Author: Jessica Bendinger
Published: November 2009
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
328 pages (hardcover)
Elizabeth has always been a relatively normal teen. But lately she’s been having what she thinks are vision issues. It started small, just dots on people. But later she starts seeing ropes extending from others, blobs attached to bodies, and streaming movies of everyone’s thoughts and feelings. She knows they’re not there, but she sees them anyway. Stranger yet, she is receiving strange letters in gold envelopes with mysterious poems and tarot cards. Convinced that she’s off gone off the deep end, her mother sends her to a psychiatric institute.
In the meantime, Richie Mac has become obsessed with Elizabeth ever since that one kiss they shared when they were ‘studying’. Bewilderingly, he has acquired some similar powers to Elizabeth and can read her mind no matter how far apart he is. Love and passion driving him, he helps Elizabeth break out of the hospital so that she can find her destiny.
I have very mixed feelings towards this book. I never heard of this book initially, didn’t know a thing about it. I saw it in the New Books/Arrivals section in my public library and decided to give it a go. Only after finishing the novel did I decide to Google the book and see what popped up. Apparently this book is being hailed as ‘the new Twilight’. While I am mostly indifferent to the Twilight series, I can tell you The Seven Rays is not a new Twilight sensation at all. When I read Twilight, I could, at least, understand what was happening. The Seven Rays’ plot is largely unexplained and leaves me unsatisfied and puzzled.
The premise sounded extremely fascinating and unique. And when I began reading, I actually really liked it. Granted, Elizabeth isn’t the most likeable protagonist ever as she has something of a condescending personality … but I did like the story. I thought it was heading in a good direction and there was plenty of intrigue to keep me reading, as well as fun word-play/word blending. Around the halfway point, I began to feel a bit frustrated because it was still all intrigue and no answers (I mean, by the halfway point, I’d like to at least understand what the point of the story is about). Elizabeth herself didn’t have any idea what was happening either. Characters don’t know what’s going on, reader doesn’t know what’s going on … sounds like a bad mix.
The ending felt extremely rushed and as a result, sloppy. It was as if all of the plot was crammed into the last twenty or thirty pages, and it ended in the most unsatisfying way possible. If I had questions during the course of the novel, they certainly have multipled tenfold by the ending. Why did Richie receive powers? Who is Nessa really and why does she help Elizabeth? How did Elizabeth’s mom come to be in the care of Elizabeth? What do they mean by Elizabeth going from Fool to Magician??? It felt like the author was trying to plan for a surprising ending or twist by withholding things, but it did not receive the desired effect. The ending felt cheap.
I have an inkling that, based on the way the story ended, that there may be a sequel of some sort, but it would be too late for me. I should get some feeling of finality from this book, even if there is a sequel planned; some sort of closure. I liked the premise and the way the story began, but this book is so shrouded in pseudo-mysteriousness that it’s not really worth navigating through.
My Rating: 2/5
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