The Rapture
In a merciless summer of biblical heat and destructive winds, Gabrielle Fox’s main concern is a personal one: 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. Raised on a diet of evangelistic hellfire, Bethany is violent, delusional, cruelly intuitive and insistent that she can foresee natural disasters – a claim which Gabrielle interprets as a symptom of doomsday delusion. But when catastrophes begin to occur on the very dates Bethany has predicted, and a brilliant, gentle physicist enters the equation, the apocalyptic puzzle intensifies and the stakes multiply. Is the self-proclaimed Nostradamus of the psych ward the ultimate manipulator, or could she be the harbinger of imminent global cataclysm on a scale never seen before? And what can love mean in ‘interesting times’? A haunting story of human passion and burning faith set against an adventure of tectonic proportions, “The Rapture” is an electrifying psychological thriller that explores the dark extremes of mankind’s self-destruction in a world on the brink.
‘The Rapture managed to get right under my skin…if there was ever a book that should be read by lots of people then this is it…it really is superior. Prepare to be horribly spooked’ Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian Paperback Choice
“If I have been at pains to speak of resistances rather than insuperable obstacles, it is because these challenges can be, and have been, overcome in many novels: Liz Jensen’s Rapture is a fine example of one such; another is Barbara Kingsolver’s wonderful novel Flight Behavior. Both are set in a time that is recognizable as our own, and they both communicate, with remarkable vividness, the uncanniness and improbability, the magnitude and interconnectedness of the transformations that are now under way.” Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement
‘The considerable achievement of The Rapture is to render its heroine so susceptible to physical or mental harm, and place her in such repeated peril, that you’re never quite confident until the last page that victory will be grasped. When it happens, it’s with a grim and realistic caveat which shows that the author really means business…a masterclass on how to write an engaging thriller about a relevant contemporary issue while still respecting the reader’s brain cells….you’ll be gripped’ Irvine Welsh, The Guardian
‘A rollicking eco-thriller that successfully marries high-octane action with a prescient overview of the dangers of climate change…Deliciously apocalyptic and jammed full of ideas, this is storytelling at its rapturous best’ The Daily Mail
‘An end-of-days blockbuster to haunt your nightmares…unputdownable’ The Times
‘Combining the tensions of modern psychology with scientific speculation and social analysis, Jensen put me rather in mind of Margaret Atwood. There’s the same ability to keep the emotional observations sharp but sophisticated, and the same comic flouting of stereotypical femininity…a cracking good read’ (5 stars) Helen Brown, Daily Telegraph
‘The Rapture… turns up the tension unnervingly quickly… Science, psychiatry, hellfire-and-damnation religion and an overheated world on the brink of self-destruction create a convincing and compelling brew, and Jensen’s sharply knowing writing – and cast of not entirely likeable characters – make this much more intelligent, not to mention disturbing, than the vast majority of disaster stories’ Tina Jackson, Metro
‘A terrifyingly good eco-thriller’ Amanda Craig
‘Liz Jensen’s novels are hard to label, beyond them all being wildly original, and her seventh is no exception… Gripping and crammed with ideas, with big, topical themes and well-drawn characters, it’s no wonder Warner Bros has snapped up the film rights’ Lottie Moggach, The London Paper
‘Compelling…Set in the near future, the novel occupies territory which Jensen has broached before – religion, science, dystopia, trauma. But whereas her blackly comic sense of humour has leavened previous work, The Rapture makes chilling reading… Jensen writes with energy and chutzpah about the scarily possible… electric and elegiac’ Marianne Brace, The Independent
‘A compelling journey of the imagination…vivid…an absorbing embodiment and exploration of our fears about climate change’ The Sunday Times
‘A fast-paced plot buoyed by a wealth of paranormal intrigue…Jensen skirts the moral boundaries without shrillness, exposing humanity as less wicked than wilfully myopic’ TLS
‘The psychological complexities of both Bethany and Gabrielle leave quite an impression. Don’t be surprised if the word volts makes you uneasy after reading…’ Tez Says blog
‘Liz Jensen has taken scientific fact and Christian theology and combined them into a compelling story…When the past and the future of these characters come to light, during the climax, the reader is left speechless’ Must Read Faster blog
‘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’ Rhapsody in Books blog
