Book Review, Fantasy, Friendship, Ghosts, Graveyards, Paranormal, Witches, YA Fiction

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I started my book review blog in 2009 and I have read so many outstanding books that I wanted to share them again with my followers on #SegueSaturday.  I first posted this review in September 2009.  The review is short, but I will never forget Gaiman’s unique story about a young boy named Nobody Jones. 

I also recommend listening to Neil Gaiman’s stories in audiobook form which are narrated by him.  He is an excellent speaker and I don’t think I would have enjoyed American Gods half as much if I hadn’t listened to it in his voice.  Enjoy!

MY REVIEW

“One grave in every graveyard belongs to the ghouls. Wander any graveyard long enough and you will find it – waterstained and bulging, with cracked or broken stone, scraggly grass or rank weeks about it, and a feeling, when you reach it, of abandonment. It may be colder than the other gravestones, too, and the name on the stone is all too often impossible to read. If there is a statue on the grave it will be headless or so scabbed with fungus and lichens as to look like a fungus itself. If one grave in a graveyard looks like a target for petty vandals, that is the ghoul-gate. If the grave makes you want to be somewhere else, that is the ghoul-gate.

This is one of the most unusual books I have ever read. Though the first chapter was disturbing for a YA book, when you read further it is about a boy named Nobody Jones who learns about friendship, family, revenge and surviving. He just happens to learn these things from ghosts and witches while living in a graveyard.

BUY THE BOOK

The Graveyard Book

                  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Neil Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre, and films. His works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels StardustAmerican GodsCoraline, and The Graveyard Book. He has won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards, as well as the Newbery and Carnegie medals. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book (2008). In 2013, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards.