Waking

Susan Kemp is an instructor at the Queen’s School of English,
Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.

This young-adult novel essentially deals with loss: how we cope with it
and learn to live with it in, one hopes, a positive way.

Implicit in 16-year-old Beauty Dubois’s mother’s death is the fact
that she committed suicide, although Beauty’s father refers to it as
“an accident.” Since then, Beauty’s dreams have been haunted by a
Shadow Lady, a woman in a black dress with a long, beaded train, who
seems to be stalking her.

Rumours of the nature of her mother’s death lead to questions and
innuendo at school, but a new friendship with Luna and an involvement
with Poe allow Beauty to become more positive and self-confident. Sadly,
that new confidence is undermined by her nightmares, which have become
even more terrifying, with images of blood and death. Finally, Beauty
realizes that she must solve the riddle posed by her dreams and discover
the identity of the Shadow Lady and the nature of her curse.

Harvey-Fitzhenry, who studied creative writing and literature at York
University, writes an effortless poetic prose, which is both assured and
mature. The kind of challenges that her characters have to deal with
would have been considered impossible for a teen audience a decade ago.
Reading this book makes one realize just how far literature for young
adults has come. Recommended.