TITLE: The Graveyard BookAUTHOR: Neil Gaiman
STARTED: May 23, 2009
FINISHED: May 24, 2009
PAGES: 312
GENRE: Juvenile / Fiction
FIRST SENTENCE: There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.
SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family . . . Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic Coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, The Graveyard Book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.
THOUGHTS: For a kids book, this one starts out pretty, darn dark. I mean, there's a knife on the first page! Sadly, as much as I like Gaiman, I was not terribly excited about this book. It was just okay to me. The Graveyard is an interesting setting but it doesn't have the same magic as his other settings, like London Below.
Also, the characters are nice, but they don't grab me - I didn't feel the need to read their story. I didn't mind it, but I wasn't thrilled by it.
I do like how Gaiman incorporated bits and pieces of history and lore from all over the place. That, more than anything is what kept me reading (well, that and the fact that I needed to for class). I was curious to see what Gaiman would pull out next.
RATING: 6/10 [Good]
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