The Seven Rays

November 23, 2009
In this lackluster fantasy debut, 17-year-old narrator Beth Michaels has hallucinations of glowing dots, tentacles, and knots. Eye surgery is of no use, and Beth develops the ability of “retrocognition” and begins learning the graphic history of things she touches and hears. Vicariously feeling musicians' experiences with drugs and sex by listening to her iPod, or being subjected to the pain and slaughter of livestock after biting into pepperoni pizza, Beth is soon overwhelmed by sensory overload. Eventually, Beth's mother places her in a mental institution, but Beth escapes with help and heads to New York City in order to save her mother, whose life is being threatened. Screenwriter Bendinger (Bring It On
) aims for hipness in her prose, but comes across as strained and awkward (“Shirl was covered in pink dots.... Then the dot-o-vision got all fuzzy and stopped. Sadly, eyelash Tourette's was not to be the diagnosis. Or the live-agnosis”). Though the ambitious premise is interesting and the characters are varied, much is kept in secret, making the unexciting final revelations even more disappointing. Ages 14–up.