The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman | Teen Ink

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

July 4, 2014
By brettb33 PLATINUM, Stanwood, Michigan
brettb33 PLATINUM, Stanwood, Michigan
48 articles 0 photos 11 comments

Favorite Quote:
Make your mistakes, next year and forever. - Neil Gaiman


In the dead of night a man named Jack skulks through the house of family of four. He finds and kills the mother, the father, and the daughter with no issue. The man Jack climbs the stairs to the room of the baby boy but when he opens the door, no boy. The boy has snuck out in the dead of night and fled to a graveyard. The ghosts of the graveyard decide that he must be protected. The boy is adopted by the Owens family and christened Nobody. Silas becomes his guardian and vows to look after the boy. Nobody grows up and learns from the spirits of the graveyard. He has many adventures and begins to learn who he is. There’s never a dull moment and Nobody has a lot of fun but eventually he realizes that all of his best friends are dead. Events begin to spiral beyond his control and nothing lasts forever.

Inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s groundbreaking novel The Jungle Book Neil Gaiman gives the unlikely account of a boy raised in a graveyard. The Graveyard Book feels like an adventure novel, full of exciting and wonderful short stories. It is filled with page-turning escapades that readers will not want to put down. In actuality The Graveyard Book is a coming of age story about a boy who must discover who he is and who he wants to be. Neil Gaiman makes the impossible story relatable to its reader and creates a story of superb quality.
Neil Gaiman is a phenomenal writer with a brilliant imagination. His stories are always compelling and always interesting. He is a fan of the strange and supernatural though. The Graveyard Book is no exception. It is more than a bit outlandish and on occasion can be outright bizarre.

This book is definitely geared toward the young adult crowd so it may be a bit immature for some readers. I am probably getting too old for young adult books but I still enjoy them. If you are a fan of Neil Gaiman (and if you’re not you should be) then you will enjoy this book. I don’t know what I would classify the genre as. Neil Gaiman is generally considered to be a sci-fi writer but I wouldn’t call this science fiction. Supernatural fiction maybe? Whatever it is it’s good.


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