Now for the book review:
This is the second book that I have ever read by Neil Gaiman (The first was Coraline). I was hoping that I would enjoy this book as much as I did Coraline . But now, after having finished reading The Graveyard Book, I have realized that such a comparison is bordering near impossible, because both books are good in their own respective way. I am not usually a fan of books within the ‘paranormal’ kind of genre, but I gave this one a shot after having enjoyed Coraline so much. I must say I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought that I would.
It all started late one night, when many murders occurred. Three murders to be exact, although there should have been four. The fourth murder never happened, the near murder of an infant who had narrowly escaped death by crawling out of his crib, down the stairs, and out into the street, and down to a graveyard. The baby was not alone in this graveyard – there were ghosts there who took him under wing (I guess, to be more precise, under their pale, translucent arms). This book is no ordinary book. This book tells the story of quite alive Nobody Owens, and his upbringing by a community of quite dead ghosts.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this book, because it was a nice, quick read that I finished in just 3 or 4 sittings. And I have honestly never seen a book like this, and I challenge you to find one similar to it. You probably can’t, and if you can, then I guess I chose the wrong thing to challenge you with. But as I said, there were so many things he could have done with this, which is partially why I am disappointed in The Graveyard Book.
I did not find the book to be very scary at all, which came as a surprise, considering The Graveyard Book has ghosts and murderers in it. In fact, there were a few scenes in there that I found to be funny, with my humour being the way that it is.
This is one of those books that is hard to write a review for, because no matter what you say, it probably will not describe it just the right way. Basically, if you see this at the local library, I think that you should pick it up and take it home to read. It is a nice book to read, as it does not require any serious brainpower for all those who need to just let their mind shut down and relax for a bit after a long day (Or week... or three weeks, as it turned out for me). Bottom line was that The Graveyard Book was not a book that made me very impressed, but it was what I needed after being attacked with a lot of assignments at school.
Stay addicted!
Jason