The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman
Bloomsbury, 2008
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Yesterday, I finally read The Graveyard Book. I stayed up until 2 am to read it (which was okay since I got an hour back in the morning). I just had to finish right away. I sat on my couch crying my eyes out by the time I had finished it. It is so sad and dark and warm and wonderful all at once. In short, The Graveyard Book was everything everyone promised it would be, and more. Part of me wishes I had read it earlier, as I’ve postponed reading this again and again, last time a few weeks ago when I should have read it for We Be Reading’s read along, and yet.. part of me wishes I still had this on my TBR pile. To come to it afresh, and experience its beauty again.
The Graveyard Book starts with a dark scene:
“There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife. The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately.
The knife had done almost everything it was brought to that house to do, and both the blade and the handle were wet.”
The reader soon learns that the thing the knife was brought to do was to kill a family. And the one thing still left to accomplish was the killing of one of the two children of the family. However, that child, a toddler still, manages to escape. The little boy runs into the local graveyard and there he finds protection and a place to live among the ghosts of the deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Owens will act as his parents and Silas as his guardian. The boy himself is called Nobody Owens, know to all as Bod. Throughout the book you watch Bod grow up on the margin of society, interacting with and being taught by the ghosts surrounding him, while he discovers several things about the world of the non-living. Meanwhile, Silas tries to keep Bod save from the dangers in the world of the living, for the man Jack, who once killed his family, is still out there looking for Bod.
I cannot quite articulate why I loved this book so much without giving everything away, but I will try. For one, I loved how the first part that focuses on childhood adventures ties in with the second part of the book which focuses more on a showdown. Second, I loved how as a reader you notice how carefully crafted this story is, perfectly thought out, beautifully written, with challenging concepts and questions thrown in while still having a comfortable flow. But most of all I loved how darkness and warmth were combined. How the story constantly evokes small life lessons without forcing them on the reader. How Bod finds friends among the deceased and is yet encouraged to embrace his life as one of the living. How friendship, and love, and the final letting go are integral parts of Bod’s childhood and his coming of age. And how Neil Gaiman is so confident in combining all of these elements in a book for children, without talking down to them, without making it too complicated, and yet without taking away from the ambiguous and challenging qualities of life.
Colour me very very impressed.
I read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman for R.I.P. VII as hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings. Click over to the RIP Review Site for more reads with a autumnal feel.
Other Opinions: Things Mean a Lot, Beauty is a Sleeping Cat, Rebecca Reads, Fyrefly’s Book Blog, Bart’s Bookshelf, Rob Around Books, The Sleepless Reader, Savidge Reads, Maw Books Blog, Steph & Tony Investigate!, Jenny’s Books, Stella Matutina, My Favourite Books, You’ve GOTTA Read This, In Spring It is the Dawn, Fleur Fisher, Always Cooking Up Something, among others..
Did I miss your post about this book? Let me know and I will add it to the list.
The only contact I’ve had with Gaiman’s works is when I took my little niece to watch Coraline and we had to get out of the movie, but I must admit I was scared myself.
I also read Coraline for RIP (but haven’t seen the movie yet), and I can imagine that you had to leave the cinema. I finished the book thinking that I would never have been able to deal with the scary of that story as a child (but I was and am very sensitive to that sort of thing). The Graveyard Book is a little less scary, I think, though it is definitely dark at times.
My little niece was only 4 or 5 I think and I have to admit I was scared too…
You’re not the only one I’ve heard enjoyed this book. Your passion for it is obvious. What age is it written for?
I’m so glad you loved it. The best children’s authors are always the ones who don’t condescend to young readers.
I completely agree Ana! I think that’s one of the major reasons I mention for loving books by my favourite children’s books authors, and I’m starting to become convinced that Neil Gaiman will be among them.
I posted my thoughts on it today
What a coincidence! And I adored it as well… Neil Gaiman did a wonderful job writing about life, death, friendship and family in a way that is accessible to both young and old. I think I need another Gaiman fix now 
Perhaps Coraline next?
I’ve added your review to the list, sorry for missing it before! I definitely agree that Gaiman did a wonderful job here.
I would recommend Coraline, thought it has more eerie qualities than this book, I think. I still need to watch the movie, are you planning on watching it?
I think you about convinced me to pull this one out and read it. I’ve had it for ages, so the initial opening to your review makes me kick myself for not reading it sooner!
Oh, yes, do! I really think you’ll like it. I often postpone reading books that other bloggers love and always end up hitting myself on the head for not reading them earlier. I don’t want to push you into reading this against your will or anything, I am simply on a high from enjoying this one so much.
What a great review — I’m glad you liked it! I read this from cover to cover in my front yard one afternoon a few years ago, and it was a pleasure from start to finish. Have you read The Jungle Book? I understand The Graveyard Book takes a lot from it — structurally, not just the title and the premise — and I’ve been meaning to read it, then reread The Graveyard Book.
I haven’t read The Jungle Book, Jenny. To be honest my experience with Kipling’s “Just So Stories” made me a little hesitant. But since I’ve learned that this was based on that book I’ve become more curious to give it a try one day.
Have you ever reread The Graveyard Book since that day in the garden? I can imagine that it holds up pretty well on a reread, though there’s always a certain magic to discovering a book for the first time.
I LOVED this book, but I love your edition even more – what a fantastic cover!
I’ve never read anything by this author that I didn’t like. My daughter (who gets to meet him this spring) has read everything he’s ever written, and has liked it all!
I’m so glad that you finally read this and loved it! I know exactly what you mean about the combination of darkness and warmth. It’s a specialty of Gaiman’s and it’s interesting to see how he does it differently but equally successfully for children and adults. Now, if you’re willing for a bit more of a scare, we’ll have you try Coraline next!
I loved this one too. Gaiman has a gift for walking the line between dark and deeply touching stories.
I really loved this one too! I don’t read much middle grade fiction, but The Graveyard Book reminds me I should:-)
I loved this book too, especially the relationship between Bod and Silas. Glad you liked it so much!
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I adore this book. It is, by far, my favorite Neil Gaiman, and you did a beautiful job describing the warmth + darkness effect. Such an odd but fantastic combination. My favorite chapter in the whole book is “Danse Macabre.” So so so beautiful and haunting.
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