The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman
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Book Reviews of The Graveyard Book
Book Review: The Graveyard Book
Summary: 5 Stars
The Graveyard Book is the story of Nobody Owens, a boy whose family is murdered one night and who is subsequently raised in a graveyard. In typical Gaiman fashion, even though this story is completely implausible, you completely believe that a boy can be raised by ghosts in a graveyard.
I was really pleased to read this book. Gaiman deftly creates something so much more than a ghost story; it is a story about growing up, becoming the person you are meant to be and accepting your place in the world and ultimately having no regrets about the decisions that you make on that journey. At least that's what I got out of it. The story opens with 3 murders; the man Jack is out to kill a family. However, even though he may be the best for this job, the toddler escapes. The man Jack follows him to a graveyard, but the child's family is one step ahead, their ghosts pleading to the inhabitants of the graveyard to protect the child. A ghost, Mrs. Owens, agrees to take in the child, who is given Freedom of the Graveyard, the ability to live there, almost spectral like, and also giving him total protection from the man Jack. Not knowing what he is called, his new extended family names him Nobody Owens, or Bod for short.
Bod has several adventures during his younger days, and the denizens of the graveyard do their best to provide for him, but eventually, as with any young person, Bod begins to questions his place in the only world he has known, the graveyard. He begins to venture out into the real world, bringing unwanted attention to himself, especially from the man Jack. The book finds Bod coming into his own as he confronts the man Jack and overcomes the obstacles set before him.
There are lots of clever moments and turns of phrase in the book (like the man Jack, and the organization he works for) and the story really flows nicely. The accompanying illustrations by Dave McKean work surprisingly well with the story, adding just that much more texture to the reading experience.
This was a real treat of a book, and I was almost sad when I finished the story; it was a world that I would have been happy to have visited for awhile more.
Book Review: Another fantastic Gaiman novel!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have said this before, and I'll say it again, until the end of the universe: Neil Gaiman is one of the most amazing, talented, and creative writers that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. The only reason that I didn't read this book when it first came out is this: I love Gaiman, and I love everything that he writes, and I always devour every new book that I get my hands on within a day or two, because I just cannot put it down. So I vowed to stop buying the books until they're out in paperback (which is also easier to stick in my purse for re-reading!).
But anyway, that point was proven by this novel. I got it from the library last night, started idly flipping through it on the way home while on the train, and the only reason it took me so long to finish is because I had to go to sleep at some point last night and work all day today.
This book most definitely lives up to everything that Gaiman has written in the past. It has the darkness and horror, the metaphors and themes that appeal to his older audience, but at the same time it is most definitely a novel for Young Adults.
It takes a graveyard to raise a child, as Audrey Niffenegger (another one of my favorite authors ever) says on the back cover, and that's basically what this novel is about. An infant's family is murdered, and the infant survives, is taken in by the ghostly residents of the local graveyard, and named Nobody ("Bod"). But the man who killed his family is after Bod as well, and Bod grows up acquiring skills both of the living and the dead in order to learn how to survive this killer who is after him.
The novel is exquisite, from the language to the brief but significant meeting with Scarlett. Dave McKean's illustrations are scattered through the novel and add a really amazing touch of fantasy and fancy to a novel that might otherwise dabble in the Too Serious category.
I could ramble on about this novel for days, but I'll this brief (well, as brief as I can). Definitely an A+ novel, and there is obviously a very good reason why it was awarded the Newbery Medal, one of the highest achievements a children's book can receive.
Book Review: Loved it as an adult and would've LOVED it as a kid
Summary: 5 Stars
I won't re-hash the plot -- others here have done nice jobs of that. I just want to say that I had a wonderful time with this book and I am not EVEN a kid. This is, however, the kind of book I would have devoured when I WAS a kid -- flashlight under the pillow after I was supposed to be asleep and everything.
Gaiman finds the balance between adult fiction and juvenile fiction. In fact, the copy I read had a gold seal on it where it had won an award for "Young Adult Fiction". It's probably a little too heavy in places for little kids (the beginning which others have discussed, plus the death of a character who was defending Bod) but Gaiman handles them with just the right amount of honesty without belaboring them. Bad things happen sometimes; Gaiman knows it and he knows we - kids and adults - know it too.
On the main, I found the whole story completely engaging and hated to see the last page. The charm of it, of course, is all the interaction between Bod and the family that raises him...who just happen to all be dead. Beyond that, they're pretty much like you and me with a few restrictions on what they can do, but also a few abilities we don't have, all of which are positive or at least benign.
In a way, I think the book could provide some kids (and adults?) with a point of view that might make death a little less fearsome. At no time is death advocated - in fact, it's rejected by the ghosts as a possible solution to a problem Bod's having at one point - but, especially for kids, death can be such a taboo subject that seeing it handled as almost a footnote to the characters' interaction at times might be a nice alternative viewpoint. After all, none of us knows for sure...
I've read almost everything Gaiman's written (my favorite adult fiction of his: American Gods) and I'd LOVE it if he'd write a sequel to The Graveyard Book. I'd like to know what happens to Bod as he grows into adulthood and (hopefully) finds a way to span the worlds of life and death so we can find out about his world outside the graveyard and once again meet the ghostly friends we've made in this book.
Book Review: Go buy it now...you will not be sorry
Summary: 5 Stars
The Graveyard Book is Neil Gaiman's second entry into the young adult arena. The first novel was Coraline and that is being made into an upcoming movie. The book follows the adventures of Nobody Owens also known as Bod (think I would have stayed with Nobody). His parents meet an unfortunate fate that forces Nobody to live the neighborhood graveyard. Nobody is raised by ghosts, Mr. & Mrs. Owens, and a caretaker, Silas.
Dust Jacket Summary: Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.
He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.
There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.
But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack-who has already killed Bod's family. . . .
Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, the graveyard book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.
What I liked: Easy answer, everything. This is a book that will sneak up on you. It will start out simple in the beginning but by the end you are deeply involved with the characters. Neil Gaiman also accomplishes what few authors can. His young Nobody acts and sounds like kid and as he grows, the character changes to match his maturity. The side characters are also well thought out and add much to the story.
What I didn't like: I wish the book was longer. Some of the side characters, like Silas, have an interesting back story that is never fully explored. One can always hope for a sequel.
Last word: Don't be put off by the Young Adult tag. Go buy it now, you will not be sorry.
Reviewed by Matt
Book Review: Kipling's Jungle Book in Ray Bradbury's October Country
Summary: 5 Stars
The Ray Bradbury link is no accident: Neil Gaiman himself has talked about how Bradbury's work has deeply influenced him, and it was in the Bradbury-esquely titled "M is for Magic" that I first encountered Bod Owens, in "The Witch's Headstone". I don't think there is any other writer today, besides Neil Gaiman, whose stories can evoke that place of mystery and shivery wonder that Bradbury dubbed the October Country, and this book takes you right into the heart of it. The book reminds me very much of Bradbury's "From the Dust Returned" (both feature a young boy living among odd, supernatural beings), but the story is more linear and concrete and Gaiman approaches it with his usual practical magical realism. And in developing Bod's journey to full self-awareness of this place in the world, Gaiman delved into Kipling's classic "Jungle Books", specifically the stories of Mowgli the wolf-boy, one of my childhood favorite books. Like Mowgli, Bod loses his family in a shiveringly off-screen murder, but the killer, known initially only as "Jack" is far more of a monster than Kipling's lame, cowardly tiger Shere Khan. A Victorian couple of ghosts known as the Owenses take in Bod when he wanders into the graveyard, much as Mowgli was taken in by Father Wolf and his mate Raksha when he wandered into the mouth of their cave, and he is tutored by the mysterious Silas, who may or may not be a vampire, but who mirrors the dangerous stateliness of Bagheera, Mowgli's black panther mentor. And the ghouls that capture Bod are a gleefully gruesome riff on the band of monkeys that capture Mowgli. But beyond that, a mysterious lady in grey riding a white horse appears toward the beginning and the end (a beginning in itself...), who more than slightly resembles Death, from Neil Gaiman's own Sandman comics...
I could say trite things about this being the sort of book that kids and adults will both enjoy in different ways, and reading it will keep you up all night in a good way, but these definately fall short in describing the wonders of this newest offering from a master of fantasy