The Awakening (Hardcover)

The story is told through the eyes of a family in crisis, the Masons, as well as through the eyes of Mary, the ghost in this well told tale. The Masons are a family who have had their world turned upside down through a series of unfortuitous events. Their teenage daughter Elsie is suffering from some traumatic experience that has resulted in her being home schooled. Paul, the patriarch of the family, has done the near unforgivable, by having an affair with a student at the college at which he had been a professor. Having been summarily dismissed from his position for his ill advised behavior, he, a formerly succesful writer, also has had the misfortune to watch his career wane, as that of Penny, his wife and a successful surgeon, has been on the rise. Clearly, this is a family in crisis.

To escape the scandal, help their daughter, and try and save their marriage, the Masons have moved to their lakefront home in a rural section of North Carolina. While there, each of the family members has a series of unusual experiences. Elsie sees a woman named Mary wandering about the house, as does her father, while Penny has a series of violent dreams in which the woman named Mary also plays a part.

Meanwhile, Mary, is having her own crisis, as the reader will soon discover. Mary has ties to the house in which the Masons now reside, and the Masons themselves seem all too familiar to her, as she wanders around the house and grounds. You see, Mary is desperately trying to remember something that remains elusive, and the Masons may just have the key to her past.

This story is beautifully told when done so through the voice of Mary. Vivid in its imagery and language, it is very well done. When told through the collective voices of the Mason family, the book takes a much more pedestrian tone in the telling, which detracts somewhat from the book and takes away some of its polish and luster. Notwithstanding this, it is an intriguing and novel ghost story that is well worth reading.

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Paul Mason, a successful writer of children's books, and an English professor at a college in North Carolina, is fired for having an affair with a student. His wife, Penny, a surgeon, is now the only breadwinner in the family. She is devastated by her husband's infidelity. Their thirteen year-old daughter, Elise, is very troubled and recovering from a trauma she experienced a year ago. Withdrawn and depressed, Elise has been pulled out of public school and receives homeschooling from her dad. The family leaves their home in town and moves to their lake house, hoping to rebuild the marriage and their former close, loving relationship. Elise becomes more introspective after a brief time at the lake, and begins to hear voices and strange noises. Penny starts dreaming, vivid, violent reoccurring nightmares. Paul meets and converses with an unknown woman, who seems very much at home on their property. There are indeed bizarre goings-on at the Mason house. Paul, Penny and Elise are estranged from each other and not communicating well. But it is only through pooling their knowledge that they will be able to unravel the mystery - and time is running out!

During the period when the Masons move to the lake, a woman awakens from a long coma. She is disoriented and remembers nothing about herself, her life or her family. Someone, a psychiatrist or doctor, works with her but tells her that only she can unlock her memory - if she wants to remember. She slowly determines that her husband and daughter are dead, in an accident. Her only wish is to return home. Finally, when she remembers her name, she is allowed to go home.

Donna Boyd has written an eerie tale about worlds which exist on parallel planes. Those with pressing needs may pass from one to another. This is a simply written, engrossing novel where the telling of the tale is all important. I enjoyed it...and was scared at times - the test of a good ghost story!
JANA

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