The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

[slowfox]

This tells the story of Nobody Owens ('Bod' for short), who escapes assassination as a babe by toddling off to explore the graveyard at a particularly opportune moment. There he is taken in by the graveyard's residents, who care for him as best they can, and attempt to protect him from the ever-present threat that so prematurely ended his family's lives.

The story covers Bod's childhood, from him being adopted by his ghost parents all the way through to him becoming a teenager, with events of episodic nature taking place along the way.

There are moments in this book where Teh Neil's writing takes your breath away. I would try and quote a particular line, but you need to read the whole thing to get the context.

This is a macabre book, but a good one, with some quirky humour and neat observation.

I found the ending a little bittersweet, but choose to be cheered up by the phrase old friends to rediscover, taking that as a hint that all is not lost.

Comments

[cynthia_black]

I just bought that book as the third of a three for two deal in WHS when I was getting Eldest's latest fix...

[slowfox]

Astute call, I would venture to suggest!

[loup_noir]

One of the better books I've read this year.

[slowfox]

I think I would concur - has some epic moments in it (particularly every time the Lady on the Grey appears).

[soupytwist]

I really enjoyed it too - I especially like the reveal of who his tutor is, and Silas. :)

[slowfox]

Silas was awesome, as, after that poor start, was his tutor...

What's amazing about Neil is you read and read his stuff, and then you come across a sentence that just stops you dead with its purity and simplicity and sense of the absolute. And you just think 'wow'.

Still not happy about Scarlett, though :-/

[soupytwist]

Yeah, Neil is one of those people who occasionally hits the perfect. Not all the time, but yeah.

And he was actually asked about that on his blog - I don't know if you saw, but his argument was that it wasn't supposed to be taken as a good thing, like, yeah, maybe doing that to her was a bad idea. Personally, hmm, I'm not sure... I like that better than him not realising it's problematic, but I think he could have done with a lot more stuff making it clear that it was being pretty awful to her.