Book Review: The Graveyard Book
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
What a delightful book! I read the first chapter of it while waiting for Neil to read the second aloud, then devoured it in the following days, despite having two other books I was reading at the same time--it was hard to put down! It has echoes of classics, including The Jungle Book, The Chronicles of Narnia, and various fairy tales. The main character, Bod, is a living boy raised by ghosts, guarded by a vampire, and tutored by a werewolf. While such dead and undead are the stuff of many stories, including some of Gaiman's others, he puts new and innovative twists on each and every one of them. Bod's adventures growing up would be entertaining enough, but Gaiman injects more drama into the story with the struggle against the Jacks of All Trades, a nefarious organization after Bod's life who end up causing the fulfillment of the very prophecy they sought to thwart. Dave McKean's delightfully creepy illustrations complete the atmosphere and add additional wistfulness to an already bittersweet ending. While The Graveyard Book is technically considered a children's book, I would heartily recommend it to anyone!
What a delightful book! I read the first chapter of it while waiting for Neil to read the second aloud, then devoured it in the following days, despite having two other books I was reading at the same time--it was hard to put down! It has echoes of classics, including The Jungle Book, The Chronicles of Narnia, and various fairy tales. The main character, Bod, is a living boy raised by ghosts, guarded by a vampire, and tutored by a werewolf. While such dead and undead are the stuff of many stories, including some of Gaiman's others, he puts new and innovative twists on each and every one of them. Bod's adventures growing up would be entertaining enough, but Gaiman injects more drama into the story with the struggle against the Jacks of All Trades, a nefarious organization after Bod's life who end up causing the fulfillment of the very prophecy they sought to thwart. Dave McKean's delightfully creepy illustrations complete the atmosphere and add additional wistfulness to an already bittersweet ending. While The Graveyard Book is technically considered a children's book, I would heartily recommend it to anyone!
Comments