The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
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Book Reviews of The Graveyard Book
Book Review: Another masterpiece by Neil Gaiman
Summary: 5 Stars
Neil Gaiman's modern day and slightly macabre updating of Kipling's THE JUNGLE BOOK is yet another in a string of outstanding books. Looking at the sheer mass of brilliantly inventive books that he has written, I'm not sure that there is a writer in the world that I find more consistently entertaining.
What amazes me most about Gaiman is how he manages to take a relatively simple idea -- that inhabitants of a graveyard will raise a boy and protect him from the person who wants to kill him -- and builds a richly detailed story on those relatively small foundations. Nobody Jones is a wonderfully memorable protagonist and the many friends who surround him are persistently delightful.
But this book does not consist merely of a great collection of characters. The book climaxes with a string of exciting, nail biting encounters that are brilliantly imagined and executed. My major hope is that Gaiman decides to write a sequel to this. I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to Nobody Jones for good. Despite the multiple SANDMAN volumes he has not really written much in the way of sequels. THE ANANSI BOYS is very vaguely a spin off of AMERICAN GODS, but only vaguely. Hopefully he'll make an exception with this one.
Those who grant awards and honors have agreed that this is one of Gaiman's finest books. Despite the book's extremely dark themes (the very first scene reveals a man who has just used his bloody knife to murder a house's inhabitants) it won the Newbery Award, which is given each year to the finest juvenile book. It also received a Nebula and a Hugo nomination. All of this is to say that this truly is by any standard a superb novel. If you love Neil Gaiman it is a must-read novel and if you haven't read any Neil Gaiman it is a great place to start.
Book Review: It takes a graveyard...
Summary: 5 Stars
As a Gaiman groupie, I can't tell you how thrilled I was to have Gaiman win the Newbery. As a Gaiman groupie, I'm embarrassed to tell you that I didn't read his award-winning novel when it came out. But, hey, that's easily rectified!
The Graveyard Book is easily the most touching "ghost story" I've ever read. Yeah, I cried at the end. It was funny. It was adventuresome. It was suspenseful. It was totally deserving of the Newbery. At its heart, it is really nothing more than the typical bildungsroman. Child is born, grows up, has to strike out on his own... But, of course, it is what's between those lines that really counts.
Nobody Owens lives in a graveyard. Yes, really! His parents were brutally murdered when he was a child, but the hardy toddler escaped to the local cemetery, and was adopted by the ghosts of Mr. and Mrs. Owens. Although it does take a village to raise a child -- or in this case a graveyard -- and all the inhabitants adore their live boy and take excellent care of him.
But, of course, there comes a point when Nobody (or Bod) yearns to leave the graveyard, even though he knows that the world is not safe for him. You see, the man Jack who came after Bod's family so many years ago is still trying to finish the job.
The episodic nature of this book is interesting, and makes more sense when you read how the book came together. Gaiman wrote a little story for a magazine (which became one of the best chapters in the book) but when he read it to his daughter she wanted to know, "What next?"
And so will you.
Ages 10-14, roughly. The only thing that gives me pause in terms of younger readers is the novel's rather gruesome beginning. For boys and girls and, frankly, anyone who loves a good story. Go Newbery!
Book Review: One of the Greats
Summary: 5 Stars
I am the first and foremost to hand out bad reviews for the slightest of reasons, but this book is just plain Good. It Tells the story of a baby boy that escapes from the house after his family has been brutally murdered and makes his way to a graveyard, meeting with two ghosts, Mr and Mrs Owens.Mrs Owens holds an undocumented conversation with the Ghosts of the boy's family and it is implied that she agrees to raise him provided everyone in the graveyard can come to a unanimous decision. The voting drags on for quite awhile until a word is spoken by "The White Lady" whom escorts the dead to their place of rest on a white horse. Her opinion is simply "The Dead should have Charity." all agree. This being decided, the residents of the graveyard resort to finding a suitable name for the baby. Each declares who the child resembles until Mrs Owens interupts and declares that he looks like nobody. Thus "Nobody" or "Bod" is given the freedom of the graveyard and granted the ability to see the dead.
The rest of the book chronicles events of "Bod's life as he grows up in the graveyard with vague allusions to(and the eventual defeat of) those that murdered his family .The book bears a number of potentially interesting (though ultimately flat) Characters. What makes the latter function as a good quality is that most every event included with the characters involved ties together at the end of the story and serves some important purpose. An example of this can be seen with Silas'(Bod's Caretaker in adiottion to the Owens) frequent leaving of the graveyard. It turns out that when he did so it was to slay more of"The Jacks" a worldwide organization of murderers responsible for the death of Bod's family. Overall if you don't mind a few loose ends this is definitely worth the read.
Book Review: Macabre and Fascinating -- A Modern Grimm's Fairy Tale
Summary: 5 Stars
I find it fascinating that so many reviewers think that darkness and grim plot devices are anything new in children's literature. L. Frank Baum, who gave us The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 100th Anniversary Edition (Books of Wonder), was especially fond of decapitations, and no one can say that the Brothers Grimm shied away from blood or gore in telling their "happily-ever-after" ditties.
But a well-told story is not as common as a merely scary one -- and the story of Nobody Owens, raised by ghosts and a benevolent vampire after the grisly murders of his entire family is a very well-told story. This imaginative tale had me from the first ghostly whisper of "Who goes there?" after the barely-toddling hero of this novel wanders into an ancient graveyard and falls into surprisingly friendly, but very dead, hands. The novel follows the adventures of Nobody (nicknamed "Bod") as he matures from a small boy to a teenager of sixteen, as he tries to become both human, and protect himself from the evil Jacks who are intent upon his death. The novel stands on its own, although I would not be surprised to see more adventures of Bod in the future.
Neil Gaiman's wonderful world of ghouls, werewolves and eerie secret parallel universes grabs the reader and never lets go. I loved this book, and I'm not usually a fan of the paranormal. But after reading The Twilight Saga in order to find out what my teenage daughters were raving about, I am going to be watching these authors very carefully.
I recommend this book highly.
Book Review: Deliciously Different
Summary: 5 Stars
Neil Gaiman's wonderfully dark The Graveyard Book opens with murder--three members of a family are mysteriously killed by a man named Jack, whose intent was to kill all four of the family members. Unfortunately for him, but luckily for us and the child, a toddler escapes the house and makes his way across the street to a graveyard. The inhabitants of the graveyard, long since dead and forgotten, save the young child and bring him into their world, giving him "Freedom of the Graveyard" and raising him in a most unusual manner. And while the dead do not eat or leave the confines of their ghostly "homes", the mysterious undead Silas agrees to be the child's guardian and supply him with his earthly needs. Thus Nobody Owens is adopted into a lifestyle which will find him able to converse freely with ghosts and learn many useful traits such as Fading and Dreamwalking.
I was entranced from the first pages of this delightful book. Bod, as he's called, is a typical boy in a very untypical place. Brought up by people long dead, he misses out on today's modern world but finds so much more to occupy him. As the tension mounts when the man Jack realizes where his intended victim now lives, we see how Bod's upbringing has helped him as he saves not only himself but also his real friend, Scarlett. I was surprised by the twist Gaiman gave us with the man Jack, and I loved the setting and the bravery of the dead and the living. Filled with dark atmosphere and sly manipulations, The Graveyard Book is charming and engrossing. I didn't want it to end; I want to live with Bod! This one is sure to delight readers of Gothic literature, young adult literature, and those who just plain love a good story. Highly, highly recommended.