The Waking: Dreams of the Dead (old edition)
Randall is a pseudonym for Christopher Golden, whose mysteries (including the Body of Evidence series) have a large teen following. Here, he fuses his trademark of suspenseful, creepy deaths with Japanese culture as 16-year-old Kara Foster and her professor father move to Kyoto to start over after the death of Kara’s mother. Both father and daughter are fluent in Japanese and obsessed with Japanese culture. Kara’s new school (where Mr. Foster teaches) is still reeling from the recent unsolved murder of a student, and even as Kara settles in and makes new friends, she suffers from debilitating nightmares that preview tragedies to come. The manga craze has hooked many a teen on Japanese culture, and Randall weaves much Japanese language, mythology, mores, and etiquette into this fast-paced opener to the Waking series. A somewhat clumsy epilogue baldly states what happened, but the thrill of nightmares, demons, and murders throughout counteract this weak ending. Grades 7-11. --Debbie Carton