficult to fob it off as coincidence.The only date that I spotted as I listened to the book was 2012, a date that has been linked to current apocalyptic predictions, making the book even more topical. In addition there is a love interest, in the person of Frazer Melville and a Christian viewpoint, depicted as the Faith Wave, whose members believe the increase in catastrophic events heralds The Rature, when they will be whisked off to heaven and non-believers will be left to suffer.I couldn't predict how the author was going to end the book but it was spot on from my point of view.It's a shame that so many people have not enjoyed it so much and it does have its flaws but I'd recommend it without hesitation - off to read more of Ms Jensen's books :)
    • 3/5
      This book left me with mixed feelings. The idea is so interesting as a psychotic teenager seems to be able to predict calamitous events heralding the end of the world as we know it. Bethany, the teen, is definitely not a likeable character, even when we come to realise the reason for her psychosis. It was all a bit far fetched. Her therapist, Gabrielle who narrates for us is still dealing with her own trauma which has led to her facing the future paralysed from the waist down and reliant on a wheelchair. Her supervisors seemed to think she returned to work too early and I couldn't help agreeing.Gabrielle meets a physicist at her first event at her new workplace who is a specialist in the field of Bethany's predictions and furthermore knows more world experts in the area - what's the chances? It was this relationship that I found intensely annoying in the book. The physicist falls in love on the spot with our Gabrielle and from that point on she persists in calling him by his full name, Frazer Melville - oh my goodness, how annoying!! Who does that in real life?? Plus there was too much information about their sex life. I'm not a prude if it's relevant to the story, but this felt voyeuristic and uncomfortable and had absolutely nothing to do with the coming-apocalypse-based story line. It just seemed thrown in there as a a bit of titilation (pun intended - there's an awful lot of information about Gabrielle's breasts). Frazer is an annoying character who keeps Gabrielle in the dark too much and in turn she is an annoying character who completely goes on to blow everything out of proportion - drawing the curtains at night whilst she's stalking him outside is obviously a sign of an affair rather than a sign of shutting the night out. All in all, disappointing. A great idea gone as mad as the British weather in this book and by the end, out of control. Shame really as it had great potential - I especially liked the mix of science versus religion as the panicking population get carried away on a 'Faith Wave' and getting 'rapture-ready' to be saved by God - a really interesting premise that didn't quite reach its potential for me.
    • 3/5
      This book left me disappointed. It started off so well with its mixture of approaching disaster, religion and psychological misfits and I had high expectations, however, about half way through, it degenerated into a run of mill thriller with a quite ridiculous ending.
    • 3/5
      Gabrielle Fox is an English art therapist in her mid-30s. She is also paralysed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair. Her injuries were sustained in a car crash which killed her married lover and unborn child.When Gabrielle gets a temporary job at Oxsmith caring for troubled teenagers, she sees it as a chance to get her career back on track two years after her accident. She meets a damaged girl called Bethany, who killed her mother and who appears to have the ability to know personal details about people by touching them. Bethany has also predicted natural disasters and is tormented by visions of the coming of the Rapture, the end of days where the righteous will be removed from the ecological carnage by being lifted to heaven.The novel is set in the future, but not too far away. Global warming is taking its toll, the days in Britain are uncharacteristically hot and natural disasters more frequent. Gabrielle becomes convinced that Bethany's predictions will come true, and enlists the help of physicist Frazer Melville to warn people and perhaps save their lives.There's a lot going on in this book (described in the blurb as an eco thriller) including psychology, geology and religion. The author's research is evident throughout.Unfortunately the book left me cold. Gabrielle isn't a sympathetic character. She says herself that she is "not a nice woman" and I had to agree. She's also quite irritatingly self-obsessed, and I had little patience for the part where she is convinced her lover is cheating, because it was so obvious that she had no proof of this . She's a good example of reaping what you sow.The book is interesting enough with enough going on to keep you reading, but other than Bethany, I found it hard to have any emotional investment in the characters and didn't really care what happened to any of them.
    • 3/5
      Interesting premise and compelling, suspenseful story. Loved the wheelchair-bound main character--she's angry but doesn't give into it, vengeful but not mean, and shows some moxie. A fun and quick read.
    • 5/5
      60. The Rapture by Liz JensenI wish I could remember who recommended this one, I owe them a massive thank you. It is definately one of my memorable reads for the year.Bethany is troubled to say the least. Currently being treated in a youth mental facility after violently killing her mother. As a last resort the facility begins sessions of ECT, electroshock therapy. Suddenly, Bethany claims she can predict the natural disasters that are plaguing the world more and more often. Her new therapist Gabrielle, who is fighting her own personal demons, is put to the task of getting to the bottom of it, but the bottom is not what anyone expects. Bethany predicts a disaster like none other....one that will be the end of everything as we know it.Both Bethany and Gabrielle are fighting their demons, and they need each other to fight them off. The characters we both fascinating to me. The way they interact is perfect. Their story unfolds and brings other characters to them in a way that takes you to into the story as well. The story ends in a way that I never quite saw coming, and in a sad way everyone gets what they want (I'm really not giving much away here I promise).If you can get your hands on this book...do it. You will not regret it.5/5
    • 3/5
      There is something about Liz Jensen's writing style that I do not like (it was present in Ark Baby, and is present here too). Someone else commented that it felt "overwritten" and this nearly describes my issue. Her paragraphs are long (unless it's dialogue which is short) and has lots of medium-size words - "see Dick run" would be "view as Richard mobilizes" Not that it's poorly written, just... too many words really.The concept? Well... it's kinda cool. I knew going in that it had a religious "tone" to it, and that it had a global warming "belief" in it so neither of those areas came to bother me.But... I didn't like any of the characters. Jensen spends a LOT of time trying to flesh out Gabrielle, her past, her love life, her professionalism... but I just wanted to skip it all and get to something "happening".It was a very difficult book to finish - and I will admit I skipped paragraph after paragraph (and didn't seem to miss anything by doing so) just to get through it.
    • 3/5
      Gabrielle Fox is a therapist working with some of Britain's most violent and most disturbed children. One of her patients is Bethany Krall who brutally killed her mother and has till date never given a reason for this behavior. Bethany is rude, crude and is constantly pushing Gabrielle's button. She makes fun of Gabrielle's disability, nicknaming her "Wheels" or "Spaz" and constantly calling her by either name, trying to wind her up. But Bethany's talents are not limited to taunting her therapist, apparently she is also capable of predicting national and international disasters. Of course no one believes her and her former therapist was removed from her care of Bethany for believing her claims. As Gabrielle tries to navigate her interaction with Bethany, she finds that she cannot continue to deny the truth of Bethany's words. At first she wishes to believe its a coincidence and that Bethany's predictions are just a combination of over active googling but she soon begins to believe Bethany. Together with Gabrielle's new boyfriend Frazer Melville they begin to investigate Bethany's claims and try to warn prominent scientists about the coming calamities. They are laughed at, taken for insane and eventually lose all their credibility in their professions. But is Bethany right? Is the world about to be destroyed? And is Bethany the one causing it? There were many parts of this book that had me totally and absolutely captivated. Gabrielle's interactions with Bethany, her meeting Frazer and their initial quest to warn the world were all very exciting. But there are many weaknesses with this book. First off there were pages and pages and pages and pages of description of scientific data that made little or no sense to me. It made parts of the book too dense and unappealing. Also the writer portrays a world were all Christians are clueless and unintelligent fools looking to the skies like Alice in Wonderland waiting for Godot. I get that its fiction but at least even the most anti Christian of writers manages to throw in a few intelligent people of that faith. But in her portrayal they are all fundamentalists, intolerant and quite stupid. Initially the budding romance between Gabrielle and Frazer is very interesting and nice to watch but somewhere along the way, it became a high school cliche. Gabrielle sees an interaction between Frazer and another woman that upsets her. But rather than address it like the mature person that I assumed she was, she becomes a fourteen year old girl and proceeds to act like one. Gosh, it was exhausting and made me lose some respect for Gabrielle. But despite my criticisms, I did enjoy many parts of the book. The author was absolutely brilliant in her descriptiveness of England as a world on the verge. I was truly transported and could not wait to see what was next.
    • 4/5
      I have avoided reviewing this book for a reason... and not because it's bad. Nope, it's extremely well written. It's compelling, captivating, and will make you lose sleep at night... but at the same time, the subject matter is disturbing, slightly horrifying, and might make you lose sleep at night for an entirely different reason. This book had such a profound effect on me that I simply didn't want to revisit it in any way... even through a review.First, the plot. We have a disturbed teen in a psych ward who spouts prophetic words, predicting natural disasters before they happen (or does she?). We have a young psychologist who is assigned to the teen's case, and who slowly but surely begins to believe that the teen's crazy ramblings are, indeed, predictions about upcoming events (for a more in-depth plot summary, I suggest you visit the Amazon.com page and read the synopsis there... I don't want to give away too much, in case you're the kind of person who prefers to just jump in without knowing piles of plot details, especially with this kind of book!).I'll admit it: I have a crippling fear of severe, uncontrollable weather phenomena... which made this a, well, rather poor choice of book to read. Heh. As the predictions begin to come true (not a spoiler, you know this is going to happen), we're treated to detailed, sense-tingling descriptions of how the weather affects the places that it hits. Tornadoes, lightning, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, whatever... I don't even recall which ones are in the book or not... but the author is so skilled that you'll be able to close your eyes and feel like you're truly there in the midst of it all.Combine this with questions about the apocalypse, the book of Revelation and tribulation, and some incredibly flawed people (the characters are very well drawn), and you have a novel that not only entertains, but makes you think... and shudder... and ask questions... and if you're someone like me, you put the book down, try to walk away, but it won't let go. I was so shaken by the book that for the rest of the evening, I would randomly begin weeping, crying for no apparent reason other than the profound sense of darkness and foreboding that crept across my soul when I closed the last page.My husband and I went for a walk to try and clear my head, but being outside simply made it worse. I felt like, at any moment, the whole world could collapse in on itself. I tried to describe it using words like "doom" and "pervading negativity", but that doesn't really do justice to what I felt. In the end, in order to chase away the disturbance from the novel, my husband sat me down on the couch and insisted that I play a fun, light-hearted video game, which was chased by chocolate and a comedy film.I was much better after this. However, the experience of this book and how I felt afterward has been enough to keep me from discussing it further with others (beyond some initial impressions) or reviewing it here.It was an excellent novel. I believe it's already been optioned for a film, too. However, it was so vivid - and the questions posed, so real - that I want nothing further to do with it. It cut to the deepest root of my fears - uncontrollable weather, and the obscurity of what "End Times" really means - and it makes me wonder... is that a good thing? I'm not sure. Given the choice to go back in time, would I make the same choice and read it again? I really don't know.But like I said... it truly is an excellent novel. Whether or not it's the kind of experience you want to take with you is another thing entirely.
    • 4/5
      Science and religion clash in a thought-provoking thrillerApocalypse and dystopia. Everywhere I look apocalypse—at least on my bookshelf, that is. Everyone seems to be writing about the end of the world, and the scariest part is that none of it seems the least bit implausible.The latest addition to my apocalyptic reading is Liz Jensen’s The Rapture. Once you get past the notably unattractive cover, the first thing you’ll notice about this novel is the superiority of Jensen’s prose. Right from the first paragraph, it is abundantly clear that you’re not reading the average thriller with serviceable language. What’s even more extraordinary is that the beauty of Jensen’s prose doesn’t slow down this thriller one bit.At its heart, this is the story of three very damaged people and one very damaged planet. The first-person narrator is Gabrielle Fox. She’s the new art therapist at Oxsmith Adolescent Secure Psychiatric Hospital. Gabrielle left the bustle of London for this facility in remote Hadport in the wake of her own personal tragedy. It takes some time for all the details to be teased out, but the result, two years on, is that she will spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. Doctor, heal thyself. Gabrielle is well aware that she has a lot of issues of her own to work through before she’s fully prepared to help others.Nonetheless, she is charged with helping some severely disturbed young people. Perhaps the most disquieting of them all is Bethany Krall. Now 16, Bethany has been locked up for two years since she killed her mother with a screwdriver. She is not cute, and she is not misunderstood. She is a tough, tough character to empathize with, but you can’t look away from her.Bethany has been having visions in the wake of her electro-convulsive therapy treatments. She sees cyclones, earthquakes, and other things she can’t possibly know, with very specific details. While at first Gabrielle ignores Bethany’s insane babbling, when enough predictions prove correct, she seeks outside opinions. Here enters physicist and expert on natural phenomenon, Frazer Melville (inexplicably referred to by his full name or the appellation “the physicist” at all times). He brings the science—and the romance.It’s fairly formulaic for a thriller to have a romantic sub-plot, but this is a rare example of the romance feeling truly integral to the story being told. The relationship felt organic, and I felt emotionally invested in the characters. Yes, there were times I wanted to slap Gabrielle and yell, “Get over it!” But she behaved consistently as the damaged individual that she was. There’s no need to discuss the details of the plot further, but I was pleased by the insertion of some science into the religious “end times” story. This isn’t a Michael-Crichton-style hard science thriller, but it should definitely leave you with some food for thought.
    • 5/5
      If I had to write a one-line review, I'd say You must buy and read this book.I don't believe in the Christian concept of the Rapture, and I do believe in the reality of global warming. Liz Jensen has written an incredibly well plotted story about both featuring a physo-therapist, Gabrielle Fox, and her patient Brittany Krall. Brittany, 16 yrs old, has been confined to a mental institution because she brutally murdered her mother. Her father, a preacher who believes in the Rapture, refuses to have anything to do with his daughter, saying she is possessed by the devil.Gabrielle, who is still suffering physically and psychologically from a terrible car accident in which she was left a paraplegic and her lover was killed, takes on Brittany as a patient against the advise of her previous boss, and her own medical team who do not think she is ready to return to work.Brittany's 'visions' of terror to come have a surrealistic habit of proving true. She predicts earthquakes, hurricanes, storms, etc, with incredible and scary accuracy.Enter Frazer Melville, a Scottish physicist who is not only interested in Gabrielle, but in Brittany's 'talents.' As Brittany's predictions increase, and the horror what she is suggesting sinks in, Frazer and Gabrielle must decide if they believe her, if they have any obligation to warn the world, and how to handle the increasingly violent and disruptive teenager.Enough plot. I won't spoil the fast paced story or the ending. I won't discuss whether the Rapture happens or total disaster strikes the earth. The story keeps you on the edge of your seat. The characters are quite believable and often poignant. But it is THE PROSE, THE WRITING, that will have you breathless.I am reluctant to quote because I only have a galley, and final changes may have occurred. I hope the editors don't change one word--Liz Jensen has written some of the most incredible imagery, dialogue and story lines I've read this year (and I've read over 100 so far). Her ability to paint pictures with words is incredible. There were times I was left gasping. Here is one small example describing the aftermath of a giant earthquake: Morning glory, cyclamen, and all shades of bougainvillea will writhe their way through the remains of tower blocks and climb up the rusted steel reinforcements of hospitals to bloom in bright carpets; poppies and bindweed and rosemary and lemongrass will deck splintered wood and smashed concrete with verdure; acacia trees and chinaberries will colonize the cracks, splitting tarmac to conjure the worst kind of beauty: the kind that celebrates human collapse.Every word is that precisely written. Whether you believe any of the horror, or sympathize with the characters, you will not be able to forget this one.
    • 3/5
      I had a hard time piecing together a review for Liz Jensen’s The Rapture, an apocalyptic eco-thriller. Though I found the book hard to put down, I also found aspects of it irritating. The story centers around a therapist, Gabrielle, assigned to treat a young murderess, Bethany, and things begin to get interesting after the patient begins to have alarmingly detailed visions of natural disasters--all of which come true. The story begins as a creepy religious thriller set in a psychiatric facility, so much so that the back of the book bills it as The Left Behind series meets Girl, Interrupted, but to represent this book as anything other then an eco-thriller or even a political suspense novel would be misleading. There are (improbable) scientific explanations for nearly everything. It also took longer then usual for this book to hook me. Jensen does give us detailed accounts of almost everything—down to the smallest details of a throw away scene or action. The result is a lot of stalled action. My other bone of contention lies with the portrayal of Christians themselves. Jensen colors them as irrational fanatics to the point where they become as threatening as a looming tsunami. The inclusion of one sane Christian in the face of so many religious radicals would have been appreciated.The only reason I was pulled into this book at all was the inspired narrative voice of Gabrielle Fox. Gabrielle is a scientist recovering from a personal tragedy that unsurprisingly gave her a huge crisis of faith. Recently paralyzed her new view of the world forces her to question and mistrust everything around her. Her compelling and skewed view of events saves the novel and perhaps the world.
    • 4/5
      The narrator in Liz Jensen’s thriller, The Rapture, is Gabrielle, a thirty-five year old therapist recovering from a car accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down. Her patient is teenager Bethanie Krall, locked up in a mental facility after brutally killing her own mother. When Bethanie begins a series of shock treatments, Gabrielle discovers that she is able to accurately predict the times and places of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. The medical community chalks it up to coincidence, and Gabrielle watches in horror as unwarned victims begin to pile up. Thrown into the story is physicist Frazer Melville, who has a romantic interest in Gabrielle. Melville takes Bethanie’s divinations seriously and risks his credibility as a scientist by trying to warn others of the apocalypse she is predicting.Jensen’s writing style is compelling, and I like the character of Gabrielle – sarcastic and tough, trying to hide her feelings of despair for her future. I also liked the romance that develops between her and Frazer. Then Gabrielle’s feelings of jealousy become over-done and out of character, weakening the story. All in all, however, The Rapture is an interesting read.
    • 4/5
      When I was in middle school, we lived in Dallas, Texas. One of the things I remember vividly from living there was a huge billboard of what Dallas will be like at The Rapture. A huge Jesus towers over the skyline & souls are wafted to heaven from the cars moving along through the rush hour freeway traffic. To be honest I went back & forth about requesting this book for review because the title led me to believe it might be like that billboard & that's just not my thing. Turns out, it's not Liz Jensen's thing, either.The Rapture is a literary eco-thriller. The plotting is good, the characters feel real, the situation feels absolutely plausible, & as a reader you care what happens.The strength of this novel lies in the two main characters who are both real & heartbreaking. Bethany Krall is a disturbed teenager institutionalized after she kills her mother with a screwdriver. Gabrielle Fox is an art therapist assigned to Bethany's case. Bethany is eerily correct in her predictions of natural disasters. Gabrielle is newly paraplegic, dealing with the consequences of an accident that has shattered her world.I appreciated just how crazy Ms. Jensen allowed Bethany to be. So often when dealing with mental illness in adolescents writers give us watered down versions of depressed adolescents or abused drug addicts that we can all relate to & feel sorry for or good about. If you want to understand how far outside the norm children & teens who are institutionalized with psychiatric disorders are, just think about how broad the behavioral permissions are for kids & teens & then imagine what someone who falls far outside of that norm might be like. Ms. Jensen has done that with Bethany & she is frightening & real & pitiable &, in the end, admirable.The heartbeat of this book is the narration of Gabrielle Fox who is trying to do her job, to live her life, & to sort out what being paraplegic is going to mean for her life. She is intelligent & ironic & self-pitying & often very funny. Thrust into a wheelchair, her dealings with Bethany & her predictions combine with her daily struggles to create a narrative that is both moving & entertaining.There are images here that are unforgettable - the Christ statue in Rio de Janeiro toppling over after a hurricane, miles of dead jellyfish, graffiti only readable by satellite written in luminescent dye from the crushed shells of crustaceans, the faithful gathered in a stadium (reminiscent of the Superdome in New Orleans) waiting for the Rapture that never arrives. The world may end with a great big bang, but some of us may survive it - not a comforting thought in these days of increasing global warming & economic meltdown.
    • 4/5
      30-something-year-old Gabrielle Fox, wheelchair-bound after an emotionally and physically scarring car accident, works as an art therapist for some of Great Britain’s most mentally disturbed juveniles. One of her patients is Bethany Krall, charged with murdering her mother with a screwdriver. Bethany likes to talk about forthcoming geological disasters with scientific accuracy.At first Gabrielle professionally ignores Bethany’s babble. But when Bethany’s predictions match up with real-life events and seem to point to a disaster of apocalyptic proportions, Gabrielle can no longer ignore her paranoia. Together with a few believing scientists, Gabrielle struggles to convince the rest of the world that a psychotic girl with murderous tendencies actually holds the key to preventing the annihilation of the human race.THE RAPTURE is an unusual though frighteningly scientifically plausible take on the apocalypse. It is not an easy read: Gabrielle’s colloquial narrative takes you right into her head, which may or may not be effective, depending on the reader. The first half of the book builds slowly, as it focuses more on developing Gabrielle and her relationship with the physicist. Bethany is supremely dislikable all throughout, but more so at the beginning.Even with these minor complaints, however, Liz Jensen writes a story that’s full of scientific accuracy in a way that sucks you in. Apocalyptic tales only work when they’re done intelligently, and both THE RAPTURE and its author are well aware of and accomplish that. While I found the pacing of this novel a little odd—too slow in the beginning, too quickly building to its climax towards the end—it is still a masterfully suspenseful read in the end.THE RAPTURE is not for the faint of heart, and it focuses more on Gabrielle’s emotional damage and the apocalyptic possibility of Bethany’s predictions than the actual psychological aspects of their relationship. However, for those who love speculative fiction and similar geological horror/thriller movies, this will be a good read.
    • 4/5
      This book is another of the ecodisaster/thriller ilk, but with a twist; in fact, two twists.Gabrielle Fox is a 36-year-old art therapist at the Oxsmith Adolescent Secure Psychiatric Hospital in Hadport, England, an unpleasant place for both inmates and workers:“The building manufactures its own air, air that has not quite caught up with the scented-candle culture of modern times. Forest Glade room freshener predominates, struggling to mask deeper strata of Toilet Duck, dry rot, and the sad-sweet chemical smell of psychic suffering.”Two years earlier, Gabrielle was in a bad car accident, which rendered her paraplegic, dependent on a wheelchair. Her lover Alex, a married man, was killed. Her unborn child was lost. Gabrielle is trying to get back a life through work. She vacillates between wanting to die, and loving life too much to leave it.Bethany Krall, on of Gabrielle’s patients, is a teenager who has killed her mother in a brutal murder. At Oxsmith she is a high maintenance; she has made four suicide attempts, attacked other patients, and scares and disorients treatment professionals with her uncanny ability to read their lives. She has been labeled as “well informed, manipulative, and prone to dramatic mood swings, psychotic fantasies, biblical outpourings, and sudden extreme violence.” Lately, she has been getting weekly shock therapy. She has also been accurately predicting ecological disasters to the very day.Bethany’s father is a well-known preacher who is part of the Faith Wave movement, which has arisen in response to increasing worldwide environmental extremes, violence in the Middle East, economic turmoil, disease, spiraling energy costs, and fear. In Britain alone there are some 50,000 Faith Wave churches.The night of her 36th birthday, Gabrielle goes out to a charity function, and there meets a Scottish physicist, and decides to question him about Bethany’s case. Dr. Frazer Melville is “big and a little overweight, with a soft-featured, pleasant, if unassuming face and an interesting oddity in his left eye – a splotch of green in the hazel brown of the iris.” She prays he “is not going to be a weirdo.” To her surprise and delight however, they fall into a relationship; he calls her “my little sex goddess on wheels” and she is actually able to feel like a woman again.Frazer tries to reach other scientists to warn of Bethany’s most dire prediction: a disruption of the entire earth brought about by careless mining of the fields of frozen methane [natural gas trapped in frozen hydrates or water compounds] under the ocean floor. Methane is many times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than CO2. But properly harvested, methane could provide endless free energy. [According to the U.S. Geological Survey, “there’s more energy potential locked up in methane hydrate formations across the world than in all other fossil energy resources combined.”] Carelessness, on the other hand, could trigger destabilization of sediment, an underground avalanche, release of more methane that will explode into flame when it contacts oxygen on the surface, huge tsunamis, and runaway global warming from the dislodged and burning methane. Greed and related cost-cutting can easily lead to such carelessness.Gabrielle and Frazer must work against time to prevent the disaster that Bethany is sure will occur. But Bethany is a matricidal mental patient; who will take them seriously?Evaluation: Ecodisaster novels are hard to write. Authors don’t want to bog you down with scientific details, and so the disaster scenarios can seem downright hokey. In this book, we get a little more detail than usual, but not oppressively so, and it doesn’t sound too outrageously unrealistic. Instead, it is the plot strand featuring Bethany that strains credulity. Bethany’s personality disorders become understandable, but her mind-reading and future-forecasting strain even the “scientific” justifications given.The most interesting aspect of the book, however, and the one that in my opinion makes it worth reading, is the story of the protagonist, Gabrielle, and how she copes with a world that she must now inhabit as a paraplegic. The author shows a great understanding of her condition, without making it tedious. The rollercoaster of her brittle emotions and defensiveness of her reactions seem entirely apt and make very affecting reading. There are so few books in which the main character is disabled, and although her disability is not central to the plot, it is so central to Gabrielle’s life that it becomes a major plot element as well. She is not a pitiful woman either; she is strong, vital, and loving, and becomes the real centerpiece of the book.
    • 3/5
      Bethany Krall is a very troubled teenager. She has been confined to the Oxsmith Adolescent Security Psychiatric Hospital for two years. When she was fourteen she killed her mother, stabbing her multiple times with a screwdriver. Now, after her previous psychologist suffered a breakdown, she is forced to work with a new psychologist.Gabrielle Fox is trying to move on after a devastating car crash that deprived her of her lover and the use of her legs. Confined to her wheel chair, Gabrielle is assigned to Bethany Krall. Bethany proves to be more than a handful, defying any attempt at authority. Gabrielle is forced to put aside her own emotional baggage to attempt to reach the true Bethany.The most disturbing aspect of treating Bethany proves to be her predictions of weather and natural catastrophes. Gabrielle, at first, attributes this to the ramblings of a very disturbed child. But after talking with Bethany's previous psychologist and some investigation of her own, she can not disprove the validity of the predictions.The writing in this novel is amazing. I took my time reading this to simply enjoy Liz Jensen's use of language. I found myself re-reading several passages just for their impact. Her descriptions are edgy, yet the prose flows along like fine silk. I couldn't help but be in awe of this writing style.The storyline is dark and mysterious. There is no superhero in this thriller, just ordinary people that have been cast in unusual circumstances. The characters in The Rapture are not perfect or one sided. In fact, Liz Jensen shows us the unpredictable nature of humanity. People are emotional and emotions lead to unexplainable behavior.I do not necessarily agree with the portrayal of "global climate change" presented in the book. This plays a major roll in the storyline. I assume the book takes place in the near future, a future where the world has become more and more traumatized by the effects of global warming. However, I was able to enjoy the book, even with this opposing viewpoint.This was a good read for me. I felt the emotional pain of both Gabrielle and Bethany as they progressed through the story. The suspense was captivating as I learned more and more about Bethany's predictions. I will say that I was slightly disappointed with the ending, but not enough to ruin the book for me.I received an Advance Reading Copy of the book from the publisher. The Rapture is scheduled to be released on August 11, 2009.
    • 4/5
      Gabrielle Fox is a therapist who is confined to a wheelchair following a tragic accident. She has found it hard to come to terms with what has happened to her but she has taken up a new posting at Oxsmith Adolescent Security Psychiatric Hospital. Here, she is assigned the case of Bethany Krall, an extremely troubled teen who killed her own mother with a screwdriver.Bethany is very disturbed and has been violent as well as spewing disaster scenarios. She has been receiving ECT treatment, and appears to be making progress. While in Art Therapy with Bethany, Gabrielle begins to see portents and omens in Bethany's work and begins to wonder if there is more to this girl's story than appears to meet the eye.The story is set in the near-future where evnironmental disasters are more frequent and where an oppressive and foreboding heat dominates the days, setting an intense, gothic atmosphere in the book. Environmentalists and evangelists are powerful figures on the political landscape and there is a fevered feel in the air. Against this backdrop, Gabrielle still struggles to deal with her lot in life and her burgeoning new relationship with physicist Frazer Melville.This is a gripping story with a grim environmental message. It is also a story of dealing with one's past (both for Bethany and Gabrielle) and facing into a future that you don't want to see. It's an emotional ride, but one that's worth taking.
    • 4/5
      From the opening paragraph, I was instantaneously sucked into Liz Jenson's not-so-future world. The entire book is both fascinating and terrifying. Gabrielle's personal tragedy is horrific, and the reader struggles through her emotional swings along with her. Having literally lost almost everything and having had to start her life anew, Gabrielle is so emotionally and physically fragile that a reader feels compelled to protect her. Bethany, even though wild, crass, rude, and insane, also evokes a need to protect as Gabrielle learns more and more about her story and her reasons for murdering her mother.But Gabrielle's and Bethany's relationship is the mere backdrop of this story. For Bethany, thanks to her shock therapy, sees visions - disturbing visions of meterological and geological disasters. These visions also have a disturbing habit of occurring exactly when she says that they will occur. This book becomes more than the story of a patient and her counselor but becomes the ultimate showdown between earth and mankind.I'll admit that I wasn't prepared for the environmental warnings that this book evokes. Ms. Jensen admits in her acknowledgements that the final global warming story probably will not happen, but that it does remain a possibility. The fact that she wrote the book to take place at least ten years into the future, and she mentions enough situations and global occurances, both environmental and political, that are happening as I type this immediately increases the plausibility of the story.Ms. Jensen's writing is so picturesque and realistic that I personally had to catch my breath every now and then. I was compelled to read further to find out how the story ends, how Bethany is connected to the natural disasters and so forth, but the pain, trauma, and emotional fragility of both Bethany and Gabrielle are so strong that it hurts. Add to that a very bleak picture of the not-so-distant future, and it's no wonder I had to take a break every now and then.Through it all, I remained completely captivated by Bethany and Gabrielle and haunted by the story in general. This is a great read with which to consider the consequences of our current actions in regards to the environment, global warming, and political upheaval. I will definitely be recommending The Rapture to others!Thanks to Random House for this ARC!
    • 3/5
      Art therapist Gabrielle Fox has just started a new job at a mental facility for extremely disturbed (and dangerous) teens. As if that weren't stressful enough, she's also recovering from an accident that left her physically disabled and emotionally scarred. Soon Gabrielle starts to hear strange predictions from one of her patients....predictions that turn out to be true. Although this book was interesting, it didn't draw me in like I thought it would. The events that happen fall so easily into place that there isn't much tension, or excitement. I did think the writing style was good, and I really liked the main protaganist.
    • 4/5
      This is an incredible read. I am not usually a fan of apocalyptic novels. I am a fan of this book.Bethany Krall is being held in Oxsmith, a secure psychiatric Hospital for adolescents. She is there for killing her mother with a screwdriver. Bethany plunged her weapon into her mother again and again. She left it sticking up our of an eye when she could plunge no more. No drug or talk therapy worked. Bethany was seemingly beyond help of any kind. Then one of the facility doctorsdecided to try ECT. Shock therapy. For the first time, there seemed to be a little hope. But this was before Bethany began to have visions. These visions turned out to be predictions of natural disasters. At first, no one would listen. One of hertherapists, who finally began to believe left the hospital. It was a so called medical leave that took her away from Bethany. A new therapist had to be convinced. Would she listen? Would it be in time to save the world as they knew it?I read this in one session, as there was no putting it down. I had to know the ending. Each and every thread found a connection. Nothing was left to the imagination. Gripping, chilling and most frightening of all, alarmingly possible given the current state of our planet. I highly recommend this book