WHAT was up with Will in *Midnight*?

*Midnight* was one of the only JW books I read as a kid, and the only one I owned. But I really loved the atmosphere, the genuinely creepy character interactions, and I always loved and related to Violet.

Is there a "real life"/naturalistic way to explain Will's behaviour, and why he was the way he was? I was always so unsettled by him because he was such a realistic bully -- I really distinctly remember a scene where he blindfolds Violet and leads her into the attic or into the basement, then scares her or leaves her there. I knew people who would do stuff exactly like that to me, though thankfully they weren't relatives (and I was an anxious doormat kid).

I think in the world of the story, he was supposed to have been a reference to the changeling myth. But usually Wilson is pretty literal in what her books are about. Is there something bleedingly obvious that I've missed?