Reviews

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

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amandaajane's review

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

juno_enb's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

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

4.0

tobysutton_long's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I admit that upon starting to read this story I found it a little confusing, but as I went on I found it more and more engaging. This does share vibes with Good Omens a little but also manages to be very much its own thing, with funny characters and supremely vivid imagery. Neil Gaiman truly is a master of storytelling!

alialu's review

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4.0

I think maybe if I had read this book in a week as I normally would, maybe I would have given it 5 stars. But as I've been busy as hell, I had to wander through those only 370 pages in almost a month, and well...
I think reading it in short continued times made me be more aware of those moments where Neil simply explained some of London's history to create the surroundings. Some people may find it interesting, but it really didn't work for me. I found myself skipping some paragraphs because I had read them 3 times and still couldn't remember what they were saying.
I also have some struggle with

Spoiler

the way The Beast was so rapidly killed. I think the pace of the book had been great until that moment, where that creature that no one could kill suddenly is easily stabbed by a human from London Above who has never touched a weapon

That said, I can't deny the perfect way this book is written, the dark and plot-twisting it is or the way the characters are made, so ragged and especial.
I will gladly read more of Neil Gaiman and his amazing imagination.
And if there's a Below in my city, well I would like for someone to show it to me

strategineer's review against another edition

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1.0

This book is terrible. I read through this whole novel and I don't have anything to show for it.

I probably should have put the book down and lit it on fire when the gigantic black Rastafarian sumo wrestler in a diaper showed up. I probably should have stopped reading when the profoundly unlikable protagonist turns out to be a pedo. I probably should have stopped reading when I realized that none of the characters were interesting.

This book could be a third of the length and nothing of substance would be lost. Well, this book could not exist and nothing of substance would be lost.

If it were up to me, I would go back in time to ensure that this book never gets published or even written in the first place to stop myself from reading it.

Taking the Alice in Wonderland premise of someone falling into another world completely unlike their own is really cool and I've really enjoyed other texts that use this trope (specifically the Gregor the Underground Chronicles books by Suzanne Collins). So I was completely ready and willing to open my mind and enjoy Neverwhere.

Unfortunately it sucks a$$. There's only so much I can do to look past all of the cringe inducing white man POV present in this book.

NB: I read the "Author's Preferred Text" version of this text published in 2016. I'm not certain what changes were made to the text compared to the original but just FYI.

meaghanjohns's review

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5.0

Neil Gaiman's clever and metaphorical descriptions made this a 5-star read. It was enchanting and thought-provoking, and I recommend picking it up if you want to be sucked down the rabbit hole of magical realism.