Review Monday: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I know, I have been neglecting this site somewhat lately. It wasn’t on purpose. With the kids on holiday, my schedule went haywire, and I decided to focus on getting me next books ready for publication. In the next months, you can expect at least 5 more eBooks to see the light of day, starting with a YA Fantasy set in Scotland, my favourite country in the world. But now, to the review.

 

The Graveyard Book by Neil GaimanAbout the book:

After unknown strangers kill his parents, Nobody Owens, known as Bod, grows up in a cemetery, protected by ghosts and his guardian, a creature between life and death. They teach him as best they can, although some ideas they have are rather old-fashioned. Then, one day, Bod meets a strange girl-ghost near the wall of the end of the cemetery who wishes for a real tombstone. But when he leaves the cemetery, he alerts the old evil that’s still looking for him.

 

My thoughts:

Imho, this is not Neil Gaiman at his best, but it is a pleasurable read for younger children. Neil’s strength lies with creating wonderful worlds with rich backgrounds and well thought out rules. His characters however sometimes fall a little flat, especially the villains. The Graveyard Book is absolutely wonderful up to the point where the villain shows up for the third time. After that, it became utterly predictable for me, and I thought that a pity. Sure, the average MG reader probably won’t notice (having read much less than I did) but considering it’s Neil Gaiman we’re talking about here, he could have done better.

That said, I loved the cemetery crew. There are some brilliant characters hidden away in there, so the book is worth a read. Maybe my disappointment was due to the fact that most of Gaiman’s other work is so much more than this was. Still, if I had to give stars (like on amazon), I would still give it 4 of 5 without hesitation. I hope you will enjoy it.
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