The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

312 pages

Newbery Medal 2009, Cybils Award in Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction 2008

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place-he's the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians' time as well as their timely ghostly teachings-like the ability to Fade.
Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead? And then there are things like ghouls that aren't really one thing or the other.
This chilling tale is Neil Gaiman's first full-length novel for middle-grade readers since the internationally bestselling and universally acclaimed Coraline. Like Coraline, this book is sure to enchant and surprise young readers as well as Neil Gaiman's legion of adult fans.

Ummm, I'm not really sure what to say on this one.

The Graveyard Book was an unusual, refreshing and interesting read. Certainly haven't read anything like it before.

I loved the character development, feels like its been a long time since i read a book where this was paid attention to. I really like Silas and Liza the best. While Bod has different relationships with most of the inhabitants of the graveyard, the ones with Silas and Liza were the most fun to read. Some of his conversations with Silas were deep and thought provoking and yet and the same time light in nature in that he was speaking to a young boy.
At some times i just really wanted to smack Bod for behaving like a kid, but then i guess that was the whole point.

The end was a bit too abrupt for me. Or maybe that’s because i've been reading this book real slow for almost a month now and suddenly it was over. But i did feel it was wrapped without a lot of explanation. Like why the Jacks needed to kill the boy. There were just a couple of lines on this part. And what killer doesn’t kill the main object of his mission first and then finish of the others. I mean C'mon. There also wasn’t any explanation on why Bod was taken into the graveyard and how the Lady on the Grey comes into this picture.

All in all though, this was a lovely story. A unique one. Which is probably why it won those awards.

My favourite lines:

"So the people buried in the ground on the other side of the fence are bad
people?”
Silas raised one perfect eyebrow. “Mm? Oh, not at all. Let’s see, it’s been a while since I’ve been down that way. But I don’t remember anyone particularly evil. Remember, in days gone by you could be hanged for stealing a shilling. And there are always people who find their lives have become so unsupportable they believe the best thing they could do would be to hasten their transition to another plane of existence.”
“They kill themselves, you mean?”
said Bod. He was about eight years old, wide-eyed and inquisitive, and he was not stupid.
“Indeed.”
“Does it work? Are they happier dead?”
“Sometimes. Mostly, no. It’s like the people who believe they’ll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn’t work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. If you see what I mean"