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A review by crloken
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
5.0
Original Review: Entertaining play on Jungle Book. Its told in an episodic style where every chapter is a separate story, and this works quite well. Its a fun book with a good message that I would not hesitate to give to children.
Update: I used to have so much more brevity in my reviews on here. I believe my original intent was just to have a sentence or two for my own uses about all the books I read. When I returned to goodreads recently it was more specifically in order to make myself practice writing in some form. Anyway, I just reread The Graveyard Book and I pretty much agree with my former review except to say that the book is more haunting and beautiful than I gave it credit for.
Nobody Owens is adopted by ghosts after his family is killed by The Man Jack and is given freedom of the graveyard. Each chapter takes place two years after the previous one and tells another story about Bod's life growing up in a graveyard, his love for his dead friends and family, and his yearning for the living.
By framing life by showing only one living boy trying to grow up among a graveyard of ghosts, Gaiman is able to illustrate the process of growing up in a way that feels both inspirational and wistful. Life is filled with potential and as long as we have that there is hope for change and growth and for things to get better.
It's very different to interact with fiction than it was in 2013 or even in 2019. In the age of the pandemic there is a particular angst and fear that becomes reflected in the way I view a lot of fiction. The Graveyard Book was a good pandemic read. In a weird way the quarantine makes one feel a kinship to Bod as he is trapped in the graveyard, but there is also a hope, joy and beauty of life that Gaiman brings out in his story about dead people. The Graveyard Book is haunting, but helps remind me that the quarantine will end and the world will be out there waiting.
Update: I used to have so much more brevity in my reviews on here. I believe my original intent was just to have a sentence or two for my own uses about all the books I read. When I returned to goodreads recently it was more specifically in order to make myself practice writing in some form. Anyway, I just reread The Graveyard Book and I pretty much agree with my former review except to say that the book is more haunting and beautiful than I gave it credit for.
Nobody Owens is adopted by ghosts after his family is killed by The Man Jack and is given freedom of the graveyard. Each chapter takes place two years after the previous one and tells another story about Bod's life growing up in a graveyard, his love for his dead friends and family, and his yearning for the living.
By framing life by showing only one living boy trying to grow up among a graveyard of ghosts, Gaiman is able to illustrate the process of growing up in a way that feels both inspirational and wistful. Life is filled with potential and as long as we have that there is hope for change and growth and for things to get better.
It's very different to interact with fiction than it was in 2013 or even in 2019. In the age of the pandemic there is a particular angst and fear that becomes reflected in the way I view a lot of fiction. The Graveyard Book was a good pandemic read. In a weird way the quarantine makes one feel a kinship to Bod as he is trapped in the graveyard, but there is also a hope, joy and beauty of life that Gaiman brings out in his story about dead people. The Graveyard Book is haunting, but helps remind me that the quarantine will end and the world will be out there waiting.