Book: Dreams Of The Dead (The Waking #1) by Thomas Randall

Release date: September 29, 2009

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

From: Publisher

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?

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Kait Rose

Dreams Of The Dead (The Waking #1) by Thomas Randall

December 3, 2009 • 2 stars, horror, review, series • 6 Comments

Book: Dreams Of The Dead (The Waking #1) by Thomas Randall

Release date: September 29, 2009

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

From: Publisher

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?

*****

I have to start out by saying that I was really disappointed by this book. I really expected to like it and at first I did but as the book went on I really lost interest and almost couldn’t even finish it. It took me forever to get through it just because I didn’t want to read it.

Dreams of the Dead started off with a bang. Everything really started on the very first page and there wasn’t much background. Once Kate was introduced I felt like I was just thrown straight into her life. Once again, there wasn’t really any background about her life before she moved to Japan and I really wanted to know more. I think it might have made it easier for me to relate to her but as it was, I couldn’t find much that really connected me to her character. I actually didn’t feel like I really knew any of the characters and it made me dislike the book.

The only thing I found interesting in Dreams of the Dead was all the Japanese history. I didn’t know anything about Japan before reading this but I did learn a bit. It all tied into the story with the murder of Akane and all the crazy things that were happening at the school.

Overall, I hate to say it, but I didn’t like Dreams of the Dead. It is the first in a trilogy and maybe things will be explained in the next two books but I probably won’t be reading them. I really recommend checking this one out from your library if it interests you.

Writing: 6/10

Characters: 5/10

Ending: 5/10

Plot: 8/10

Originality: 9/10

Overall: 33/50=D

Cover: 8/10=B

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