The Gathering [Paperback]

Isobelle Carmody (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1996

When fifteen-year-old Nathanial moves to a sinister town that has been bruised by an ancient evil, he finds himself one of those Chosen to fight the cycle of darkness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This "superbly crafted" supernatural thriller features a teenage boy who moves to a strange, Stepford-like village and becomes embroiled in a cosmic battle against a mysterious evil force. In a starred review, PW said, "The suspense never slackens.... Utterly riveting." Ages 12-up. (Dec.) r
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-10-Vile odors, feral dogs, fascistic school monitors, and a demonic principal combine to convince Nathaniel, 15, that something is terribly wrong in his new town. As part of a class assignment, he probes into local history and discovers the shocking truth about the death of a school janitor years ago. The evil from that chilling incident still grips Cheshunt and is now rapidly gaining power. Nathaniel finds himself drawn to a group of misfits at school and they are soon involved in a struggle against the terrible forces that seek total control of the community. Suspense builds slowly and creates an atmosphere of grim foreboding. However, Nathaniel is the only one of the young people whose personality is distinct, and the fantasy elements in the plot are not fully developed. The principal is, of course, pure evil. The other adults are mostly unaware of the epic battle shaping up around them. Only when evil is about to triumph do the young people at last understand the true nature of their power. It is this last-minute insight, however, that makes the chilling climax a success. The message-that love, loyalty, and true friendship can conquer jealousy and hatred-will not be lost on readers. What will attract and hold them, though, are the superbly crafted elements of horror, which are the story's real strength.
Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro,
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (December 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014038538X
• ISBN-13: 978-0140385380
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,110,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chilling, disturbing and utterly compelling, July 15, 2004

By 

Laraine A. Barker "Laraine A Barker" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gathering (Paperback)

"Outside the wind was blowing the wrong way and the world was filled with the smell of death ..."

At face value, Cheshunt is a model neighbourhood. But almost as soon as he and his mother move there Nathanial knows there is something wrong--something hideously wrong. And it isn't just the stench from the old abattoir, which doesn't seem to bother most residents.

Nathanial soon learns he is not in Cheshunt by accident. As the dark calls its own, so does the light. Nathanial must confront phantoms from his own past if he and all the others called by the light have any hope of stopping the Gathering and its creator.

The word "dark" in The Gathering should really have a capital letter (as it does in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising) for the forces of evil could not have been more vividly realised than in this book. A number of people who have read it see the Cheshunt school's headmaster, Mr Karle ("the Kraken") as a representation of Hitler. In a quote on the book's front flyleaf Terry Lane is reported to have called The Gathering "a dark, grim allegory of fascism". Many young readers might not realise just how accurate the analogy is because Hitler actually ran an organisation called The Occult Bureau. (If anything proves how insane Hitler was, this waste of time and resources surely does.)

The evil depicted in The Gathering is truly spine-chilling and I think the main reason for this is that Carmody doesn't rely solely on occultism to create the evil. While Nathanial's schoolmate Buddha (a very strange name for an evil character) is clearly driven by the Kraken's supernatural influence when he burns Nathanial's dog alive, there is nothing supernatural about how he does it. I found this incident so disturbing it kept me awake for hours. The scene in the fourth Harry Potter book that several people described as too frightening for many children pales by comparison. This is partly because monsters like Voldemort exist only in someone's imagination. Any well-adjusted child knows this, but also knows that it would be all too easy to murder a little dog as Buddha does.

I found a page of reviews by teenagers (http://owl.infosys.utas.edu.au/reading_room/books/4.html) where there were quite a few readers who didn't like The Gathering, and I suspect this is because they had to study it at school and write an essay on it, or answer a series of questions calculated to make them really think. (Some of them seem to have entered their views here.) Most young people would probably have enjoyed The Gathering if simply given it as being a "cool" book to read. Although the page of reviews mentioned above is peppered with the sort of review so often found on amazon.com (i.e., the "this is the best book in the world" type of review) several children have posted the material they were required to produce when studying the book at school.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suspensful, nerve-wracking and utterly wonderful!, April 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gathering (Paperback)

Carmody shows her mastery of plot and theme in "The Gathering" as she writes about the sinister town of Cheshunt, where Nathanial has been drawn. He finds others like himself, called to fight the evil that grew a long time ago in Cheshunt. Just as good- the Circle has been called to fight evil, so has the Darkness been called. Nathanial, must not only face this evil, but the hostility of the "good" members of the circle, and the betrayal within the circle as he searches for the answer to unlock the key of the evil in Cheshunt, and forever purge the evil that has lain there for so long. A thoroughly superb book to be read by any age, and person, it's unputdownable!

4.0 out of 5 stars Magic..., March 19, 2011

By 

E. Ingram (Illinois) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gathering (Paperback)

It's my kind of genre: creepy, mystical, shut-up-with-the-reality-already kind of stuff I love to read. This book is...a mystical fight between a good group and an evil group. I want to say, "simple as that," but honestly, it's not at all simple. It's complicated. It's maddening, sometimes, how the truth is right in front of you and none of the adults in the book will believe it.


Ultimately, good read, good style, good craft. I'd give this book a B. It didn't BLOW ME AWAY, but it gets high marks in creativity, style, plot and okay marks in character. There were some things I didn't buy. It's also tied up a little too nicely at the end. I'd have liked for it to have been a bit more complicated at the end and a bit faster at the beginning, but it seems many authors have this problem. It's nothing that ruins this book. Just a matter of author choice.


I will, however, also warn that there are a few rather graphic scenes which are appropriate for the story and make complete and total sense in the book, but if you're recommending this to a young person who is easily upset, it may not be the best choice. But then, this magic/fantasy/science fiction genre may not be the best choice for such a reader, anyway.