The Sleepwalkers

August 29, 2011
Gates, coauthor of the Tracks series, presents a twisted horror tale hampered by choppy, overwritten, noir-style prose and a problematic plot. High school graduate Caleb Mason intends to become a journalist and call attention to the AIDS crisis in Africa. After receiving a bizarre letter from his childhood friend Christine asking for his help, Caleb changes plans and heads to his old hometown of Hudson­ville, Fla., along with his best friend, Bean. There they find that Caleb’s father is missing, along with hundreds of locals, all connected to the Dream Center where Christine is a patient, a hospital for sleep problems housed in an old asylum. While trying to rescue Christine and find his father, Caleb uncovers a grandiose plan that involves the devil, spirits that communicate over AM radio, and an insane man trying to bring about the end of the world. Horror fans willing to overlook the flaws will find chills aplenty, but with unsympathetic characters that lack chemistry and a plot with gaping holes, Gates’s story is salvaged only by the tension and creepy atmosphere. Ages 12–up.

November 15, 2011
Grades 9-12 Class valedictorian Caleb's future seems pretty well mapped out, until he receives an unsettling letter from a childhood friendnow in an asylumwho pleads with him to come save her. On a hunch, he jets from Malibu to his birth home of Hudsonville, Florida, where he discovers a sinister psychiatric institution called the Dream Center, an unholy nexus from which spring an army of sleepwalkers possessed children and teens who seem to be doing the bidding of ghostly masters. Gates attacks this horror thriller with admirable vigor and a strong sense of style that, while not always applied consistently, makes this a work of notable ambition. There is so much going on that supernatural particularsand there are a lot of themget lost in the shuffle. But when Gates strikes upon a good character, he strikes hard, as with Ron Bent, a hook-handed Vietnam vet and ex-pastor; and an especially creepy villain who is part serial killer, part mystic, part rodeo clown. Could have been tighter, but at least there's plenty to sink your teeth into.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)