I SHALL AWAKEN

Dora’s village is turned upside down when three missing people return in this novel translated from the Czech.

Seventeen-year-old Dora Lautner has been labelled “crazy” ever since four of her friends—Sonya, Tom, Astrid, and Astrid’s little brother, Max—disappeared from day care 12 years ago while she was left behind, unable to say what happened. As the community begins the winter solstice festival of Korochun, during which the dead may walk among the living, Astrid and Tom reappear, unable to remember what transpired, along with a comatose Sonya. Max, however, is nowhere to be found. While people assume that Gustaw Linhart, their suspected kidnapper, set them free upon his recent release from an asylum, Astrid, Dora, and Tom aren’t so sure. When the traditional bonfire refuses to light and dead animals begin to turn up around the village, talk begins of a curse. During the 12 days of the festival, Dora, Tom, and Astrid must solve the mystery of the abduction and the returnees’ arrival in order to wake up Sonya and find Max before it is too late. The novel is eerie and atmospheric, with a plot drawn from the worst childhood fears of monsters under the bed. The final revelation of the truth behind the mystery does nothing to diminish the horror; if anything, it makes it even scarier. The measured pace is interrupted by bursts of terrifying action, keeping readers in suspense.

An intense, absorbing novel that will have readers jumping at shadows.