Part of The Graveyard Book was excerpted as a short story that I read last year, and the full novel has been on my Gotta-Read List ever since.
We follow Nob, short for Nobody, from his first toddle down the hill to the old fenced in cemetery, up to his mid teen years. How did he live all that time? Simple. Or at least simple in Neil Gaiman’s world. Ghosts Mr. and Mrs. Owen took care of him. Vampire Silas made sure he was fed. His friends – all dead, all ghosts – entertained him and taught him. Nob grows up to be kind, open-hearted and no one’s fool.
The reason Nob is in the cemetery is that Jack Frost and his entire Order of Jacks hunted his family and killed them and now hunts Nob. Nob has several adventures, from dealing with a lunchroom bully to escaping from a locked room in a pawnshop, before the final reckoning with the Order of Jacks.
This isn’t a deeply serious book. You won’t find yourself thinking new thoughts (except for wondering what really goes on at night among the graves) and you won’t find Nob a character that sticks in your mind and becomes your constant companion. The Graveyard Book is a fun book in the best sense of the word.
The book is well-written with interesting dialogue and characters. There is a back story too, but we don’t see much of it. We see glimpses of the Jacks, and glimpses Silas and his his group and I want to see more. We only get that peek, a tantalizing whiff.
Gaiman won both the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal for The Graveyard Book; both awards are for books written for children. The novel will appeal to teens and older grade school children because Nob is young and kids can recognize many scenes, such as the lunch room bully, getting stuck in a room, plus the story is not overly complex. However do not think this is solely a children’s book. Adults will enjoy it too, and if Gaiman were to write more about the villainous Jacks we could have an enjoyable adult novel.
I recommend The Graveyard Book. It is excellent.
4 Stars
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The Graveyard Book is available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle plus hardcover and at Barnes & Noble.
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