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juushikaTitle: The Graveyard Book
Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Dave McKean
Published: New York: HarperCollin's Publishers, 2008
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 312
Total Page Count: 93,161
Text Number: 267
Read Because: fan of the author, purchased from Borders
Review: When his family is murdered, a nameless infant is adopted by the ghosts of a local graveyard and becomes Nobody Owens, that living boy. But despite the delights of his odd life among the dead, Bod is still threatened by forces beyond the safe boundary of the graveyard. I didn't much like The Graveyard Book when I first read it. I like it more, now. I first read it upon its release—and to say that I didn't like it is something of an overstatement: I found it interesting, and entertaining, but of little lasting value. Perhaps I aimed to compare it too much to Gaiman's wonderful Coraline, the only of his books that I really love. I think that novel is amazing, and The Graveyard Book is not the same. But coming back to it a second time, with more anticipation (because of the advent of autumn) and fewer tendencies to compare it to something else, has made all the difference. The book still isn't perfect: too much of it is episodic, which is enjoyable as storytelling but makes the complete work too easy to box up and dismiss; the ending is both excessively idealized and bittersweet, which is affecting but also a bit silly; the humor throughout is too cutesy—and so, for that matter, is the setting and character design.
Why, then, did I enjoy it so much this time around? Because The Graveyard Book is stylized and overdrawn and cutesy, and as a result it's unique—it's new and intriguing and delightful, and it captures the imagination. Because there's enough darkness, detail, and realism, especially in the themes and the core cast, that the reader immerses despite the stylization, and so the book has a big thematic and emotional payoff—even when those elements are heavy-handed. In many ways The Graveyard Book reminds me of a Tim Burton film: stylized and gothic and gimmicky, but delightful as a result—and containing just enough complexity, some of it slipped in under the safety of silly stylization, to get into your heart and mind and mean something. I returned to The Graveyard Book remembering the gray graveyard and amusing ghosts which are so perfect for early autumn, and I delighted in it for all that and more—but with surprisingly nuanced characters in Silas and Miss Lupescu and above all the unexpectedly dark protagonist Bod, with bittersweet but empowering emotional themes, the book gave me something thoughtful to take away from my stay in the graveyard. It's not perfect, and not Gaiman's best, and perhaps not always the right book for every reader and every reader's mood—but, as something both fun and gothic and meaningful, The Graveyard Book is pretty good. I recommend it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Yes I am horrendously behind on book reviews, how did you guess?
Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Dave McKean
Published: New York: HarperCollin's Publishers, 2008
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 312
Total Page Count: 93,161
Text Number: 267
Read Because: fan of the author, purchased from Borders
Review: When his family is murdered, a nameless infant is adopted by the ghosts of a local graveyard and becomes Nobody Owens, that living boy. But despite the delights of his odd life among the dead, Bod is still threatened by forces beyond the safe boundary of the graveyard. I didn't much like The Graveyard Book when I first read it. I like it more, now. I first read it upon its release—and to say that I didn't like it is something of an overstatement: I found it interesting, and entertaining, but of little lasting value. Perhaps I aimed to compare it too much to Gaiman's wonderful Coraline, the only of his books that I really love. I think that novel is amazing, and The Graveyard Book is not the same. But coming back to it a second time, with more anticipation (because of the advent of autumn) and fewer tendencies to compare it to something else, has made all the difference. The book still isn't perfect: too much of it is episodic, which is enjoyable as storytelling but makes the complete work too easy to box up and dismiss; the ending is both excessively idealized and bittersweet, which is affecting but also a bit silly; the humor throughout is too cutesy—and so, for that matter, is the setting and character design.
Why, then, did I enjoy it so much this time around? Because The Graveyard Book is stylized and overdrawn and cutesy, and as a result it's unique—it's new and intriguing and delightful, and it captures the imagination. Because there's enough darkness, detail, and realism, especially in the themes and the core cast, that the reader immerses despite the stylization, and so the book has a big thematic and emotional payoff—even when those elements are heavy-handed. In many ways The Graveyard Book reminds me of a Tim Burton film: stylized and gothic and gimmicky, but delightful as a result—and containing just enough complexity, some of it slipped in under the safety of silly stylization, to get into your heart and mind and mean something. I returned to The Graveyard Book remembering the gray graveyard and amusing ghosts which are so perfect for early autumn, and I delighted in it for all that and more—but with surprisingly nuanced characters in Silas and Miss Lupescu and above all the unexpectedly dark protagonist Bod, with bittersweet but empowering emotional themes, the book gave me something thoughtful to take away from my stay in the graveyard. It's not perfect, and not Gaiman's best, and perhaps not always the right book for every reader and every reader's mood—but, as something both fun and gothic and meaningful, The Graveyard Book is pretty good. I recommend it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Yes I am horrendously behind on book reviews, how did you guess?
