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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
I had read a lot of Gaiman’s comics work and some of his short stories but nothing he had written in long-form until this book. It’s a good intro as it left me wanting to move immediately on to another novel by him.
The concept is fairly simple: baby Jack manages to survive a horrible massacre of the rest of his family by accidentally. wandering into the local graveyard where the ghosts adopt him. He is given the "freedom of the graveyard" and grows up there, taught by these long past dead and making friends with a few visitors, always careful not to leave the confines of the graveyard lest his family’s killer discovers him. As he grows up, he learns about the past of the graveyard itself, as it hides several secrets, and he eventually learns about his own past and why his family was murdered.
Gaiman’s style is breezy, but evocative and unadorned, very similar to [a:J.K. Rowling|1077326|J.K. Rowling|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1510435123p2/1077326.jpg]’s. Each chapter ends but leaves you eager to read the next, and when the plot finally gets around to the big reveal, it pays it off nicely with bits and pieces of those earlier chapters woven nicely into the finale. In fact, I would say this is one of the best plotted children’s books I’ve read in a long time, surpassing both Rowling and [a:Philip Pullman|3618|Philip Pullman|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1396622492p2/3618.jpg].
This is not a book for small children, however. Gaiman’s background in the rather visceral nature of comics comes through in his text and there are horrors and chills that could give a younger child some good nightmares. For adolescents and adults, though, this is a fun adventure.
The concept is fairly simple: baby Jack manages to survive a horrible massacre of the rest of his family by accidentally. wandering into the local graveyard where the ghosts adopt him. He is given the "freedom of the graveyard" and grows up there, taught by these long past dead and making friends with a few visitors, always careful not to leave the confines of the graveyard lest his family’s killer discovers him. As he grows up, he learns about the past of the graveyard itself, as it hides several secrets, and he eventually learns about his own past and why his family was murdered.
Gaiman’s style is breezy, but evocative and unadorned, very similar to [a:J.K. Rowling|1077326|J.K. Rowling|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1510435123p2/1077326.jpg]’s. Each chapter ends but leaves you eager to read the next, and when the plot finally gets around to the big reveal, it pays it off nicely with bits and pieces of those earlier chapters woven nicely into the finale. In fact, I would say this is one of the best plotted children’s books I’ve read in a long time, surpassing both Rowling and [a:Philip Pullman|3618|Philip Pullman|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1396622492p2/3618.jpg].
This is not a book for small children, however. Gaiman’s background in the rather visceral nature of comics comes through in his text and there are horrors and chills that could give a younger child some good nightmares. For adolescents and adults, though, this is a fun adventure.
I usually really like Gaiman's work, but couldn't really get into this one.
I sobbed after reading the book, then reading Neil Gaiman's acceptance speech. So fantastic.
My first encounter with Neil Gaiman was a documentary, Superheroes Unmasked. It followed Comics through time and showed how they influenced and were influenced throughout history. It is fab. I highly recommend it. As you can tell, I live in a bubble. I had heard of Coraline the movie, but hadn’t seen it. So I bought The Graveyard Book and it sat and sat and sat on my shelf, until I read Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal’s Review on On a Book Bender. It now became a priority and it didn’t disappoint.
This book takes you on a strange journey. A baby escapes the fate of his family by crawling out of the house and into the local graveyard. There he is cared for and protected from the people who are trying to kill him. I loved that the graveyard is a loving and caring place and not the creeptastic kind. The occupants share their stories and give life to their headstones. The Graveyard Book might help younger kids understand and appreciate the family visits to honor their ancestors.
He learns many lessons and grows up to be the kind of teen you would be proud of. During his brief time in school, I was so proud that he stood up to bullies despite that it endangered his time there. Just as you are lulled into this story, it twists and I gasped in fright and shock. Nicely done Neil. I didn’t see that coming. A book about a boy named Nobody, how could you not want to know?
A ghost story that endears.
This book takes you on a strange journey. A baby escapes the fate of his family by crawling out of the house and into the local graveyard. There he is cared for and protected from the people who are trying to kill him. I loved that the graveyard is a loving and caring place and not the creeptastic kind. The occupants share their stories and give life to their headstones. The Graveyard Book might help younger kids understand and appreciate the family visits to honor their ancestors.
He learns many lessons and grows up to be the kind of teen you would be proud of. During his brief time in school, I was so proud that he stood up to bullies despite that it endangered his time there. Just as you are lulled into this story, it twists and I gasped in fright and shock. Nicely done Neil. I didn’t see that coming. A book about a boy named Nobody, how could you not want to know?
A ghost story that endears.
What a beautiful, strange, treasure of a book. In the past year, I’ve come to rereading (or newly reading) quite a bit of children’s fiction, and it was with careful, eager hands that I accepted an audiobook of “The Graveyard Book.” While I’d seen it as a child, the title and cover had been enough to convince little-Dean that it was probably scary, and maybe not something I wanted to read.
Now, of course, I know that little-Dean (and presently, nearly twenty-year-old Dean) would have been well loved by this book.
Nobody Owens’ story is perfectly suited for Gaiman’s prose, and has all the faint warmth, less-faint chill, and whiff of the macabre of the best ghost stories that kept me curious at night as a child. Every night that I listened to this, I returned to the story of the boy raised in a graveyard not only with eagerness, but with the relish of being able to see the graveyard, Bod’s little world, and everyone in it so fully in my mind. In early adulthood, or at least recently for me, it’s been tough to find books that I can sink into and walk around in so readily as “The Graveyard Book.”
I feel beyond lucky to have wandered among the headstones with Bod, and with the trusty, calm voice of Gaiman at my back. It may not be the same as the first time, but I know I will return again.
Now, of course, I know that little-Dean (and presently, nearly twenty-year-old Dean) would have been well loved by this book.
Nobody Owens’ story is perfectly suited for Gaiman’s prose, and has all the faint warmth, less-faint chill, and whiff of the macabre of the best ghost stories that kept me curious at night as a child. Every night that I listened to this, I returned to the story of the boy raised in a graveyard not only with eagerness, but with the relish of being able to see the graveyard, Bod’s little world, and everyone in it so fully in my mind. In early adulthood, or at least recently for me, it’s been tough to find books that I can sink into and walk around in so readily as “The Graveyard Book.”
I feel beyond lucky to have wandered among the headstones with Bod, and with the trusty, calm voice of Gaiman at my back. It may not be the same as the first time, but I know I will return again.
This was a really cute, unique, and well written book.
Great book. Lots of funny moments and Gaiman creates a very interesting world. I can see why someone recommended it.