The Raptures

by Jan Carson

When several children from the same village start succumbing to a mysterious illness, the quest to discover the cause has devastating and extraordinary consequences.

It is late June in Ballylack. Hannah Adger anticipates eight long weeks' reprieve from school, but when her classmate Ross succumbs to a violent and mysterious illness, it marks the beginning of a summer like no other.

As others fall ill, questions about what - or who - is responsible pitch the village into conflict and fearful disarray. Hannah, ever the outsider, is haunted by guilt as she remains healthy while her friends are struck down. Isolated and afraid, she prays for help. What happens next will force her to question everything she believes.

Bursting with Carson's trademark wit, profound empathy and soaring imagination, The Raptures explores how tragedy can unite a small community - and tear it apart. At its heart is the extraordinary resilience of one young girl. As the world crumbles around her, she must find the courage to be different in a place where conforming feels like the only option available.

Genres: Fiction, Irish Literature, Mystery, Ireland, Historical Fiction, Book Club, Mystery Thriller

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 6, 2022

About the author

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts development officer currently based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has a BA in English Literature from Queen’s University Belfast and an MLitt. In Theology and Contemporary Culture from St. Andrew’s University, Scotland. Jan has had short stories published in literary journals on both sides of the Atlantic, has had two of her plays produced for the Belfast stage and is a current recipient of the Arts Council NI’s Artist’s Career Enhancement Bursary. Her first novel, “Malcolm Orange Disappears” will be published by Liberties Press, Dublin on June 2nd 2014.

Reviews

[Emily B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was sent this book as part of a book subscription and I probably wouldn’t have chosen it for myself but nevertheless I did enjoy it.

I was a few steps ahead of the plot as I could see what was coming next but still felt fully engaged throughout. Each character was well developed and believable, with the main character being likeable.

[fatma · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't particularly enjoy reading The Raptures, but more than that, I just had no idea what it was trying to do as a novel.

Tonally, The Raptures comes across as very twee, almost didactic. It's a novel that feels like it was written to have a moral, some message that was supposed to be moving and inspiring but that in actuality felt very flat and saccharine. The story doesn't outright try to explicitly articulate a moral, but the feeling that it's supposed to have one is there nevertheless, implied by both the way that the narrative is set up and the way that it concludes.

Then we have the structure of the book, which was a bit all over the place for me. For one, it was hard to tell what kind of perspective The Raptures wanted us to focus on. We get first-person-POV chapters from Hannah's perspective, but we also get third-person-POV chapters from Hannah's perspective--and from other characters--as well as the occasional omniscient third-person narration about the goings-on in the town. It was very confusing to follow sometimes, and it made it hard to really inhabit these characters' minds since it was unclear where, exactly, the narration was coming from. I also just really missed some of the beautiful writing that was front and center in Carson's previous novel, The Fire Starters. The best I can say about her writing in this novel is that it was serviceable.

Narratively, The Raptures is supposed to be about the community of Ballylack, the kinds of people who live there, and the various dynamics that they have with each other in the wake of an emerging epidemic within their community. The problem with this is that neither Ballylack nor its inhabitants are written to be particularly interesting. The execution of the story never surprises in any way: there's an epidemic that targets children, parents are afraid for their children, parents grieve their children. Beyond that, I didn't feel like I really got a good grasp of what set this community apart in terms of its social environment, its geography, the lifestyles of its inhabitants, etc. It was all rather flat.

My fundamental problem with The Raptures, though, is that I have no idea what it was trying to do as a novel. The story is straightforward, simplistically so, and it goes pretty much the way you expect it to: there's an epidemic killing children, and so the children proceed to die one by one. With the exception of a few revelations, that's literally the whole plot of the book. And it was so boring. The story has no momentum, nothing to make you want to keep reading, because nothing surprising or interesting ever happens. Child #1 dies, then child #2 dies, then child #3 dies, and then--you guessed it--child #4 dies. And of course this is devastating for the characters, but the way the story is set up makes it so that you become increasingly inured to its characters' pain: by the fifth or sixth time you're reading the same set of reactions to the same exact event, you just feel bored more than anything else. On top of all of this, the novel tries to incorporate a magical realism element throughout its narrative--the operative word, here, being tries, because it doesn't succeed. Again, I have no idea what the magical realism was supposed to accomplish. Magical realism is supposed to excite you! to shake things up! to unsettle the foundations of what's considered "normal" or "real" in everyday life. The magical realism here, by contrast, is lackluster, perfunctory. It feels like it's there to make the story Quirky rather than to actually enliven the story for any meaningful reason. It's there just to be there--and frankly so are a lot of the elements of this book's narrative.

Needless to say, I found The Raptures to be a largely disappointing read. I really enjoyed Carson's The Fire Starters and was so confident that I'd love this novel as well. Clearly, though, The Raptures was not the book for me. It's one of those books that I just know I'm never going to think about again because it was just so utterly unimpressionable to me as a novel.

Thank you to Penguin Random House UK for providing me with an e-ARC of this novel via NetGalley!

[charlie medusa · Rating 4 out of 5]

je pense qu'on est vraiment sur un livre bizarre que je ne recommanderais pas vraiment si vous n'avez pas
1) une obsession persistante pour l'Irlande
2) un amour tendre et biaisé pour les romans qui se rapprochent davantage du conte que de l'intrigue romanesque classique, en prenant leur temps, en adoptant des motifs plutôt que des retournements de situation, en peignant plutôt que d'analyser, en laissant planer plutôt que de forcément meubler
3) un tropisme assumé et conscient pour les histoires de peste et d'épidémie au sens large
4) un intérêt pour le sujet religieux, absolument pas en tant que croyant nécessairement, mais disons juste une appétence pour les réflexions autour du rôle de la religion, des conflits qu'elle peut engendrer, de la soif du miracle, du rôle du dogme

pour autant je pense qu'on est vraiment sur un super livre. je le vends très mal. en même temps je ne cherche pas tant que ça à le vendre. je cherche juste à dire que j'ai adoré le lire. que j'adore les histoires qui veulent précisément ça : être une bonne histoire. nous conter, plus que raconter. j'adore quand il n'y a pas de sens de la visite. quand on va piocher là, puis là, puis là, dans le choeur des personnages, pour faire émerger une voix commune, cacophonique mais tellement lourde de sens. j'adore quand il faut construire, un peu, le livre dans sa tête aussi. quand c'est facile à suivre, mais que pour autant, il nous reste toute une marge d'élaboration, d'interprétation et de supputation. qu'on est écoutant, actif, plus que simple spectateur d'une histoire déjà minutée il y a longtemps.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a wonderful and interesting cover! And on top of that a beautiful story about religion, illness, death, grief, ghosts, growing up, belonging, family etc. Loved this book and I loved grandpa Pete!
Thank you Doubleday and Netgalley UK for the ARC.

[Emma.catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bravo Jan Carson 👏

It is so rare to find a book about Northern Ireland that when I heard of this book I just had to pick it up. It is unusual that I find myself getting drawn in by a new found author so quickly but I was hooked by the end of the first page! I believe Jan did an excellent job at portraying the state of my home country at that time, 1993. Let me tell you, it is no easy task writing about our countries history and politics.

I really enjoyed the narrative of this book, as the majority of it was told by a P7 child, Hannah, predominantly over their school summer holidays. It was a refreshing and unusual take. Jan has also done a fantastic job of writing in a way that is purely Northern Irish; using terms and phrases that would not be found elsewhere.

A taste of some of the Northern Irish humour that is scattered throughout the book: “He prefers cows to people, potatoes to cows, for there’s no noise off a spud…”

Some of it is hard to read, particularly for those readers who are unfamiliar with The Troubles that persisted through that time period. However, Jan did an amazing job of combining witty humour, family life and the church’s role in society; pretty much all our country is and has been! That’s not to mention even the main story line - sickness sweeping the children of Ballylack. The book is packed full that’s for sure! If you are wanting to learn a bit more about this country or are just in it for an almost dystopian style novel then I would highly recommend this book.

I would also like to thank Jan not only for writing this very real representation of our country but also for the community work she does here in Belfast.

[Zoë · Rating 4 out of 5]

i went into this book blind with no knowledge of what it was about and anyway now i’m crying on a random thursday afternoon

[Aoife Cassidy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my second Jan Carson book. I read and enjoyed The Last Resort last year and when I read the blurb for this one - a coming of age novel about a mysterious plague affecting children in 1990s Northern Ireland - I was intrigued to read it despite its seemingly heavy content.

There is a certain charm to this book but something about it didn’t quite work for me - it almost works, it comes very close but too many of the elements are just slightly off.

Hannah is an eleven year old girl in Ballylack, a small rural community in Northern Ireland. She has always been somewhat of an outcast, being the child of strict evangelical Protestant parents who believe they can pray their way out of any situation. Hannah has just finished primary school when suddenly the children in her class begin to die of a mysterious illness, one by one.

We get the story from Hannah’s first person perspective, third person perspective and from others’ third person perspective. The way in which the narrative jumps around makes it difficult to connect with the characters. Through the jumpy narration we discover that there are issues of racism, discrimination, child neglect and religious extremism in the community but we never really scratch the surface.

The plot itself is repetitive, to the point where this reader became inured to the death of children - that sounds heartless but the way in which it’s done left me largely unaffected.

The story does feel as though there’s a strong moral coming through, but it’s hard to put your finger on what exactly that moral is. Is it a criticism of religious extremism or an endorsement of it? An “each to their own” message?

I felt more could have been made of the role of religion in the community - instead the focus was mainly on Hannah’s family’s religious fervour with a nod to the Orange marches. The repeated mention of the ritualistic praying over Hannah by “the believers” was odd and became annoying after a while. The Troubles is a constant through the book as a backdrop, and I felt perhaps it was too subtle; more could have been made of the link between the cause of the plague and the conflict.

Finally, there’s a thread of magical realism running through the story that is Carson’s signature style. It didn’t work for me on this occasion as it didn’t really go anywhere and again left me bewildered as to the point of it. Was there a moral there? It didn’t really serve as a plot point.

I know others have loved it. Marian Keyes gave it a rave review in the Irish Times at the weekend. It just fell short for me. Its offbeat charm reminded me of a book I read last year - What You Can See From Here by Mariana Leky - but it lacked the spark that one had 😕. 2.5-3/5 ⭐️

*Many thanks to @netgalley, the publisher @transworld @randomhouseuk and the author for an advance reader copy of this book which was published on 6 January. As always, this is an honest review.*

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Storytelling at its very very best. I knew these people, I could relate to them. I may have even been one of them! The author nails the period I grew up in so well.

[Ends of the Word · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jan Carson’s The Raptures is set in a village near Belfast in the early 1990s. The Good Friday Agreement is still five years away, and hope of a solution to the sectarian conflict which plagues Northern Ireland is dim. Yet, the inhabitants of Ballylack have a more urgent problem on their minds. Several children from the same class start dying of a mysterious illness. The only student who seems to be avoiding the effects of the disease is Hannah, a girl from a born-again Christian background. Already an outsider because of the peculiar hang-ups of her parents, these inexplicable developments only serve to further mark her out, especially when she is visited by the ghosts of her dead classmates, who reveal that they are trapped in an alternative version of Ballylack. We live the extraordinary events of that summer through Hannah’s eyes – the novel opens and ends in the first person, but even those chapters written in the third person are written from her perspective.

Carson’s writing is marked by witty observation, and would be a joy to read, irrespective of the details of the story itself. As a bonus, she comes up with an enjoyably quirky plot; a coming-of-age narrative which mixes elements of comedy and tragedy, human drama and satire, mystery and the supernatural. It is not often that a book has you laughing out loud in one paragraph and shedding a tear in the next, but somehow Carson manages it repeatedly in this novel.

This notwithstanding, there is still something about The Raptures which I cannot get my head around. The speculative aspects of the novel invite an allegorical reading but I’m not sure I got the “message” (if there is, indeed, a specific one). The alternative Ballylack, with the ghosts rapidly ganging up into factions, could be a symbol of the divisions in the adult world. The send-up of Hannah’s happy-clappy Protestant parents (her father in particular) can be read as an indictment of religion, although not necessarily of belief – Grandpa, one of the most positively portrayed characters in the novel, also “prays in his own manner”.

At the end of the book, I was left with the impression that there were hidden layers which I was missing. Even though this might be the case, I still found The Raptures a remarkable reading experience.

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...

[SueLucie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jan Carson treads a delicate line here between comedy and tragedy, largely by relating events through the observations of 10-year-old Hannah. An only child of parents belonging to a strict Protestant Church outside the village, she finds it hard to fit in at school. She struggles, too, to understand her parents’ faith, especially since her beloved Grandpa is sceptical and tends to break the rules. The cast of characters in the church and the village are a rich source for Jan Carson’s wry humour, and included here unexpectedly are those poor children who succumb to the disease rampaging through Hannah’s class. You wouldn’t expect such an enjoyable story from such grim material, but somehow she pulls it off.

With thanks to Random House, Doubleday via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.

[Ziegel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this pretty dull and redundant. A little too on-the-nose thematically. I'm not sure how this book could be saying anything other than: JESUS IS REAL. Or, I guess: ALL MARRIED COUPLES HATE EACH OTHER. Just totally bored sort of story, even taking the kid-ghosts who haunt their kid-prophet into account.

[brisingr · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5??? no because why was like half of this sooo boring and also utterly put me into a reading slump :((((

[Aoife · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in 1993, in Ballylack, Northern Ireland - a small border town made up of a mostly protestant community, children and adults alike are looking forward to the summer months, and hoping to avoid any tension come marching season. But things take a turn when one by one, the children in one school classroom fall deathly ill. Mostly told through the eyes of Hannah, the one child in the classroom remaining perfectly healthy, and already an outsider, we see how grief and worry rocks the small town and need to figure out who is to blame for the tragic events.

I really enjoyed this book. The atmosphere and setting were built up so well for a town always on the edge of violence, but never quite in the midst of it - a country rocked by civil war for years, and the adults who had grown cold and weary by such events, and the children who still quite don't understand it. It's one of the first books I've read that shows the divide between the Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland in such a subtle, yet powerful way.

I really loved Hannah's POV as we learn from the start she is always an outsider, an onlooker to the events of her peers and this continues as they all get sick, and she doesn't to the point she wonders what's wrong with her that she's healthy. While the ghosts Hannah sees of her dead classmates are never really explained, I think they brought a lot to the story - a moment to learn more about each dead child and who they were including their dreams, wishes, and anger and regret in life. Hannah's ghosts gave them the chance to grow up a bit in a way they never would be able to, and explain themselves better than they probably could as children.

This book is very heavy in pain and grief, as well as worry, as we experience all these feelings from the parents who are losing children to the ones who know it's about to come for them. I would imagine it would be hard to read this book as a parent to young children! Just as the parents are helpless in stopping the Troubles reaching the lives of their children, so are they in stopping this mysterious sickness.

I really loved the growth and flowering almost of Hannah's mother - a woman always spoken over, and silenced by her husband. A mother and wife who was devout to her beliefs, and stood by the expectations of her gender and role in the house but then there was a wonderful moment when the mother bear erupted in her and she finally took charge of herself, and of Hannah, and it was a glorious moment.

[Chantal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite knowing what to expect, but very pleasantly surprised by this book.
The story is sad and dark, but the author manages to bring it over quite light-hearted and easy to read. However heavy, the Irish humour was the thread that softened it all and made me laugh, even during the saddest parts.

[Melanie Glass · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book full of tragedy & comedy set against the backdrop of Northern Irish religion & politics in the 1980s. If, like me, you grew up in Northern Ireland during that time, then so many of the characters are a reminder of real life folks from that time.
In Hannah, we have a great main character who brings a simplicity & honesty in the midst of all the grown up stuff taking place. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and all the memories it evoked.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, I’m admittedly a little biased here. As a NI-er, I was very excited to read a book both based on and mentioning places near me (potentially a first?).

I won’t spoil too much, but the premise of this novel is like nothing I’ve ever read before. And through it, Jan Carson captures so many prevalent attitudes and brings to the fore many important themes - including religion, love, and grief. It features a huge cast of characters, but each so distinct in their ways that you can easily keep track of them all.

Magical realism is key to its plot, and the way this story is told made me very nearly believe that it could be true. All in all, it’s a vivid story with originality (and Covid parallels) at its core.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started well, but I gradually lost interest. Probably me. I did finish though, felt I needed to know what happened.

[Michelle McGrane · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It’s the last day of June in Ballylack. The summer holidays have just begun. At ten past ten — evening, not morning — the first child dies.”

Rachel Carson’s fourth novel, “The Raptures”, takes place in a small town in Northern Ireland where it is 1993 and Hannah Adger has just turned 11. She is the only child from an evangelical, charismatic family, in a Protestant village.

The summer holidays have just begun when the children in Hannah’s class begin to sicken and die. They then return to haunt Hannah.

Carson writes about intergenerational relationships, the desire to belong, the importance of maintaining one’s individuality, the trauma wreaked by religious fundamentalism and the problems which seethe beneath the surfaces of small communities.

Set during the Troubles, Carson uses “The Raptures” to evoke the conflicts, fears and limitations of 1990s Northern Ireland. The novel shines a light on the complicated nature of people with different beliefs living side by side.

Jan Carson’s most recent novel is original, terrifying, witty and darkly funny.

About the author

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast. Her first novel, “Malcolm Orange Disappears”, was published in 2014 to critical acclaim, followed by a short-story collection, “Children's Children” (2016), and two flash fiction anthologies, “Postcard Stories” (2017) and “Postcard Stories 2” (2020). Her second novel, “The Fire Starters” (2019), won the EU Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Dalkey Novel of the Year Award. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and on BBC Radio 3 and 4. She has won the Harper's Bazaar short-story competition and has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award and the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize. She specializes in running arts projects and events with older people, especially those living with dementia.

A huge thanks to @netgalley, the publisher @transworld @randomhouseuk and the author for an advance reader copy of this book.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is set in a small town in Northern Ireland. It is a solidly Protestant town. The main protagonist is 12-year-old Hannah, whose family belong to a tiny, fundamentalist church. She is not allowed to go to the movies, parties, or read freely.

Just before the end of the school year (term) in the summer, her classmates become seriously ill, one by one. And they start to die. The cause of their illness is a mystery. As somber as that theme it, there
are many touches of the humor Carson is known for.

I read this book as part of a book group that meets monthly at the Linen House Library in Belfast. Members of the group wondered if this book would be understandable to people unfamiliar with Northern Ireland. Another participants noted the popularity Carson is experiencing currently with her book The Fire Starters which has been translated into a number of languages. I believe that readers who are interested in Irish fiction should give this a try.

[Dr. des. Siobhán · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel that is part ghost story (but not really) and part Troubles story (but not really). It's mostly a story about a young girl whose classmates all get sick and die but it is unclear why. Hannah's parents are super religious and it's heartbreaking to have insight into the inner workings of this girl trying to make sense of it all. The writing style just drew me in and I couldn't wait to continue reading, which is always a good thing for me. I do not really understand the ending and I think the depiction of the Troubles and Northern Ireland could've been fleshed out a bit more. Depicting small town racism and the toll it has on families living there was well done, but it still felt slightly othering to me, but I might be overinterpreting this I also still don't understand what exactly made the children sick, but I might need to read up on that. A fascinating, heartbreaking read. 4.5 stars

[Rachel Louise Atkin · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I read this book because it’s set in Northern Ireland and my heart is still there so I wanted to read some literature around that lol. The premise of this book was really interesting it’s about a school girl growing up just outside Belfast but then a weird illness descends on the town and starts affecting the children.

I loved it at the start and thought the vibes were really good, but then the further I got into it felt like it was missing something. I wanted it to be really eerie and isolated but it focused more on the main characters strange ability to resist the illness rather than going in an unsettling direction.

There was a big comment on religious freedom and belief which was interesting but I found that the booked just lacked in what I was hoping for and the focus was definitely off. The idea was great though and I loved the settling (everyone drinking Bushmills loved it) but apart from that I wasn’t really thrilled by it.

There was a section where Hannah the main character got the illness and it had so much potential to be fever dream like but it just missed out. I think if the way the story unfolded was better I would have liked it way more.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book as a mystery book (ie it was wrapped in paper, with just a few words to summarize the genre, so I didn't know what I was getting). I probably wouldn't have picked it up otherwise, but I did enjoy reading it.

It's a captivating story, all the more so through the second half. It went in a direction I didn't expect and was more religious than I'd anticipated as well (I should have known better given the title).

The pacing and structure were well done; it's well written and easy to read/follow.

I'm not dissatisfied with the ending...but I'm not all together satisfied either. It does leave one with questions. Would make for a good book club book as it would easily encourage debate and discussion.

[Chloe Fulton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jan Carson is a very talented local author. I read The Firestarters in 2020 and found the magical realism a bit too distracting so had put off adding The Raptures to my list. A few friends had read this book last year and had recommended it, I got this lovely copy from the library and am now considering spending some book vouchers on a nice paperback to add to my Irish book pile.

The Raptures is set in a small rural Northern Irish village during the summer holidays in the backdrop of the Troubles. It primarily follows Hannah Adger, a young girl from an evangelical family who has just finished P7, but alternate chapters focus on different characters to help paint the picture of the lives of this small community. During the school holidays each member of Hannah's class becomes ill with a mysterious illness which leads to fear and gossip within the little village of Ballylack.

The way Jan captures the nuances of Northern Irish fundamental evangelical Christianity is at times humourous and painful to read. The absurdism of our wee country, I wonder how this has been read and received elsewhere.

Jan's writing and chosen genre are very different from what I tend to lift off the shelves, but there is so much about this book that is just too good not to give it a go. The elements of fantasy do not seem out of place in this story, especially as we're trying to figure out what on earth is going on at the same time as Hannah.

[Molly Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this magical realist novel! There are so few Northern Irish novels that are primarily about Protestant communities, and Carson threads in aspects of sectarian culture while making each of the families unique. Hannah is an 11 year old from an evangelical family whose classmates are dying one by one and then visiting her as ghosts with tales of the upside-down town they now live in. There were a lot of great character twists, and my favorite character was Granda Pete, the former UVF, former evangelical whose faith has lapsed. Parts of the book were quite funny, as well. Read this and Firestarters!

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful wonderful book. And the acknowledgments floored me completely. Many thanks to Red Lion Books in Colchester for the recommendation.

[Sara.Pissenati · Rating 1 out of 5]

La trama mi sembrava promettente: in una cittadina irlandese, 10 bambini in quinta elementare si ammalano misteriosamente, tutti tranne una.

Leggendo la sinossi si risparmia la fatica di leggersi 400 pagine. La quarta di copertina riassume perfettamente il finale.

Non lo rileggerei, anche perché il libro è stato pubblicato di fretta, e si nota. Nella traduzione qualcosa non torna in 3/4 punti, correzione di bozze fatta in maniera approssimativa.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unrelenting deconstruction of evangelical Christian childhood in 1990s Northern Ireland. Fictional, but you wonder if the acid sting comes from somewhere closer to home. It reads as smoothly and matter-of-factly as butter - all credit to the confident prose style, and the heft of generational nostalgia. The whip-sharp cynicism made me sad.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Midwich Cuckoos meets Derry Girls meets Let the Right One In. Loved it.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

The plot irritated me because the reader is just made to witness multiple deaths of children and the aftermath was always the same; of course there is grieving, confusion and anger and then the ghost of the child appears, just to say something unimportant to the protagonist. The ghost world in which the children exist is a replica of the town they lived in, except its just the ghost children - but they all have turned into adults - living within the town. Why is it just them? Has nobody else in the town ever died? The story focuses unnecessarily on the ghost children who have created cringe-worthy gangs in the afterlife. Too often is there a description of the secret dance-move-code that the ghost children do to show they are committed to the ghost gang. It’s messy and the end is even messier. It just feels like a drag to read, I really wouldn’t recommend. None of this is even a spoiler as the actual plot seems to be introduced every so often and finally comes to an end after the reader has been forced to read about each family’s grieving process in depth.

[Chiara Liberio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another masterpiece by Northern Irish writer Jan Carson, one of my favourite contemporary novelists. A strange epidemics that takes the lives of a group of school children in the same class except fo Hannah, who gets to see thir ghosts after their death – a bit older. Veering between the absurdist, the Agatha-Christie-sque detective tale, magic realism, the comedic and the tragic with Carson’s trademark subtle, wry understated dark humour, The Raptures offers a marvellous portrait of a Prostestant town steeped in fanaticism and provincialism, where immigrants are like strange apparitions, as well as of the Ireland of the Troubles and the burden of it all. Carson is a true chronicler of Northern Irish life, visionary and acute. Like in other novels, I love the magic realism element and focus on children as those who bear the brunt of that legacy. Weird and mesmerizing.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.