Las Vegas Review-Journal - The Book Nook

  Gabrielle Fox openly admits she’s not a nice person.
  Since a car accident killed her married lover and left her paralyzed and wheelchair-bound, the art therapist feels less than a whole woman. In an effort to avoid her grief and anger, she leaves London and the memories of her former life for a new job at the Oxsmith Adolescent Secure Psychiatric Hospital, where the country’s most violent kids are housed.
  Among her patients is 16-year-old Bethany Krall, who was confined to the hospital after killing her mother by shoving a screwdriver through her left eye. Gabrielle is disturbed by the viciousness of the teen’s acts, but looks into the girl’s history for clues to explain her behavior.
  Bethany’s teachers described her as highly intelligent but disturbed. Reading between the lines I suspect that, like so many kids of her generation, she is a classic product of the last decade, with its food shortages and mass riots and apocalyptically expanded Middle East war, and in her case, more specifically, of the Faith Wave that followed the global economic crash: a preacher’s strongheaded daughter who questioned the dominant role of fundamentalist Christianity in her life and rebelled.
  Gabrielle, full of self-pity, uses her curiosity about Bethany as a lifeline. During a meeting, Bethany knows things she shouldn’t about her therapist's life. When Bethany makes dire predictions about catastrophes, and they come true, Gabrielle begins to doubt her own sanity as she wonders whether the teenager is a prophet or just mentally disturbed.
  Liz Jensen’s “The Rapture” is a mix of science, religion and the supernatural. Readers are left to wonder whether the natural disasters occurring are a result of man’s abuse of the Earth or are the final warnings before doomsday. Gabrielle’s hardness masks her vulnerability as she adjusts to life in a wheelchair and her edginess is a believable defense mechanism. Bethany’s craziness is entertaining in a morbid, bizarre way. The teenager craftily manipulates people to get the reactions she wants, and readers are never quite sure if she’s evil, psychic or just a product of her environment.
  Some of the plot twists and introductions of new characters seem convenient at times, but overall, that doesn’t sink this apocalyptic tale. The relationship between this therapist and her patient, who both have suffered emotional wounds, is one that will pull readers through to the very last page.