A Game of Dark

A lingering stench - "metallic and rotten and piercing" - is at first Donald's only memory of the Dark Ages domain where his imagination takes him in an unsettling classroom episode. As the story unfolds and Donald's actual world - constricted by grimly Methodist parents, his father an invalid - becomes more oppressive, his guilt at not liking and not pleasing them becomes harder to face or deny and the sessions in the other world become longer and more consuming. After Berry, the affable Church of England vicar Donald secretly prefers to his real father, absolves him with advice and acceptance and information about the accident that injured his father and killed his sister, whom the boy never knew but whom he recreates in his fantasy, Donald is able to slay the foul and frosty "90-foot worm" of his imagination. Freed thus of his obsession he chooses reality and goes to sleep "consolate" - just as his father dies. The actuality of the fantasy world and the horror of its monster are more compelling here because they are unequivocally creations of the boy's mind. The psychological dimension is only one of the distinctions of this mature novel, which will not be everybody's game but will reward willing participants. (Kirkus Reviews)