This is going to be the hardest blog post so far because I will be trying not to give away too much. I think everybody should read this novel. Here we go, this novel is creative and well worth the read. The Rapture, written by Liz Jensen, is insane. The two main characters of this novel are, a paralyzed art therapist named Gabrielle Fox and, Bethany Krall, a sixteen year old psychopathic patient. There is more to her story, but you will have to read the book to figure out what causes this mental distress. The central idea of this novel and the reason for the events throughout the book is due to the Rapture. For those who don't know what the Rapture is, it is the transporting of believers to heaven at the Second Coming of Christ. During this time Earth is essentially turned into Hell. The world becomes corrupt and evil. This is exactly what Bethany Krall is, evil. Bethany is a patient at the Oxsmith Adolescent Secure Psychiatric Hospital, and Gabrielle Fox is her therapist. After medicine fails to make Bethany sane, the doctors resort to Electroconvulsive therapy. And this seems to do the trick, but with one twist, she begins predict future catastrophic events. She predicts earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and thunderstorms. But that isn't all, she predicts one final event that will effect the entire planet, an event that will cover all land with water, release unknown amounts of methane in the air, set the oceans on fire, raise global temperature by four degrees in a matter of seconds, and kill billions of people. This event is initiated through the actions of humans. We fail to respect the natural world and in return ensure our destruction. Now I would like to expand upon how this event is put into motion and I will do my best to not give away any information essential to the suspense in the novel.
The confusion I had with this book is that everything, other than Bethany's visions, is so real. Everything is possible. This includes Bethany's final prediction, the one that leads to the destruction of Earth. This final event begins in the depths of the Ocean. In an area that experienced the Storrega Slides 8,200 years ago. In this book there is a rig directly over a continental shelf attempting to release the methane build up within this shelf zone and use it as energy. But something goes wrong. The methane is released all at once, causing a massive landslide within the ocean, which creates an enormous tsunami, but this isn't all. The domino effect began. This caused flash global warming like never before. The scary thing is that all this is possible. I did not do too much research to confirm the possible event, but what I have learned so far is that there is methane on the bottom of the oceans and if released similar events will occur in real time. The picture above is an exact replica of what is explained in the novel. I will continue my research and possibly do another blog post that is specifically tailored to these "fictional" events. This book is fictional as of today, but as I read more of the facts, this book might just be a glimpse of humans future on earth.
I appreciate you not wanting to spoil too much of the novel. Judging by what you describe, the book sounds a lot different from everything else we have been reading thus far. It sounds like a unique portrayal of the global warming potential dangers.
ReplyDeleteThis book seems really interesting and like one I might want to read! I think that the 'fiction today, reality tomorrow' take you had on the book makes it a really good candidate for a class like ours to read.
ReplyDeleteYour descriptions are really overwhelming and the fact that everything that happens in this book are plausible things in our world is frightening. Bethany sounds like Nostradamus, that man who has predicted many events that have occurred in our life. Sounds like a really interesting read!
ReplyDeleteThe outcome of this book seems like a worst case scenario situation due to climate change. The scary thing is that I can really see this happening. In the novel that I am currently reading, Odds Against Tomorrow by Nathaniel Rich, the main character mathematically predicts the probability that a large scale disaster will occur, which sounds somewhat like the main character in your novel, just on a more realistic level with less death and hellish environments to live with. I sometimes imagine the future world that we will live in based on climate change, however I cannot imagine seeing and thinking about disaster in the way that these characters do.
ReplyDeleteThis book seems like a really good way to implement climate change into an entertaining and interesting story. We discussed in our class that making a movie like this book would get a lot of people educated or at least aware of climate change and some of the impacts it might have. Is it explicitly stated what is causing this destruction? Because if there are people being transported to heaven, it begs the question of whether god is the one causing these events to punish mankind or whether it is happening without his intervention. The answer to that question really changes the way I see the message of this book.
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice creative twist to write about climate change and it must have been a thrill to read it. I always pictured that the end of the world would have something to do with climate change. If this doesn't convince readers, I don't know what will. The author's goal is to really motivate readers to stand against climate change and basically to scare the living souls out of them.
ReplyDeleteGreat job with your post, Brandon!
ReplyDeleteWoah this book sounds great! I feel like the vast majority of us already know that if anything is going to wipe out the human race, it's going to be us. I'm glad that you enjoyed reading your book so much!
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