The Gathering

Isobelle Carmody (author)

Puffin Books, Australia: 1993; 265pp

ISBN: 014036059X

Genres: adventure, fantasy

Issues: abuse, change, corruption, friendship, identity, values

Joint winner of the 1993 Children's Peace Literature Award. Short-listed for the CBCA Awards, Older Readers.

‘Sometimes you get a feeling about a thing that you can't explain; a premonition of wrongness. Mostly you ignore it the way you would a little kid tugging at your sleeve. You think: what do kids know anyhow?'

Nathaniel finds, however, that his premonition that there is something wrong with - and in - Cheshunt is absolutely correct. An apparently model neighbourhood, where there is no crime, and where teenagers are obedient to their parents and off the streets by 9pm, Cheshunt carries the smell of decay. Nathaniel thinks at first that the stench comes from the long-unused abattoir - until he realises that nobody else can smell it. Although he hates the new school - the deputy principal with his strangely hypnotic eyes, the groups of boys who enforce his wishes, and the unnatural conformity of most students - Nathaniel also feels strangely drawn to the place after school hours. Before long he discovers that he is not in Cheshunt by chance; that although there are dark powers rising and attracting those who are open to corruption, the light also calls to those who will act as its champions.

Nathaniel, Indian, Nissa, Danny and Seth have all felt the wrongness of what is going on around them and, with Lallie's guidance, they are determined to bring about the downfall of the Gathering, the youth army led by the deputy principal. But the teenagers find that to heal the present they must reach back into the pain of the past - their own as well as the history of the town, where evil things have happened before. They find that the power to stand against those who seek to dominate comes not so much from physical fighting as the strength of their relationships; the acceptance of one another with all their strengths and weaknesses; that by rejecting a person because of their flaws they are in fact weakening their own power, which comes from their individuality and tolerance of different personalities.

Although very much a fantasy of the ‘dark versus light' variety, where a small group of unconventional individuals stands against unthinking conformity, this is nevertheless an interesting and absorbing novel. Carmody's champions are complex characters, troubled teenagers who are fighting personal battles that are very believable. Nathaniel is trying to understand why his mother seems to trust him so little, why she is unable to talk to him about the father they left when he was small, and who has recently died. Nissa has lived in an attic above the school library since her grandmother died and has bad memories of her mother's many boyfriends. Indian, who is very physically strong, has to live with the guilt he feels about his disabled sister. Danny trusts no one, and for very good reason. And Seth, whose father is a corrupt policeman, drinks.

This is one of Carmody's earlier novels and demonstrates the great gift she has for storytelling. Her writing has a tension that echoes the darkness looming over Cheshunt, creating a disturbing allegory of fascism, with notable references to the Hitler Youth. It challenges the reader to consider the freedoms that are sometimes sacrificed in the name of security or order. Thought-provoking and well worth reading.

Warning: Contains a very distressing scene in which Nathaniel's beloved dog is set alight in front of him and burned to death.