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Five stars.
Five stars! FIVE.
I do that, what, two, maybe three times per year? This book deserved every last star. This is the first Gaiman book I have read, so I’m not comparing to the other books he has written, unlike some reviewers. I don’t know how it compares to Coraline or adult books like American Gods and The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I picked The Graveyard Book because Gaiman is an author I’ve always wanted to read, it’s the Newbery Gold Medal for 2009, and it’s a new book in the library I can sell to the kids. Reading this book was a to-do list crossing, multitasking explosion of smugness. I felt like I accomplished two months of work in 304 pages.
I’m going to encourage the students who love Gothic and macabre in literature to read The Graveyard Book. The story centers around Nobody Owens (Bod, for short), a young boy raised in a graveyard of ghosts after a man named Jack brutally murders his family. The action starts immediately with the murder of the family in the middle of the night. Bod, at this point 18 months old, wakes up and leaves the house without knowing he’s escaping danger. While it is not gruesome when you compare it to many of the video games kids play, it is still a murder.
The novel begins with the following passage.
The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately.
The knife had done almost everything it was brought to that house to do, and both the blade and the handle were wet.
The street door was still open, just a little, where the knife and the man who held it had slipped in, and wisps of nighttime mist slithered and twined into the house through the open door.
Bod makes his way to the cemetery and falls under the care of the resident ghosts. It takes a village to raise a child. This village happens to be full of dead people.
The Gothic writing style of the book nicely compliments the tone and plot of the story. It is a refreshing change to the overdone soundbite writing I feel compelled to complain about every few days.
“If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately.”
That line is proof you don’t need four paragraphs of 10-dollar words and witty dialogue to show the reader the family was taken by surprise and died before they were able to comprehend what happened. You need fifteen words and two commas.
The normally ironclad grip I hold on my emotions started to slip as I neared the end of the story. I didn’t so much as sting my eyes reading The Fault in Our Stars, so this surprised me. The truth is, I didn’t want the book to end. I fell in love with the characters of The Graveyard Book the way you fall asleep, slowly and then all at once.
#soundbitewriting
My quibble with the book is that Gaiman doesn’t spend enough time describing the antagonists or explaining the reason for the murders. Jack’s motivation to hunt Bod for years is also difficult to understand until the answers come, but those answers happen neatly across one or two pages. I understand the reason for the murders and the antagonists was to get Bod to the cemetery: a catalyst for the story to begin. I still feel they deserved more development.
I initially felt the same way regarding Bod’s guardian, Silas. We don’t know who or what he is, and for a while that bothered me. After I thought about it, I decided it made sense. Silas was a mystery, but all adults and parents are a mystery. I’m a woman with children of my own and my parents are still a mystery I have no hope of solving.
Even those (teeny, tiny) complaints weren’t enough for me to take away a star. Five stars, people! Unheard of for me. This is one of the best children’s books I have read and one I will recommend to the older students.
I love this book too! I’ve read it at least once a year since it was published! :D
I’m so glad you post these book reviews. I really love that you do this. Thank you!
That’s so great to hear! Thank you!! I worry sometimes that they bore people, but I worry about everything, so…. :)
I would definitely recommend you read American Gods next! :)
You really must read American Gods next. And they just came out with a graphic novel of The Graveyard Book.
Yes, please read American Gods and Anansi Boys. This is the first YA book of NG’s that I read and devoured it in an afternoon. I loved that Silas was shrouded in mystery, given his ultimate identity, and the relationships within the community of the graveyard. I enjoyed speculating about Jack’s motivation and thought that kids, boys especially, might be drawn to that suspense.
I didn’t suggest my 10 year old read it yet though. I wasn’t sure that she would have enough context for some of the characters or situations (Silas, the historical references in the graveyard, etc.) and worried that she wouldn’t get as much out of the book as she could. So this weekend I ordered a graphic novel version of the book and I’m hopeful its not too graphic in depicting the murders. I thought, for her, having pictures of the characters would help form the story a lot better than relying on her limited exposure to historical information or macabre scenes.
This one kicks butt on audio too!
It is really a GREAT book. It was the second of his books I read and it’s a slippery slop to full-on NG fangirl! I recommend Neverwhere there is also a not great quality by today’s standards but enjoyavle tv movie version from like 1992 available and a radio broadcast (which I have not listened to). American Gods is a classic.
I love your reviews! The only Neil Gaiman book I’ve read is The Ocean At the End of The Lane and I really enjoyed it. I may read the Graveyard Book myself as I’m not sure how my kid would do with murder. She’s not one for anything dark (not even Harry Potter, although she has been enjoying various Rick Riordan series of late).
I’ve gotta agree with the American Gods recommendations. It’s the perfect book for anyone interested in mythology and religion, and Gaiman is great at creating fully-realized characters formed by linguistic restraint instead of over-blown prose. It’s full of metaphor and religious imagery, but I think even people who aren’t well-versed in the various mythologies and religions the book explores will enjoy the story and the writing.
I also have to recommend his Sandman series. I wasn’t too interested in comic books and graphic novels as a kid/teenager, so I was kind of reluctant to read the series last year when my husband recommended it. He had the series in the collected volumes, so I read through it over several months, and I keep coming back to it in conversations about literature and the human condition…it surprised me how much it has stuck with me. I think I was resistant at first because my haughty brain thought “Graphic novels and comics are NOT literature,” but I quickly realized just how wrong I was.
Full of metaphor and religious imagery??? That’s my FAVORITE kind of book. Must read. Thank you!
Now on my to-read list. Thanks!
” I fell in love with the characters of The Graveyard Book the way you fall asleep, slowly and then all at once.”
I don’t want to spoil the resonance this line has left in me…it’s perfect .
Just read my first Gaiman myself last week, The Ocean At The End of The Lane. I liked it very much, it was brief but packed in a bunch. And for some reason, reminded me often of A Wrinkle In Time. (It’s not YA, but there’s really nothing in there that middle school & up can’t handle).
I’m so glad you liked this! I love most of Neil Gaiman’s books (a couple of the older ones can be somewhat gimmicky, I find) — but “American Gods” and “Neverwhere” are great, and so is “Stardust” if you want a more “Princess Bride”-type of fantasy. (Slightly more ornate prose, but beautiful in the fairy tale kind of way.) “Stardust” is one of my favourite books. The Sandman graphic novels can be very dark, especially the first couple, but they’re very good — and if you want funny, “Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch,” which Gaiman wrote with Terry Pratchett, is a hilarious take on the end of the world and the Antichrist.
I also loved this book! I adore reading your reviews and I purchased 3 Newbery Award winners (Walk Two Moons, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and A Cricket in Times Square) at a thrift store this weekend and thought of you. I’ve already read them all and bought them to give to my nephew, but inspired by you, I decided to reread them all first. I can barely remember Cricket, but the other two are two of my all time favorite books. Can’t wait to read your reviews of them!
Also recommend you look into Terry Pratchett’s books, a British author who in my opinion is even better than Neil Gaiman (not to discount Neil Gaiman, but TERRY PRATCHETT.) He’s written a few YA series, including The Bromeliad Trilogy and the YA Discworld books. I just love his Discworld series.
Love.