The Graveyard Book

This book opened in a graveyard and never let me go from there.

It’s not the sort of book I expected to like, let alone be wowed by or to be pleasing to a kid, but it works so well. Neil Gaiman’s writing is almost never stronger than it is here and every page kept me hooked to the point where I just wanted to keep reading, page after page.

This book has just the right of darkness to keep a kid hooked at night, and my daughter loved the ghosts from across the ages who are fighting the bad guys who want to murder the little boy they have taken under their wing in a cemetery after his family is killed.

The perfect teen horror book doesn’t exist…oh wait, yes it does. Unlike the others, I read this as an adult, but wow! This was a huge influence on my horror book, with its scenes of living in a cemetery.

Gaiman paints certain evil things as beautiful and worthy of redemption, and I appreciate that. A murderer on the loose, a boy living in a cemetery with ghosts, and all manner of monsters lurking in the pages. It’s a gorgeous book and deserves that Newberry Medal on the cover.

A charming, thrilling story about a boy who lives in a graveyard and is raised by the spectral inhabitants there, this book initially seems to be a series of short stories about Nobody “Bod” Owens, but as it progresses it resonates with all the elements of an epic coming-of-age tale.

Witty British humor is peppered throughout; at one point, Bod is abducted by ghouls with names like “the Duke of Westminster,” “the 33rd President of the United States,” and “the writer Victor Hugo.”

Even when writing for middle-graders, Gaiman trusts his reader. There’s an art in not spelling everything out,… show more.

It takes a master storyteller to open a book for children with a gruesome triple murder.

With the rest of the family dead, the assassin attempts to kill the toddler, Bod, who survives by wandering into a graveyard down the street. Protected by the magic of the place, the boy is adopted and raised by ghosts under the watchful eye of a vampire guardian.

Eventually, Bod grows restless, and ventures beyond the cemetery walls where the patient assassin lies in wait. Gaiman has taught me that simple language can have spellbinding power, and I devoured his MasterClass.com videos on storytelling.

Possibly my all-time favorite book ever.

It’s the story of Bod, adopted as a baby by the ghosts of the graveyard and by his guardian, the mysterious Silas, after his parents are murdered.

Living in the graveyard, Bod becomes friends with and is mentored by its inhabitants, who teach him a wide variety of things—how to read, for example, how to behave, and how to vanish. But the people who murdered Bod’s family are always searching for him, and Bod must use everything he’s learned plus his own wits and courage to survive.

The book is a marvelous metaphor for… show more.

I’d never read Neil Gaiman before. I made it to age 48 without ever having read a Neil Gaiman book. In early 2019, I found a copy of The Graveyard Book in a Little Library near my house, so I picked it up. Wow. A modern-day fantastical setting, a quick read, but a good one. I loved how he crafted his characters. Characters need complexity, and not be caricatures. This had just enough edge and menace to keep you on the edge of your seat. It also compelled me to write a short story in part influenced by one character… show more.

Whenever I give a public lecture on American cemeteries, there is always a point in the program in which a young person in the audience asks me if I have read The Graveyard Book. Few works of fiction capture the magic and mystery of a cemetery the way Gaiman’s masterpiece does. This book is a great reminder for all historians and archaeologists that research and scholarship are never entirely independent from imagination.

If you’re squeamish, skip the opening chapter. You just have to know that the boy is orphaned and raised by ghosts in the nearby graveyard. What I love about this book (besides how well Gaiman writes), is that it’s really the story of The Jungle Book, redone with ghosts. An exceptional book by an exceptional storyteller. Definitely worth a spot on the spooky bookshelf.

I didn’t want this book to end. It grabbed me from the first pages and swiftly drew me into a twisted tail of assassins, ghosts, and the supernatural. The characters – whether living or dead – are wonderfully portrayed and full of humanity in a way that makes spending time with them a delight. The fantasy elements, as with all of Gaiman’s works, are skillfully rendered. This one’s on my to read again list.