Fantasy. Walking a certain way to open a portal to a world of monsters. Title: The "[Something]" Walk. Read mid 1990s.

[Mr]

I read a few chapters of a book when I was a kid in the mid 90s.
It was called: the “word I can’t remember” walk

I thought it was the brompton walk or something like that but I can’t find it.

The general premise was that a kid had learned to copy the walk of what I think were vampire like creatures and it would open a portal to the monsters world.

The book felt like it was a sequel, referring to a previous adventure where the young protagonist (teenage boy IIRC) had learned that walk.

This book’s early chapters had the kid in his apartment alone and all I remember was that he hears a noise and looks out the window and a grey monstrous arm grabs him.

I guess it’s probably considered fantasy but it wasn’t swords and sandals stuff very much 80s-90s setting and vibe. You typical city kid falls through a portal story. I’m sure it’s part of a series but I can’t for the life of me remember.

Even though I’m sure it was a young adult level story, I remember thinking it was amazing back then but I couldn’t find it when I went back to the library to finish it.

Cheers in advance for the help.

[Becca]

Barmy Jeffers and the Quasimodo Walk by J.H. Brennan? Or if you think you read the sequel, Return of Barmy Jeffers and the Quasimodo Walk.

[Mr]

Thanks! that could be it, I’ll have to grab a copy as I can’t find a plot synopsis, but the author does seem to be into the stuff that the book was touching on.

If it is Quasimodo walk I’m surprised I didn’t remember it as I love the story of the hunchback of Notredame. I’ll get one and post back if it is.

[Becca]

I couldn't find a summary either - fingers crossed this is the one!

[Mr]

How did you manage to find it, if you don’t mind me asking? I don’t remember seeing that pop up no matter what I was googling.

[Joseph]

There is some plot information here:
https://en.everybodywiki.com/Barmy_Je...

[Becca]

Mr wrote: "How did you manage to find it, if you don’t mind me asking? I don’t remember seeing that pop up no matter what I was googling."

I don't mind at all! Always happy to share searching methods. I used WorldCat, which is a global library database. You remembered the word 'walk' from the title which I thought wouldn't be that common, so I used the advanced search function with 'walk' in the title field and 'fantasy' in the subject field, then filtered by 'fiction' and '1960-1999' in the year range.

[Becca]

Joseph wrote: "There is some plot information here:
https://en.everybodywiki.com/Barmy_Je..."

Amazing, thank you!

[Mr]

Thanks for the info, I didn’t know about world cat that seems useful. I’ve order books 1 and 2 so I’ll let you know if they’re right, that synopsis does sound pretty promising.