Welcome to the small Midwestern town of Belford, Ohio. It's a quiet, friendly town. On one corner of Main Street you'll find Barb's Corner Store. Opposite you'll see the town square, with its neatly trimmed lawn and statuesque gazebo. There's everything you need here. There's even a local bogeyman. You know the type: reclusive, looks a little strange. The person all the kids are afraid of. Every town has one. Except this one is stranger than most.
Meet Mr. Joseph. With his severely crooked neck and nasty facial scar, the old man from Haiti is the one resident all the kids whisper about and are scared to go near. But there are things about Mr. Joseph no one knows about. He has no heartbeat. No breath passes by his lips. And he has been dead for over ninety years.
It's summer vacation and fourteen-year-old Toby Fairchild is looking forward to spending a lazy, carefree summer playing basketball, staying up late watching monster movies, and camping out in his backyard with his best friend, Frankie.
But then tragedy strikes. And out of this tragedy an unlikely friendship develops between Toby and the strange old man across the street, Mr. Joseph. Over the course of a tumultuous summer, Toby will be faced with pain and death, the excitement of his first love, and the underlying racism of the townsfolk, all while learning about the value of freedom at the hands of a kind but cursed old man.
Every town has a dark side. And in Belford, the local bogeyman has a story to tell.

"A story that raises itself above a simple horror tale, THE AWAKENING resonates with heart while applying just the right amount of chills. Highly recommended!" - Ronald Malfi, author of THE NIGHT PARADE
"THE AWAKENING is a riveting and fascinating novel that really grabs readers. I loved that it's a coming of age novel that thrusts readers into the story and won't let them go. Brett McBean was already one of my favorite authors but The Awakening is one of the best books I've read in years, and I can't recommend it highly enough!" - John R. Little, author of THE MEMORY TREE, MIRANDA, and URSA MAJOR
"A coming-of-age tale that hit me in the gut, THE AWAKENING ranks up there with James Newman's MIDNIGHT RAIN, SUMMER OF NIGHT by Dan Simmons, and THE BODY by the grand master of them all, Stephen King. This is one that you'll recommend to your friends for years to come." - Pete Kahle, author of THE SPECIMEN
About the Author: Brett McBean was born and raised in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. A child of the '80s, he grew up on a steady diet of He-Man cartoons, Steven Spielberg movies and audio tapes such as Summer Hits '88. And yet, somehow he managed to turn out normal (well, kinda...). He started playing the drums at age ten and after high school, studied music at Box Hill College, one of Victoria's most renowned music schools, where he earned an Advanced Diploma. Shortly after completing the music degree, he turned his attention towards writing, and he now prefers to pound the keyboard rather than the drums. His books, which include The Mother, The Last Motel, The Awakening and the Wolf Creek prequel novel, Desolation Game (co-written with director/screenwriter Greg McLean), have been published in Australia, the US, and Germany, and he's been nominated for the Aurealis, Ditmar, and Ned Kelly awards. He won the 2011 Australian Shadows Award for his collection, Tales of Sin and Madness. He has a keen interest in true crime, in particular the infamous Jack the Ripper murders of 1888, and most of his fiction deals with true-life horrors, often using real-life crimes as a basis for his stories. He still lives in the wilds of Melbourne with his wife, daughter and German shepherd.