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A review by finding_novel_land
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
3.5
3.5 stars
I had high expectations for my first Gaiman, and they were not met.
If you enter the world of fantasy fiction then at some point or another you will encounter Neil Gaiman: writer of Coraline, Good Omens, Sandman, American Gods, Dr Who episodes. LEGEND. This review is not going to sit here and crush Gaiman's status as an exceptional writer, because this man can WRITE!
From the first few pages of this book I knew I was in experienced hands. Gaiman has a beautiful way with words, world building and loves a description. I don't annotate my books like some kids on Instagram, but I really wish I had some tabs (and a dictionary for that matter) for this book because there were some beautiful literary moments in this.
I have struggled to justify rating my recent reads because of a conflict of enjoyment vs skill. We have hit this conundrum yet again. I appreciate Neil as the writer that he is, but it did very little for me.
I never got fully engrossed in this book, which I think is mainly down to the huge amount of description affecting the action's pacing - every time something happens you have to stumble through five metaphors before the happenings happens. For me a good book contains high stakes, lots of tension, emotional attachment, drama and prose I speed through. However, the constant description (especially about characters we have already met and understand) pulled me out of the book, causing a loss of tension and me just not caring about what was happening. I do wonder whether this was an issue of my particular edition (in which Gaiman brings together his favourite bits from the TV show, UK and US versions), as in parts it did feel like he was trying to cram in every. single. thing. he wanted to say.
One thing I will say in its favour is that the book lacked a rushed ending. So many books I have read tie the story up in 2 chapters and call it a day, but this book took its time over at least 100 pages to cover the climax and ending which I really appreciated. The last 100 pages also finally gave me the tension I needed, in part because all the build up finally came together (I love a good reveal section), and I actually stayed up late to finish it. This pushed the book towards 4*, but it was just a bit too late to redeem itself from being a very slow read with a meh plot.
Overall, I would still recommend this book to fantasy readers as I'm sure those less hooked on fast-paced YA like me would get more enjoyment from this, just don't get me started on all the characters named after places because there were so many face palm moments in this for me. I dunno, I'm starting to think I'm an exceptionally cynical reader.
^Me every time a new character underground pun was made^
I had high expectations for my first Gaiman, and they were not met.
If you enter the world of fantasy fiction then at some point or another you will encounter Neil Gaiman: writer of Coraline, Good Omens, Sandman, American Gods, Dr Who episodes. LEGEND. This review is not going to sit here and crush Gaiman's status as an exceptional writer, because this man can WRITE!
From the first few pages of this book I knew I was in experienced hands. Gaiman has a beautiful way with words, world building and loves a description. I don't annotate my books like some kids on Instagram, but I really wish I had some tabs (and a dictionary for that matter) for this book because there were some beautiful literary moments in this.
I have struggled to justify rating my recent reads because of a conflict of enjoyment vs skill. We have hit this conundrum yet again. I appreciate Neil as the writer that he is, but it did very little for me.
I never got fully engrossed in this book, which I think is mainly down to the huge amount of description affecting the action's pacing - every time something happens you have to stumble through five metaphors before the happenings happens. For me a good book contains high stakes, lots of tension, emotional attachment, drama and prose I speed through. However, the constant description (especially about characters we have already met and understand) pulled me out of the book, causing a loss of tension and me just not caring about what was happening. I do wonder whether this was an issue of my particular edition (in which Gaiman brings together his favourite bits from the TV show, UK and US versions), as in parts it did feel like he was trying to cram in every. single. thing. he wanted to say.
One thing I will say in its favour is that the book lacked a rushed ending. So many books I have read tie the story up in 2 chapters and call it a day, but this book took its time over at least 100 pages to cover the climax and ending which I really appreciated. The last 100 pages also finally gave me the tension I needed, in part because all the build up finally came together (I love a good reveal section), and I actually stayed up late to finish it. This pushed the book towards 4*, but it was just a bit too late to redeem itself from being a very slow read with a meh plot.
Overall, I would still recommend this book to fantasy readers as I'm sure those less hooked on fast-paced YA like me would get more enjoyment from this, just don't get me started on all the characters named after places because there were so many face palm moments in this for me. I dunno, I'm starting to think I'm an exceptionally cynical reader.
^Me every time a new character underground pun was made^