Reviews

The Wake by Neil Gaiman

Only show reviews with written explanations

In a sense, I believe that this volume of Sandman and my review of it has been influenced not only by what I saw, but how it made me feel. What it made me think about.
In the same sense that my life has been filling me with grief for the last two months, in which my daily life has been interrupted by death, funerals and sorrow, in the same way this volume became the catharsis of my own grief. Not only saying goodbye to Morpheus, but to the universe of Sandman that has kept me entertained for the last few months.
While some of the latter entries' were somewhat clumsy in its execution, it still served me the psychological purpose of how to say goodbye.. or not to say goodbye, in the first place. That nothing truly ends, only changes.
So thank you, for making me the wiser and thank you, for making me feel less alone with all the unforgiving facets that grief brings about. The anger, the despair, the relief as a writer that you have finally seen one of life's biggest mysteries - how loss feels.
For my unofficial therapy hour/art appreciation, I am very grateful for having read the Sandman. It has made me much wiser.

brobeccks's review

Go to review page

5.0

this is a very beautiful send-off. god. it’s going to take a while until i get over this.

kat_sanford's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

pipsqueaky's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

knod78's review

Go to review page

5.0

That was a wonderful final book to a great series. I loved the illustrations. I loved the wake and funeral. I loved how everyone came together to say goodbye. I loved the random stories at the end to tie in the last loop of the puzzle.

And since I lost a few friends this past month, I loved gaimens final message. It is so true.
“My electronic address book contains a number of people who have died...their names and addresses are still sitting there. All it would take would be a press of the delete key to remove them. But that would be too final a goodbye, so they remain undeleted.”

All the feels for Meka and Ryder.