The Night Walker
by by Patricia Elliott
Nightwalker is divided into three distinct sections: in the first we learn about Daniel Stoker, a deeply unhappy boy. Daniel finds it impossible to communicate with his father, is indifferent to his step-mother, tolerates his younger step-sister and is more than half in love with his elder step-sister, Cora. To make matters worse, someone is stalking Daniel and he fears it may be Ash, the imaginary friend he invented years before and who has taken on a life of his own.
Ash kidnaps Cora and Daniel pursues them to the Edgeland, halfway between this world and another.
In the second section Daniel finds himself in a land of terminal despair and dread where a gang of children live without hope or direction. Daniel bravely leads them out of their Slough of Despond. In the third section, Daniel is parted from the lost children and literally has to fight his demons. He wins, liberates the children and finds himself back home in London, at peace with himself and at ease with his complicated family setup.
Although each section is quite distinct, the plot is held securely together by strong narrative and emotional threads. The first section concentrates on establishing Daniel's state of mind; the second on a symbolic portrayal of his deep depression (and it is a powerful interpretation of this most dreadful of emotional torments); and in the third on a daring, deftly handled, use of myth as a metaphor for psychological struggle. Both the story of Daniel's relationship with his family, and his fight against his own state of mind, told against a background of archetypal myths, will strike chords of recognition with young readers.
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