(Book Review)

“If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

This is not typically a coming-of-age story. A toddler’s family is murdered. The little boy is the only survivor. He escapes to a graveyard where ghosts and a vampiric guardian raise him. Now the baby’s name is Bod (short for Nobody) and he is taken care of by the ghost parents Owenses. He has free access to the graveyard but is not allowed to go outside because of danger, where another set of rules applies. But Bod’s desire is to experience this world with opportunities: he meets with people, tries to go to school… So he isn’t among the dead anymore, here are other rules.

This book is a fantasy novel, in this case, the plot avoids all the bloodshed that you can expect of the book which begins with a murder. Gaiman masterfully creates ghosts without being horrible. Here you can find a lot of characters: witches, ghouls, bullies, werewolves… everything we love to read about.

The author has no complicated style of writing; you can easily read “The Graveyard Book” for several days. Gaiman narrated the story by giving you a lot of space for imagination through picturesque descriptions. My favorite parts of the book are Bod’s adventure in the world of ghouls and studying in a school with bullies. Every chapter shows us Bod who combines inside the world of Living and Dead at the same time. With each time jump, Bod gets older and his interactions with the same ghost get different. Of course, it is always a new lesson to learn for Bod. As a reader, I catch a lot of insights through Bod’s relationship with others and his connection with two opposite worlds. The turns in each adventure are thrilling, the end is satisfactory and you must read this book and may you answer the question: “Is it a good idea to grow up a child at the graveyard?”

My rating is 9.5/10. Not less…