Buy used:
$2.00
$3.98 delivery May 17 - 20. Details
Used: Very Good | Details
Sold by glenthebookseller
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comment: Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc...
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Liz Jensen
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Rapture Paperback – January 1, 2010

by Liz Jensen (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 185 ratings
See all formats and editions
Book by Liz Jensen
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    5.08 x 0.83 x 7.8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9781408801109
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1408801109
  8. See all details
Next page
Amazon First Reads | Editors' picks at exclusive prices

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Previous page
  1. Ark Baby
Next page

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1408801108
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (January 1, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781408801109
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1408801109
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.08 x 0.83 x 7.8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 185 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Liz Jensen

Liz Jensen

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
185 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

David M. Gordon
5.0 out of 5 stars Overflows with excellence
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2010
Verified Purchase
You know how sometimes you are in the mood for something, but cannot place a name to it? Such was my craving for Liz Jensen's, THE RAPTURE. Over the past few weeks, I had started and stopped many excellent novels that simply did not compel me to continue reading, despite their qualities. I sought something... but what precisely?

And then, fortuitously, I happened upon a review of THE RAPTURE that struck an inchoate but resonant chord in me. Whereas I typically deliberate over my book purchases, this time I purchased and read the book immediately. And am very glad I did.

"That summer, the summer all the rules began to change, June seemed to last for a thousand years."

and

"The latest projections predict the loss of the Arctic ice cap and a global temperature rise of up to six degrees within Bethany's lifetime, unless drastic measures are taken now. I should be grateful to be childless. Just as the Cold War figures heavily in the fantasies of elderly mental patients, climate-apocalypse paranoia is common among the young. Zeitgeist stuff: the banality of abnormality."

I knew from the first sentence (first quote above) that I would enjoy the novel, so I tried valiantly but failed miserably to pace my reading to enjoy its many pleasures: its words, its sentences, its characters, its ideas, and its beauty and horror from sentence to sentence, page to page. The first 10 or 15 pages are showy-exciting for Jensen's auctorial style; the entire novel is exciting for her story and characters. WOW! Three sittings and 300 pages later, and I have discovered another author whose books I can order almost willy-nilly. And already have; a previously published novel by Liz arrived yesterday.

THE RAPTURE, which overflows with excellence, is for readers who enjoy novels with compelling and intelligent characters, who speak to each other intelligently, and whose decisions -- good and bad, right or wrong -- are made for organic and true reasons; who enjoy their reading to elicit a frisson of excitement, terror, erudition; and who seek page-turning readability. And more, much more.

Can you tell I liked THE RAPTURE? I did, very much.
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Sara Stamey
4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting vision of apocalypse
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2014
Verified Purchase
An interesting heroine, capturing her anger and inability to accept her accident and being confined in a wheelchair. The plot built on a strong premise of impending disaster, with good tension dealing with the odd young girl and her visions. Ending maybe was not quite pulled off, but check it out!
Helpful
 Report
B. Case
3.0 out of 5 stars Morphs awkwardly from dark psychological realism to supernatural horror
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2013
Verified Purchase
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: A Novel "). 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 suddenly became a 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.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
No Genre Left Behind
5.0 out of 5 stars The Rapture
Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2009
Verified Purchase
60. The Rapture by Liz Jensen

I 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 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Florina Rogers
3.0 out of 5 stars Good read but misprints galore
Reviewed in India on April 3, 2020
Verified Purchase
I caught all the typos because I was reading and listening to the audiobook at the same time. Shoddy proofwork. The story is captivating though.
Report
Cali
5.0 out of 5 stars Good to have novel about climate change
Reviewed in Australia on October 14, 2018
Verified Purchase
Thought provoking about how we can get people to do what needs to be done
Report
The Editor - New London Writers
5.0 out of 5 stars COMPELLING
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 24, 2009
Verified Purchase
Like most of the readers here, I was pulled into this story from the outset, and felt compelled to keep on reading until I had finished the last page.

The story revolves (or rather swirls) around three key characters, Gabrielle Fox, Frazier Melville, and Bethany Krall. Bethany is the key figure, however the really interesting character, (for me), is Gabrielle Fox, the narrator. Wheelchair bound following an accident, she is a combination of toughness and fragility, with a strong survival streak. There is touch of Kay Scarpetta in her salty-honest, courageous, sometimes mean yet often sympathetic character. you can't help liking Bethany either, in a perverse way, even if its only for her brutal ability to foresee disaster, and call a spade a spade. You know she is the perpertrator of an horrific killing, but in the end, is Bethany really a monster? Read and find out.

The romance with the physicist Frazer Melville is a nice counterpoint. I liked reading about the relationship, it shows Gabrielle's inner vulnerabilities, draws out her grit and rounds the character off nicely. Contrary to one of the earlier reviewers, I thought this interlude balanced the rollercoaster ride of thrill and danger very adroitly.

Some of the secondary characters are sketchily drawn, the slightly mad ex therapist Joy McConey, who is convinced that Bethany is psychically causing the terrible events, the self-serving head of the psychiatric unit, Dr Sheldon-Gray. However, when it comes to the larger than life mafia style evangalist, Leonard Krall, (who is Bethany's dad) there is no mistaking the odd admixture of passion and egoism, sincerity and fakery, and sheer ruthless drive of the old school proselyte.

One very distinctive character is Harish Modak - the jaded planetarian - with his old world charm and cool civility is depicted as being in opposition to the human species presiding over the planet. Nevertheless he agrees to assist in saving lives. His complex personality, drawn with a lightness of touch, lends freshness to the tense, and at times claustrophobic atmposphere.

The story is replete with good solid earthy humour, along with some unforgettable scenes and imagry. Take for example, Bethany, stretched out in the back of the car as the trio zoom towards London for the apocalpytic showdown; 'ghostly helment of stubble,' and 'resembling 'a chained beast awaiting its glory moment.' Anyone who has ever owned a burr headed, sulky teenager can relate to that one I'm sure.

There are lots of interesting scientific and artistic elements in this book. I particularly liked the notion of environmental turbulence encapsulated within the paintings of Van Gogh. Could Van Gogh - like Bethany - have possessed the poisoned chalice of being a human seismograph as well as being a gifted artist? Did that motivate and inform his work? Having recently (coincidently) finished reading an illustrated biography of the painter, set during his time in Arles in France, I found this idea intriguing. The paintings of the period - as mentioned in The Rapture - are perhaps Van Gogh's most eerily imaginative works.

A great read, on many levels. Sci-fi, environmental thriller, pyschological quest, apocalyptic disaster, ecological warning, scientific study. The dramatic ending completes a vividly entertaining journey.
12 people found this helpful
 Report
annwiddecombe
3.0 out of 5 stars The Apocalypse - again
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 23, 2012
Verified Purchase
Another in the vast list of 'End of Days' novels (they now have their own section in Waterstone's), 'The Rapture''s multi-strand narrative mixes ecology, religion and the supernatural.
Meaty subjects those, and Jensen gives us plenty to think about as our narrator, crippled, big-breasted, thirty-something, plain-speaking, Frieda Kahlo-admiring Canadian psychotherapist and swimming fan Gabrielle Fox (pause for breath)... attempts to get to the truth behind patient Bethany Krall, a thirteen year-old foul-mouthed mother-killer with a seeming ability to predict ecological disasters. Our self-loathing wheelchair-bound heroine begins a steamy affair with brilliant Scottish physicist Frazer Melville, a man whose particular kink is coating Gabrielle's nipples in chocolate paste: 'You're incredibly sexy...I want you all the time. I can't get enough of you. I want you now,' he pants.
Together, Gabrielle and Frazer Melville (as Gabrielle continually and oddly refers to him) become increasingly convinced that Bethany's ECT-inspired visions of a global catastrophe are on the verge of coming to pass. Meanwhile a growing number of religious fanatics - including Leonard Krall, Bethany's charismatic preacher father - bellow about The Rapture, a final reckoning in which God gets medieval on the world's ass.
Yup, it's a biggie. They don't come much bigg-ier.
The novel's OK, and Jensen obviously has an active, perceptive mind that likes wrestling with important ideas, but Gabrielle's voice is implausible, wordy and novelistic (that other Richard & Judy fave 'Sister' suffered the same problem): 'A cluster of lilies, withered and papery, mauve and delicate orange, rears up valiantly from the drought-struck lawn' 'Nearby two square-shaped men are fighting, bashing at each other with monolithic industriousness'. Good writing isn't fancy writing ('If it sounds like writing, I re-write it' - Elmore Leonard). The narrative lurches into bog-standard 'We're running out of time!' thriller territory as G & F, after a clunky 'love rat' side plot, join forces with other 'scientists' to warn the world, Jensen's fingers become increasingly addicted to the screamer key and events become ever more unlikely.
4 people found this helpful
 Report
Dr David Mankin
5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 24, 2009
Verified Purchase
This is a delight to read despite the book's disturbing theme because of Liz Jensen's exceptional skills as a writer. Characterisation is spot on and I love the whimsical nature of many of the main character's perspectives on life and death, love and loss, jealousy and paranoia. Although the setting is pre-apocalyptic this novel stands alongside the brutal realism of Cormac McCarthy's post-aplocalyptic novel 'The Road'. The style of these two authors is very different but both offer a vision of the future that is scary and disturbing. The end of Liz Jensen's novel is emotionally powerful and will linger long in the memory. Simply stunning and a lesson in SF-style writing that many established SF authors could learn from.
Report