Book Review #17

 The Graveyard Book

Author: Neil Gaiman

Illustrator: Dave McKean

ISBN:978-0060530945

Publisher: HarperCollins; Reprint edition, 2010 

Genre/Theme/Style: Children's Fantasy. Good vs. evil, community, life & death, the supernatural. 

The style of the book changes narration at times and uses episodic layout to break the work into manageable pieces. This works well for emerging readers, in my opinion. It borrows heavily from Gothic literature with flashes of darkness, dark humor, prophesies, and Supernatural events. 

Main Characters: Nobody "Bod" Owens, Silas, Mr. & Mrs. Owens, Jack Frost, Liza Hempstock, Scarlet Perkins, & the community of the Graveyard. 

Setting: A graveyard in an English village, & beyond the gates of the graveyard. 

Plot: Jack murders an entire family, except the toddler that climbs out of his crib and goes up the hill to the graveyard. Mr. and Mrs. Owens, departed ghosts, adopt him and Silas, a vampire, becomes his guardian. They name him Nobody Owens and call him Bod. The community of the graveyard accepts him, and he is given Freedom of the Graveyard. This includes the privileges of Haunting and Fading. Bod becomes friends with a human girl, a witch, and a werewolf. 

As Bod grows up, Scarlett, the human girl, realizes that the police never solved the case of Bod’s family’s murders. Jack, who is a member of the Jack of All Trades, an ancient society that wants to murder Bod because of a prophesy about a boy destroying all of them, becomes friends with Scarlett's mother. Bod goes to Mr. Frost’s house with Scarlett, with the hope of finding out his real name. Bod is shocked to find that Mr. Frost is actually Jack. Bod and Scarlet manage to escape to the graveyard. Bod has a few tricks up his sleeve, but you will have to read the ending for yourself.   

 5 Roars! 🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁

Critical Analysis: Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. I have a small collection of his books that sit on my home library shelves along side much loved authors like Terry Pratchett, and Douglas Adams. 

Gaiman skillfully weaves mythology into many of his stories, plays with and redefines personifications of old deities such as Jack Frost, and yet still feels contemporary and timeless. He uses dark humor effortlessly to make these characters seem fresh and modern. 

However, for me it is all about how he interlaces bits of wisdom into his overall work. I think Gaiman, Pratchett, and Adams all do this with ease. Gaiman leans on small bits of wisdom, and sprinkles of insight into the human spirit to make you want to read more of his stories.  

"People want to forge the impossible.  It makes their world safer."

~~ Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

  

"Fear is contagious. You can catch it. Sometimes all it take is for someone to say that they're scared for the fear 

to be come real."

~~ Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

  "We are deep in Neil Gaiman territory here, and it's hard to think of a more delightful and scary place to spend 300 pages. Mrs Owens names the boy Nobody, "Bod" for short, and in each successive chapter Bod is another two years older, growing from infant to young teenager through a series of not always connected adventures." ~~ The Guardian

"Childhood fears take solid shape in the nursery-rhyme–inspired villains, while heroism is its own, often bitter, reward." ~~Kirkus Reviews 

Why 5 Roars? With quotes like, “Nearly' only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades.” The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is hard to ignore. The characters are well defined, the atmosphere is pleasantly spooky in a suspenseful but tasteful way, and the humor gets better each time you read the book.  

Awards: Hugo Award for Best Novel,  Newberry Medal, Locus Award for Best Young Adult Novel, & Carnegie Medal 

Connections: Gothic Novel Study