A Boy + Graveyard x Dead People = 5 Stars! | The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

THE GRAVEYARD BOOK
by Neil Gaiman

HarperCollins
Publication Date: September 30, 2008

From Goodreads:

After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod’s family…

This was an incredibly fun, deeply emotional, thought-provoking read and I almost missed it!

There are a few people on the Blogosphere who’ve talked about this book, but not that many. I’d heard it was a children’s book and wondered if I could enjoy it at all. As fellow blogger Sophie pointed out, Harry Potter was a children’s book, too. Plus, it’s Neil Gaiman, who’s never steered me wrong in the past. Even with all that going for it, there was nothing putting this book at the top of my TBR.

Along comes the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge. Read a book about death or grief, it says. Okay, fine. And there’s The Graveyard Book. Just sitting there waiting for me. 

I had no idea it was partly inspired by the Jungle Book. I probably should have. There’s only one word changed out. Once I realized that (and after I stopped feeling like an idiot for not realizing it sooner) I started to see a lot of similarities.

I was looking closer at each character and trying to find their Jungle counterpart. Wondering if the things happening to Bod were inline with the things that had happened to Mowgli. I was in so deep I could practically hear the Bare Necessities in my head! Though, maybe it would have to become to Pall Bearer Necessities?? Never mind that.

I was already having a ton of fun with the book and looking for the similarities that I wasn’t ready for the book to make a quick pivot and become its very own story.

Maybe some there were still some parallels, but if there were I missed them. I was too invested in this new story developing before my eyes.

Intrigue, humor, and thrills were waiting around every corner. All the way up to an ending that was exciting and packed with raw emotion.

The characters are brilliant. Every single one of them. It didn’t matter if they were there from start to finish, or just for a single page. 

I kept finding myself amazed that this book was “for kids.” It seems to address some much bigger concepts and made me wonder if kids are going to understand everything. It just seems so much deeper than a children’s book, but, then again, maybe I’m underestimating kids ability to comprehend.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Even if nothing I’ve written here has you convinced, you just have to trust me and go read it. It may seem goofy on the surface; a boy living in a graveyard, being raised by dead people; but by the end I think you’ll learn something about the world, life, and maybe even about yourself. 

Fun fact about this post: Apparently if you ask Neil Gaiman to sign your copy of the Graveyard Book, he’ll draw your tombstone for you (as long as you’re not a child)