OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING (draft 1, Act 1), reviewed by Madinrei

[Editor's note: The Rapture logs reviewed here were in their first draft at the time and have since been heavily edited and revised. This review is kept solely for posterity, as Madinrei is the one who first began Mythos Review.]

I said it before and I’ll say it again: Rapture is extraordinarily long. And yet, despite its length, Rapture has succeeded in both capturing and keeping my interest, which can be rare with a story so obviously complex.

I’ve often heard from DJay that Act 1 was not his finest ‘Act’, and I would like to immediately throw out there that I disagree. There is a very unique feel that is generated in the first Act that gave me more of a chilled, horror-filled ambience than, say, the second Act did. It can be best described with Jordan’s starting innocence as a character. He hasn’t been filled in with many of the details of hows and whys of the apocalyptic events, and at times in the beginning of the Act, it feels as though the coming Rapture hasn’t quite sunken in for him yet, which contrasts terrifically well with the direness of the whole situation. The reader knows that darker things lay on the horizon for Jordan, and as Jordan stumbles, sometimes blissfully, into these darker situations, one can’t help but feel both terrified and sympathetic for him.

Jordan also goes through intriguing development through this Act, and I would even go so far as to say that his encounters with the Wooden Girl could be considered a sort of ‘rite of manhood’, seeing as Jordan appears to go through some drastic maturity growth once he’s free of the Wooden Girl’s influence. Before, when the Wooden Girl practically had her strings in him, Jordan is a helpless character, constantly pondering about the morality of his deeds and yet powerless to change them with Donnie’s life on the line. Yet once opportunity arises, and once Jordan takes that opportunity to temporarily eliminate the Wooden Girl, Jordan regains some control in his life and begins to use it, in my opinion, a bit more wisely. Instead of simply trudging about looking for answers, Jordan begins to look for a safe haven for him and Donnie, and throughout the rest of the Act he becomes more of a conscious protector than simply dragging around a guitar and haphazardly hitting things as they come. This development pleases me, because as much as it was humorous to watch the adventures of poor Jordan as Rapture continually spews shit in his general direction, it is more gratifying to see a character that may or may not become an integral part of humanity’s fight to survive.

The semi-arc of the Exodus was also a pleasing thriller for me to read, vaguely reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None via the inescapable setting and the slow murdering of pretty much everyone on board. (With the exception of the Campers) The suspense is what makes that part of Rapture, and with the culmination of the zombie army awaiting Jordan and Donnie on the shore of America, the suspense truly did not disappoint.

This does not go to say that Act 1 was perfect, of course. There were a few parts that dragged on, especially when Jordan is on his own ‘converting’ for the Mistress. It is understandable that Jordan’s ramblings are to fill in for thought and time as he traverses Europe alone, but to the reader I can see it becoming that one part of the story that you want to get through really fast so you can get to the better parts. There were a few ‘WTF’ moments for me, more revolving around ‘how can a crowbar possibly decapitate someone in one stroke when it’s for the most part a blunt object’ than the thankfully left out Wooden Girl rape scenes, but perhaps that’s just me being anal.

Overall, though, Act 1 was a pleasant read. Enough suspense, horror, and humor to please my reading fancy, and a truly good wrap up at the end. (Thank you DJay for not giving us a horrific cliffhanger between Acts)

Coming up next, of course, will be the review of Act 2.

OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING (Draft 1, Overture), reviewed by Madinrei

[Editor's note: The Rapture logs reviewed here were in their first draft at the time and have since been heavily edited and revised. This review is kept solely for posterity, as Madinrei is the one who first began Mythos Review.]

Of all of the Fearblogs that exist in the Mythos universe, I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING is probably one of the most well-known. Thus, I only found it fitting to dig into Rapture for my first review on this blog.

Rapture is extraordinarily long. That is the first thing that came to my mind when I started reading it, and unfortunately I don’t tend to be the fastest reader. Thus, the review of Rapture is going to be split into parts consisting of the Overture and each of the Acts. The Overture is shorter than the Acts, yes, but it does function as a nice prologue and a good starting point for the review. Quite a bit can be learned about the protagonist and the overall story from just that first day.

The protagonist, one Jordan Dooling, is for the most part just your average cynical teenager, choosing not even to acknowledge the Rapture the first moment it happens. (Sky’s turning red? That’s gotta just be some fire, it’ll get taken care of. Time to look up some porn.) Soon enough, though, Jordan comes across enough horrifying creatures to realize something is well and truly up, and from that point on it is merely a matter of survival for the first day.

The story is told through ‘logs in Jordan’s journal’, which I realize may have come up in debate among some of the readers as highly improbable. (After all, how could Jordan possibly write in a journal if it’s in the mouth of some hellish creature?) I will admit that I had these thoughts myself. The journal entries seem to me to be more of a record of thought than writing, if anything. The way Jordan tends to interrupt his own ‘writing’ midsentence, the way  Jordan will bold things when he comes across a decisive thought, and even the things Jordan writes down and notices point me more towards the thought process motif than anything else. It was near the end of the Overture, however, that I made an interpretation of Rapture that perhaps solves this dilemma. Jordan’s journal, or how I will choose to see it, seems to be a physical representation of Jordan’s mind. This holds true for all of what I have read of Rapture, not just the Overture. Throughout the story, Jordan is constantly losing and replacing his journals, most of which tends to happen during extremely stressed and active moments and moments of calm respectively, which reminds me of how in trying situations you tend to sort of lose yourself for a moment. ‘Getting caught up in the moment’ is a good phrase to compare to this behavior, and afterwards when Jordan is resting and collecting himself, his mind returns to him. (Usually a new journal given to him by a friend or found somewhere.) Sometimes the journal is taken by the eldritch creatures that roam the world inRapture, and that could perhaps be a reference to the shock Jordan feels at seeing such creatures, to the point where he would temporarily ‘lose himself’. (Only to snap out of it via grabbing back the journal.) Plus, in the later Act 1 scenes with the Wooden Girl, she forces Jordan to write down in the journal, which could very easily be seen as brainwashing because she is controlling what goes into his mind, fitting the powers of the Wooden Girl perfectly.

With that mindset, I found it much easier to enjoy Rapture. I came to realize that the author seems to share my love and attention for the littlest of details, whether it’s Jordan injuring himself on glass he shattered moments before (something often overlooked) or the soreness of Jordan’s arms after whacking at zombies for a good space of time. The details can get a tad extreme at times…but when I consider my theory of the journal being Jordan’s thought, the details only seem to make sense. Your brain registers quite a few things from day to day, so when an entry about the exact clothes Jordan is pulling on comes up, it makes logical sense that he would list them one by one, as though he is thinking about each one as it is pulled on.

It is also good to note that the author knows a thing about showing and not telling. Jordan’s backstory is very obviously hinted at, but the author does not go into excruciating detail to let the audience know who Jordan is. Jordan’s actions speak for him, and any more than that would be rather extraneous in a story like Rapture.

I will mention that some realism has to be thrown out the window while reading this, and not because of the Rapture theme. For example, I still have no idea, to this day, how Jordan’s guitar controller manages to stay in one piece after hitting so many solid things with it. Those things are incredibly flimsy. But that is a minor detail, and when you consider that this takes place in a world that has taken a turn for the clearly fantastical, it is easy to overlook.

There are many references to popular forms of entertainment in Rapture, which are sparse in the Overture but pop up quite a bit more later on in the story. The few references there are in the Overture range from a very brilliantly placed hint of a reference to a blatantly obvious, slap you in the face with a quote reference. I found myself preferring the former of the two, especially what I believe is a small G-Man cameo near the end of the first day. The obvious quotes, such as the Portal reference at the beginning of the first day, seems a tad forced, though I do realize this is written in the mindset of a teenager and teenagers do tend to force these things.

The actual Rapture itself in the story is claimed not to have actually happened, even though the world is descending into a pre-Rapture chaos. Red skies, giant monsters, and, of course, Fears all roam the streets of the world Jordan is trying to survive in, and while it can definitely be considered an extreme take on the Fears, it is in no way a bad take. In fact, the Fears themselves seem to mesh into an end of the world scenario rather well, such as the infamous Rake simply scurrying around with no particular vendetta towards Jordan himself, just there to cause a little fear and chaos. While reading Rapture cannot be considered an overly terrifying experience, as some Fear Mythos blogs tend to aim for, it does lead to an enjoyable, fun read. The Overture doesn’t bring in much of the overall plot of Rapture just yet, but it is enough of a taste to encourage readers to keep going, and a very much a good representation of the diversity of the Fear Mythos universe.

The Act 1 review will come soon, and will obviously contain more perspective on Jordan and Rapture’s plot than my thoughts during the Overture. However, since the Overture contains very little development on both of those, I found it fitting to stick with the general for now. So stayed tuned for the next installment of the Rapture review!