I Shall Awaken is one of those books that goes under the radar yet begs to be discovered and read by folks like me who love a good horror novel.
One fateful day, in an intentionally unknown time and place, four children disappear from their kindergarten class during nap time. A classmate, who was spared, sees what happened but nobody believes her crazy story about shadows materialising and eating her classmates and friends.
But twelve years later, three out of the four missing reappear, now young adults with no memory of what has happened. The little brother of one of them hasn't come back with the rest, adding to the very creepy mystery.
This novel is set in a small town that we, as the reader, are free to contextualise as we read. There's no hints as to the time period nor location of this place and this allows you to experience the story from your perspective.
What we do know is that the people in this town believe in ancient gods, curses, and evil. When tragedy begins to affect the town, the residents believe the returned children are to blame and think they've brought a curse back with them. They are looked upon with caution and distrust.
As they attempt to figure out the circumstances of their disappearance and return, they'll find out that evil really does exist and they're on borrowed time if they hope to find the still missing brother of one of the four.
This book will crawl under your skin and dig around as they uncover secrets they were never meant to know. Secrets about the town, it's history, and even their own family members.
You should definitely buy I Shall Awaken by clicking this link.
For my full review, check out my Horror Reads YouTube channel here.
Dave from Horror Reads
