The Night Wanderer

Tiffany Hunter is dealing with a lot. She lives in Otter Lake, an Anishinabe (Ojibwa) reservation in central Ontario with her dad and grandmother. She's doing poorly in school, she fights with her dad constantly, and to make matters even more difficult she is trying to navigate a new relationship with a white boyfriend. Demons and ghost stories are the last thing on her mind—but they're the center of everything for Pierre L’Errant, the new boarder Tiffany's father has just taken into their home. Though from Europe, he is clearly Native, and mentions he is of Anishinabe ancestry. But who is he really, and where did he come from? Why has he come to Otter Lake, of all places? In The Night Wanderer, Drew Hayden Taylor gives us a new and show more refreshing twist on the centuries-old legend of the vampire.

The more I thought about this book, the more I liked it. At its heart, it is about home and family. Tiffany struggles with this, as she is constantly battling with her father over pretty much anything, though especially about her boyfriend Tony. There are a lot of underlying issues with this, as Tiffany's mother left her father, Keith, for a white man about a year earlier. Keith is still trying to recover, and unfortunately he isn't getting very far. He doesn't know how to handle his daughter, so he lets out his anger and pain on her—and she returns it full force. Stuck in the middle of this is Granny Ruth, Keith's mother. She's feisty, but is trying to deal with all of this pain and anger and not-talking-about-the-real-issue on her own, until Pierre enters the picture.

Pierre is a character we can sympathize with, though we're not sure we can trust him. His motives aren't clear until the very end. But what is clear is his attachment to his homeland, the place where he was born centuries before, when he made the decision to leave it and everything he knew for adventure and the unknown. He is not the tortured vampire struggling with what he is at his very essence, though there are hints that he has thought about it. He knows what he is and accepts it, which is truly a nice change from the brooding bad-boy vampire so popular in today's teen fiction.

Taylor works Anishinabe (more commonly known as Ojibwa) culture and language into Pierre's and Tiffany's intersecting stories—both in the modern and more ancient culture and teen experiences. Tiffany is trying to sort out what it means to be a part of her native community, often trying to escape it, though sometimes feeling guilty for not knowing more than she does (for example, she can't speak the language, like her grandmother). Usually I am hesitant to read fiction about certain cultures, especially Native American ones, for fear of misrepresentation of the people and the history. But because Taylor is Ojibwa himself, I trusted his descriptions and allowed myself to enjoy the story, knowing it is authentic. He also manages to include an interracial relationship and its resulting difficulties, such as racism and Tiffany's discomfort at being the only Native teen in a group of white ones.

Another thing I loved are the sometimes surprising little dashes of humor Taylor throws into his prose every so often. I found myself sporting a quick grin at many little details he includes, like this sentence in the middle of a suspenseful scene: "From deep in the bush, a hunter older than James, his house, and the mayonnaise at the back of his refrigerator all put together watched him closely" (79). But despite this comic relief, there are a few chapter that got my heart pounding—many strange and unnatural things are seen on the Otter Lake Reservation after Pierre arrives.

My only complaints lie with the characterization of Tiffany. For a while I felt like she was too flat of a character—I wasn't really getting where she was coming from, and she just seemed a bit off through the beginning. It took me a while to get into the book because it was mostly about Tiffany at first. However, once Taylor started writing about Pierre and other characters, I could see his talent better. I found out afterward that this was originally written as a play, and I thought that might have had something to do with it.

These days, everyone is sick of vampires and their sparkles and forbidden love interests in virginal white girls. But with his fresh interpretation and the addition of family drama and the importance of home, Taylor has given us a reason to enjoy vampire novels again. show less

Unlike any book I've read before -- and not just because it's about a Native American vampire. It's very much a character study, exploring the inner lives of its characters over the course of a few days. The stakes are, "objectively" speaking, pretty low, but they have an emotional intensity.

I suspect that those who read more literary fiction than I do will find the tone and structure of this book familiar.

Definitely recommended, but don't go into it expecting a standard paranormal/fantasy story.

Sixteen-year-old Tiffany is busy with trouble in her family and with her new white boyfriend - too busy to pay much attention to the mysterious visitor to her Anishinabe reservation. He avoids daylight, craves privacy, never eats, and has a strange knowledge of the area's past.
During the days we see Tiffany's struggles, and during the nights, Pierre relives the events that have led him back home. As Tiffany's world constricts around her this creepy stranger may be the one person that can help her see her options.
(spoilers)
I was frustrated by Tiffany - not by her behaviour, which I thought was pretty realistic, but that she didn't clue in much earlier that Tony was using her. And then she didn't realise that Pierre was telling her the show more truth about his life, not just a story. Argh!
I was disappointed in Pierre, his need to fast for the ritual made him entirely toothless, and created this weird contrast - in Europe he was a remorseless vampire, regretting only the first girl he killed, and in Canada he seemed a gummy elder playing jokes to teach kids a lesson. While much was made of his need to exert tremendous control to not bite any human near him, it just didn't ring true.
But there were a few moments that were genuinely creepy, especially the scene with Trish in the park, and the two boys at the baseball diamond. And I enjoyed Granny Ruth, a woman not only caught between two worlds, the Anishinabe and the western tradition, but also between her son and her granddaughter. I would have loved to see Pierre come clean to this woman, and see what she thought of him.
I'd give this book to fans of teen vampire novels, people looking for stories of reserve life, and to romance fans who are cranky after a breakup. show less

A young First Nations girl, disaffected and aimless, encounters a stranger who’s come home after a very long time, though his mystery is far less important to her than the fact that her mother left the family to go live with a white man in the city and her own budding-yet-troubled relationship with a white boy. A lot of the writing was tell-y in a way I don’t like now but wouldn’t have noticed (or would have liked) as a teen, e.g., “This was Tiffany’s first real relationship and she was nervous, though again she would never let Tony know.” But there were flashes of fun: “From deep in the bush, a hunter older than James, his house, and the mayonnaise at the back of his refrigerator all put together watched him closely.” show more Tiffany was a believably annoying teen, and this wasn’t a vampire romance; despite the supernatural element, there were no miracles, only perhaps some hope at the end. Overall I enjoyed it. show less

This ia a YA book (not normally a favorite of mine), but also a vampire book (a definite favorite of mine).

It was actually pretty interesting because of the Anishinabe/Ojibwa angle of the story. More creepy than outright scary & a very good ending, imo.

I'd recommend it for young teens & up. A worthwhile read & a good October read that's not too scary.

Very interesting angle on the vampire tale. Now I know that there was one other Indian vampire besides Lee Nez. Pierre L'Errant has walked the night for a very, very long time. He finds a way to get back to the home he has missed for most of the time since he changed. I have never read about a vampire who was tired of what he was and just wanted to be alive again to live a normal existence. Most film, whether big screen or small screen, vamps (except for Angel) like their "immortality" and power and do not care to go back.
I found Owl's reminiscing bittersweet and heartbreaking. To know that you have lost something of infinite value even if it is shortlived must be horribly tragic. He could see what his dreams cost him and he was tired show more of trying to make his "life" mean something. In trying to find his true self, he found a way to do some good in someone's life, Tiffany's. I celebrated his freedom with him in those last few words of the book. This vampire novel is a definite advancement of most other vampire novels. show less

Sooo...vampires. Okay. Originally, I had thought this would be a wendigo story with some vampiric elements. I was excited to read about new mythology and wondered how this would all play out. This is not a wendigo story. These are tired vampire tropes playing out and I was so disappointed. I did learn more about some First Nations culture. I am glad of that. This isn't the least bit scary. It's a coming-of-age story with some supernatural elements. I hate to admit it, but this was a chore to read. It was so slow. Nothing was particularly vivid. Every character was flawed, which, in a more interesting work, I would have examined and possibly appreciated. Not here. At least I finished it.