Friday, May 7, 2010

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book is a young adult/children's fantasy novel, made up of short stories that bring together the life of Nobody Owens. I say YA because I'm guessing this might bother some littler kids, but what do I know? Maybe kids are more cynical now.

Nobody was just a baby when his entire family was murdered. He escaped into a graveyard where the inhabitants shooed away the killer and adopted Nobody as their own. His new parents became Mr & Mrs Owens and his guardian is Silas. The Owens' are ghosts, having been dead several hundred years. Silas is neither dead nor alive and is able to leave the graveyard to acquire food and clothes for Nobody. (Gaiman later confirmed that Silas is a vampire -something I wondered throughout the book).

Nobody grows up in the graveyard, mostly avoiding live people, except for one little girl named Scarlett. But she moves away and once again, Nobody has just the dead to keep him company.

The book goes through many of Nobody's adventures, including going to school with live kids. He also discovers that the killer of his family is still hunting him and things get really hairy for Nobody.

Another excellent Gaiman book!

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