Dreams of the Dead by Thomas Randall

I loved this book!  
Summary:      Kara’s mother has just died and her father takes a post in Japan as an English teacher. She is fluent enough in Japanese, that the language is not much of a barrier, but the understandings of their local legends becomes one. Upon arriving to her new school Kara discovers a girl has been murdered, and nobody has been captured. She is referred to as “Bonsai‘- Loosely translated as being cut away and moved from her home, no roots to grow on.  And not making a lot of new friends, but there are some that find that she belongs and she begins to settle in. There are still some taunting and rudeness from the other kids, and then the bad dreams come. And she is not the only one experiencing them. Then students begin to die. Is there a killer loose at the Monju-no-chie School and will the nightmares stop?

My Opinion:    I thought every time I had to set it down “what is going to happen next?” I was very happy to find there were no slow parts in the story, it moves along at a great pace and plenty of scary happenings. The dream scenes will give you goose bumps and make your heart beat a little faster. Kara is a very intelligent character and does not back away from the other school mates when she needs to. She is curious which brings an element of detective work, and problem solving. The author spells out the Japanese words to better pronounce them. Very good supporting Characters, my favorite character is the main one, Kara she is so down to earth and easy to relate to,  but I also found Sakura very entertaining.  Most of the kids at the school are having the same bad dreams, and seeing  or hearing the cat, and then the Cherry Blossom smell appears…awesome scene set ups that get you to ask is it time for somebody else to die, are these the signs of death? This story will keep you on the edge of your seat.  I was ecstatic to see there will be two more books for THE WAKING series and will be on pins and needles until next June when the next one will be released!
To read more about this series, please visit the link below:                       
http://www.christophergolden.com/waking/awake.html