"
Ballantine, July 2003, 12.95, 208 pp.
ISBN 0345462351
Paul and Penny Mason spend the summer in their home in Mercy, North Carolina trying to patch up their marriage and help their thirteen-year-old daughter Elsie heal from a trauma she went through a year ago. Paul is a best-selling author of children's books and had been a professor at the Woodlands, but was fired for having an affair with one of his students. Penny is working hard at trying to forgive him but is spending more of her time in Chapel Hill doing surgeries than staying at a lake house that is making her increasingly uneasy.
Penny has vivid dreams of the people that lived in the town in 1932 and the tragedy that occurred in her home. Elsie sees the ghost of Mary who is looking for her own husband and child. Paul is the only one who can speak to Mary but he doesn't understand why she is haunting his home. Elsie and Paul research the history of their home but it is Penny who finds out the answers that Mary needs to move on after she saves her daughter's life.
Donna Boyd has written a chilling and spooky old fashioned ghost story about two worlds in time and space that temporally connect so that members of one family can interact with the surviving member of the other family who needs to discover the truth about her past. The characters are all victims and survivors who must find a way to move on from the tragedies that have affected their lives. Readers will really enjoy THE AWAKENING and appreciate the wonder that is so much a part of this stirring tale.
Harriet Klausner
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Harriet Klausner, Resident Donna Boyd Scholar
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Overall Review
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dozens of literary elements, all of which are searchable.
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book Descript. of chases or violence - 10% planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20% Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 50% Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20%
Tone of book
- suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION?
- fantasy story on current Earth
Romance
Yes
Romance plotlets:
- two lovers coping with tough mission
- problems with kid(s)
Inner Struggle
Yes
Plotlet:
- search for identity/new understanding
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Horror story?
Yes
Horror plotlets
- the ghost chased me!
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- writer
Age:
- 40's-50's
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- none
Setting
Earth setting:
- current (early 21st century)
Takes place on Earth?
Yes
Style
Person?
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
How much dialogue?
- significantly more dialog than descript
