The Rapture is thrilling, intelligent and very bleak. The characters seem realistic and the narrator's voice is convincing throughout. I felt compelled to read on and although it was possible to anticipate the ending, the strength of the prose meant that it didn't disappoint. The ending is a little depressing but it was the right ending to this sort of story. To try and make a happy ending out of it would have been worse. The Rapture is supposed to be the story of a teenage girl, Bethany Krall, who is locked up in a mental institution after murdering her mother and who seemingly receives apocalyptic visions of the future. It was this concept that attracted me to the book. However, the story is told from the point of view of Bethany's therapist, Gabrielle who just happens to be paralysed from the waist down after a car accident and most of the narrative is taken up with bitter ravings and back story that are totally irrelevant to the main plot. In fact, the story would remain largely unchanged if the character had been able to walk. Although it was nice to have a wheelchair bound protagonist for a change, I would have hoped for her to have a stronger personality - someone who has overcome and adjusted to their disability as opposed to making it a frame of reference by which to judge every little thing that she encounters throughout the book.The pacing of the book was quite slow and the ending was largely disappointing. In fact, I find it difficult to pinpoint anything about it that I did like, but something dragged me through to the end. I think I'd use the word 'pointless' to sum up this book. I'm not sure what the author was trying to achieve other than an utter sense of hopelessness which is not what I'd look for in a novel.
What do You think about The Rapture (2009)?
Great audiobook reading by India Fisher - the Voice of UK Materchef!!
—phamm
