Express Media – We're here for young writers

• Neil Gaiman
• Review
• young adult

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

0 comment

Madeleine Crofts

Mar 25, 2010

The quotation on the front of the book proclaims The Graveyard Book to be the best book Neil Gaiman has ever written. But is it? The story centres around Nobody Owens, Bod for short, who is merely a baby when the sinister man Jack enters his house and ruthlessly kills his parents and sister. Bod, who is an intrepid child for one so young, escapes and finds his way to a nearby graveyard when he taken in by the ghostly inhabitants. Gaiman obviously had much fun creating the various characters, Bod’s reserved vampire guardian and mentor Silas; Miss Lupescu the strict werewolf; a sometimes jealous witch named Liza Hempstock in an unmarked grave and the mysterious and chilling underground creature the Sleer.  Bod’s world  is not all gravestones and cheery ghosts however, the man Jack is still out there somewhere, threatening to finish the job he started. Neil Gaiman’s writing is simple without being simplistic, his characters are recognizable without being clichéd and story of finding your place in the world will be accessible to all. The ending allows nicely for a sequel and frankly, I can’t wait! The Graveyard Book is a delightful and playful mixture of the fantastical and the every day, something Gaiman excels at.