Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Graveyard Book

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

104 reviews

florecita_lectora's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? No

4.0

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betsw's review

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Instantly added to my "favorite fall reads" pile. Funny, charming, beautifully written, suspenseful at times. Kind of somber but leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy at the end.

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billyjepma's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

I can’t believe I’ve gone this long in life not knowing that Neil Gaiman wrote a retelling of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book with ghosts. If that’s not a book tailor-made for me, then I don’t know what is. And now that I've read it and loved every page, it's my contractual obligation to force everyone I know to read it and experience the emotions it gave me when I finished the final chapter in bed last night. An instant, all-time favorite that I might have to start revisiting every October.

Gaiman describes the book as a novel made up of short stories, and the approach works beautifully. Each chapter captures a pivotal experience in the protagonist's childhood, allowing us to watch him grow up without needing to spend 16 years with him. Gaiman's writing is as lovely as ever and expertly balances melancholy with tenders and adventure with scares. It's spooky without being scary, nostalgic without being trite, and is yet another example I can use in my argument that Gaiman's YA-leaning novels are his best works. This is a treasure of a novel. ❤️

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miss_vonnegut's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

WOW. I know Neil Gaiman is a great writer so I was expecting to enjoy this book, but I wasn't expecting to love it so much and so intensely. It was all good but the last two chapters are what brought it up to five stars for me. A lot of it did feel like a story written for kids/young adults (as it was), but it felt like the book grew as the main character grew in such a beautiful way. Also, as someone who loves "spooky season" but does not love horror or gore, this was a perfect level of spooky.

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gemstonejasper's review

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.75

It's Neil Gaiman. What more is there to say? I loved this cozy story about a boy raised by ghosts in a graveyard. The book itself deserves 5 stars. I gave it 4.75 because I listened to the audiobook and sometimes the music was too loud to understand what was being said.

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chrisljm's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

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

4.5

4.5 stars; For a book that starts off with a triple homicide, it is surprisingly sweet and funny. The sole survivor of the family who gets murdered is Bod, a baby who essentially gets adopted by the ghosts of a cemetery. It’s stated that it takes a graveyard to raise a child and it was very sweet to see just how true it was. I loved all the characters very much, but especially Bod and Silas’ relationship, and seeing how they all leave an impact throughout various parts of Bod’s life. The greedy part of me wishes I could’ve read more anecdotes on Bod’s life in the graveyard, but realistically I think the amount written was just right.

I listened to the audiobook read by Neil Gaiman himself (on youtube) and he was fantastic and so funny. This has become one of my favorite audiobooks.

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snipinfool's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Nobody "Bod" Owens had an unusual found family. His parents and sister were murdered when he was very young. Bod was able to escape when he heard unfamiliar noises in his house that night. He left out of the open door of his house and headed up the hill to the old cemetery. Once there, Bod found he could see the spirits of the graveyard's occupants. A husband and wife who never had children of their own agreed to take care of Bod and raise him in the cemetery. Bod was unable to tell them what his parent called him so he was called Nobody and his last name was the name of his "parents" who took care of him. A guardian agreed to provide items like food, clothing, and other items not usually found in a cemetery. The guardian was not a dead person and was able to leave the graveyard. The inhabitants taught Bod how to read and write and shared other knowledge they had. They told him stories of places they had been and wonders they had seen. The cemetery residents did their very best to raise Bod given their limitations.

This was an interesting book. I had never considered how dead people would go about raising a living child. I think they did a pretty good job of it. Bod did have some gaps in knowledge obviously, but it was also pretty great that he was able to learn some other skills the living do not know how to do. He was able to straddle the gray area between the living and the dead. He could see and converse with the people. He could see in the dark and fade in a way so others would not notice him. I did find myself wishing for a bit more in the story. I wanted more human interactions for him. Bod's story felt two dimensional and I wanted more. Maybe that was intentional on Gaiman's part, but it did leave me wanting.

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