The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
307 pages
Published 2008
Read from July 23 to July 24
Rating: ★★★★ out of 5
As
soon as the character Scarlett was introduced, "dressed in bright
colors, yellow and pink and orange," I wondered how closely this one
would adhere to the Neil Gaiman novel formula.
Thankfully we don't get into that rut, at least not entirely; Scarlett
is a relatively grounded everyteen instead of a flaming car crash of a
manic pixie dream girl, and Bod assumes the quietly competent role
instead of getting caught in the well-meaning but useless Gaiman male
protagonist trap. On the other hand, Every Man Jack and the ghouls both
fulfill Gaiman's archetypal (contractual?) well-dressed, waggish,
faux-cultivated, faux-gentlemanly, slyly sinister villains from the
underworld role, which got a bit distracting. But really, you don't read
Gaiman books for the main characters (or at least I don't), and you
don't read children's books in general for plot twists you don't see
coming a mile away. Gaiman's strength is atmosphere and
deftly-if-broadly drawn supporting characters, which The Graveyard Book has in spades (get it?).
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