The Graveyard Book (2008)
Review by Sam O'beirn
Author: Neil Gaiman
I miss being a child, sometimes. I miss running around like a maniac, playing with my friends (imaginary or otherwise) and sure in the fact that all that mattered was when I could get home from school to be with my family again. When I was little, I remember that on the way to school, there was a graveyard. I always had to walk past it, and it always scared me that it was so much quieter than anywhere else in the town. And I was never quite certain, but I could swear that I could see the ghosts of the people buried there.
Neil Gaiman shares that same idea in his latest novel, "The Graveyard Book."
Set in a town in England, The Graveyard Book is the story of a little boy named Nobody Owens, who gets taken in by the local dead of a graveyard when his family is horribly murdered. There he is raised and cared for by the ghosts, as well as by his guardian, Silas. He makes and loses friends, learns about the dangers of the world (and of the graveyard itself), and learns of the man that killed his family, and who still is searching for him. By the end of the book, we see the man he will become, and we see how it is to grow up, and lose the magic of youth.
Neil Gaiman has written a gem here. At the beginning of the chapters, Dave Mckean has once again lent his artistic talents to Gaimen’s literary spell craft. From the moment we see the hand holding the knife, the story he weaves is both enchanting and slightly terrifying, and leaves you wanting more. That actually is the only complaint I have about the book itself is that it ended too soon. I found myself wanting to learn more about young Bod, and what happens to him. I wanted to learn about Silas, and the grey lady. I hope that there will be a second book, but at the same time I don’t. This is a fine read in and of itself, and made me think of my childhood, and the graveyard near my school, and the ghosts I thought I could see.
(9/10 Published by Harper Collins)