The Seven Rays review by CAwg
The Seven Rays
by Jessica Bendinger
Age Range - 12 and up
Genre - Fiction

LitPick Review

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Age at time of review - 17
Reviewer's Location - Charleston, SC, United States
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The Seven Rays, a fantasy and science fiction novel by Jessica Bendinger, is about a girl named Beth Michaels, a seemingly normal girl who's a senior in high school and on her way to go to Columbia University, after a lot of hard work. She receives a strange golden envelope, at her school, with an intriguing message that's not even addressed to her, rather to an Aleph Beth. Then she starts seeing things, strange things, like dots, bands, and ropes. She has surgery done to her eyes because she's so worried about her strange vision, but it doesn't work. She also falls in love with a guy from school, Richie. He happens to be the brother of her best friend's love interest. Beth eventually ends up in a mental institution because she keeps seeing things and has episodes. She's diagnosed as a schizophrenic. While she's there, she befriends a girl that happens to be deaf, learns difficult truths about her mother and best friend, who actually turns out to have a terrible character, and discovers that she's actually not crazy.

Opinion: 

The Seven Rays started off pretty boring, when Beth got her golden letter. It got a lot better in the middle, when Beth was at the mental hospital, but got worse when she got even more messages in golden envelopes. It was somewhat interesting when she broke out of it. The plot was interesting, though not spectacular, and Beth was a decent character. It was, however, pretty predictable. I could tell that something was off about her mother from the beginning. This was not one of my favorite books, but neither was it one of my least favorites. It was pretty strange when Beth got a tattoo and started talking to a deaf person, who talked back, at the mental hospital. I got mildly sad after Richie, Beth's boyfriend, left. If you're looking for a fantastic book to read, go somewhere else. If you're looking for a decently written book with interesting characters and an somewhat unusual plot, then read The Seven Rays.

 

Rating:
3
Content Rating:

Content rating - mature content

Explain your content rating: 

There were some inappropriate and disturbing scenes with Beth and Richie.
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