Main Characters: Kara, Sakura, Miho

Summary:

Kara’s afraid to go to sleep—until the nightmares come when she’s awake . . . .

Sixteen-year-old Kara Foster is an outsider in Japan, but is doing her best to fit at the private school where her father is teaching English for the year. Fortunately she’s befriended by Sakura, a fellow outsider struggling to make sense of her sister’s unsolved murder some months ago. No one seems to care about the beautiful girl who was so brutally murdered, and the other students go on as if nothing has happened. Unfortunately, the calm doesn’t last for long. Kara begins to have nightmares, and soon other students in the school turn up dead, viciously attacked by someone . . . or something. Is Sakura getting back at those she thinks are responsible for her sister’s death? Or has her dead sister come back to take revenge for herself?

Anna’s Thoughts

I found out about The Waking: Dreams of the Dead through Lenore who had a Bloomsbury contest going on, which I was lucky enough to win. Before I found out about that, and the second I saw the book in the contest post, it was put into my TBR pile. The book sounded interesting to begin with, and then I went to the site to read the prologue, and that first sentence of the prologue coupled with the end of it, dragged me in completely.

“Akane Murakami died for a boy she did not love.”
The Waking:Dreams of the Dead, Prologue

“The whole of Miyazu Bay seemed comprised of her tears. Even the sky wept as she died.
For a boy she did not love.”
The Waking:Dreams of the Dead, Prologue

The prologue of Dreams of the Dead was one of the best and most intriguing, vividly detailed, introduction chapters I have ever read, not to mention tremendously heartbreaking. That very first sentence is what pulled me into Dreams of the Dead, and the imagary, culture and folklore is what kept me until the very end. Dreams of the Dead was amazing, simple as that.

The plot is original, the characters are likable (or not likable, depending on who you’re talking about…), and there’s so much Japanese culture. I loved learning about the schools and customs that are used there that resemble nothing we have in the US. As well as the lore and beliefs about the dead that the Japanese have. The only problem with learning these things however, is that I have no outside personal knowledge of any of those things, so I have to take the authors word for it, unless I want a couple hours of research ahead of me!

Not to mention, it’s scary. Not ‘OMG gonna pee myself’ scary, but ‘holy mother of baby Jesus what is going on’ scary. And Thomas’ vivid descriptions of everything just intensifies that ten fold. I’ve heard a few reviews say that the book was slow for them, and might be for major horror fans, but it wasn’t for me. Not even a little bit. It was gripping and thrilling, and I read the entire thing in one whole sitting. I did stop to eat dinner, but the entire time, I was sitting there thinking about what happened next, I didn’t even finish eating, I wanted to get back to reading it so badly!

A few of the names and places in the book are slightly confusing to me, which is why it’s rating is lacking 1/2 a star. I remember a few times Thomas would mention something, and the only thing that would go through my mind was “what in the world is he talking about?” Which I would then have to look up the words for, but it doesn’t hinder the story very much, even if you don’t want to look up the words, it’s very easy to move on from them without it effecting the story at all.

I LOVED the twist in the plot as we got nearer to the end and figuring out who or rather what was tormenting Kara, her friends, and the school! I did not expect it to turn out the way that it did, but when it did turn out that way I loved learning about it! And that is all I can say about the matter, because even with that I’m on the verge of giving something away!

Overall it was an incredible book, bursting at the seems with Japanese culture, folklore, a great plot, original settings and wonderful characters. I really cannot wait for the sequel The Waking: Spirits of the Noh out in May of 2010!

You can find out more about Thomas Randall and The Waking books on his site at ThomasRandall.net. You can also read the first chapter of The Waking: Dreams of the Dead here!