Who calls a boy by the name of Nobody Owens? (The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman)

Member Name: Jonni_boi

Product:	The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
Date:	27/07/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: really good, made it seem real!

Disadvantages: the chapters....

This is another book from www.bookcrossing.com. It was in a bookring/ray and I decided to join it. You could say I was very stupid, based on the fact that I happened to have signed up on about 20 bookrings/rays, and that means I have to stop what ever book I'm currently reading and read that so that I can keep it on its travels. I ended up having 3 books, which were in either bookrings or book rays, and so I desperately needed to finish them!

Neil Gaiman is a really good author and is an inspiration to everyone. But only last year, I had never came across such a name and an author. I have to thank one of you guys, because after watching "Stardust" the film, one of you mentioned that it was based on a book, and you also suggested that I should read "Neverwhere" to get a feel for his type of writing. I hold up my hands and announce that I did buy that book in January 2009. So why is there no sign of a review from me on that book? Well, it is on my shelf staring at me and begging me to read it, but I have a few other books that have been on my shelf for donkey years, that really need to come down from the shelves and be read. So eventually you will find a review on that book, but for the time being, you may dwell in my other book reviews which are catching up with me!

So I went against the advice somebody gave me, and decided to read this book. It wasn't really my fault, I ended up thinking that by the time the book got to me I would have read "Neverwhere" how more wrong could I be?

This book follows a boy called Bod (short for Nobody). He lives in the Graveyard and he can see the spirits of the people about the graves. You follow his little story of why he's in there and his very many little adventures! He meets a dead witch, and a human girl, and not only that but he goes down a very life-threatening ghoul-gate!

Now I am extremely sorry for my plot outline. But I can't help it, if I think about the book as a story then there wasn't much to it, it was kept really, really simple, and it seemed to me that there is only a few many things, a person, who lives in a graveyard, can do! So it wasn't filled with as many adventures as possible. I think what did the book for everyone was the way Neil Gaiman made it seem real. And that what makes a book brilliant (in my opinion).

There were only 2 things that annoyed me about this book, and that is what made it drop 2 stars. The first and the more prominent of the two were obviously the chapters. There are only 8 chapters in this book and there are over 200 pages. Chapter 7 is the worst chapter. This can be considered really annoying, based on the fact that if you are a midnight reader (well that's what I call it, where you read before you go to bed), like I do, then this book would drive you up the wall. Also if you don't have enough spare time, you can't possibly stop. There is no place to stop reading, to do something else, only the chapters are the right place to leave it.

The second thing that annoyed me was the way in which the book felt as if it wasn't finished. Okay so I understand that not all books have to have an epilogue but it's a great way to finish a book, and not only that some books still get a proper ending. I like to think of the way in which this was unfinished. I have rarely come across a book that has not got an ending! This book is obviously left this way for one of these 2 reasons (I think): The first one that comes to mind is that there is supposed to be a sequel. I very much doubt that because it wouldn't be able to lead on from that story and it'll have nothing to do with the graveyard and no where near a proper link. So it has to be the other option I've been thinking of and that is, it's left that way so that the reader's can create the ending. If my second guess was right, then obviously he's done this on purpose. But this annoys me, I read a book so that I can escape from my life and enter somebody else's and make it feel as if I'm that person. This book made me that person, until the very end where it just leaves the boy and that's why books like these aren't suited for me!

On the other hand, you have all these good things about the book. Such as the characters. There was the obvious distinct main character of Nobody Owens, but to be totally honest I'm not sure whether any of the others mentioned in the book was either main or minor, there's no way to distinct that, which made it a really good book. There was the way in which Neil Gaiman made it seem all real and alive, and made you feel the emotions easily. Also, the way in which he added a vampire and a werewolf, without giving off distinct titles, as if there wasn't a word in the dictionary such as: a vampire, but you knew what he was. I could keep on listing these good points, but I don't want to bore you.

Well all I have left to say is that you should really buy this book, or if you ever get the chance get it free of your friend or use bookcrossing.com, any way you get this book doesn't matter, it only matters if you read it!

Thank you all for reading and I sure hope I have interested some of you into buying this book, if I have not then fair enough; everyone is entitled to their opinion! Keep on rating and reviewing my reviews!

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