Book Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, 4 out of 5 stars

The newberry award winning book for 2008, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is more creepy take on the themes of the Jungle Book. Instead of an orphan raised by wolves in a jungle, an orphan is raised by ghosts in a graveyard.

The book starts off with a chilling hook, a triple murder that sets up why Nobody Owens must live in secret in a graveyard, though the rest of the book, while dark, has more of a sad charm and humor about it. Several characters are obvious nods to Jungle book characters, but by the end of the book they've all become their own characters. I particularly liked Gaiman' werewolf character (who's indeed a mirror for one of Rudyard Kipling's character, but I won't spoil which), my regret is that it wasn't used more.

Gaiman's writing pattern is to take old stories and twist them. Sometimes, I think he does so to the point of detriment to the original, but here, the characters are their own and I think avoid that problem. I still recommend the 'original' over this, and Gaiman's sad, wistful view of death that pervades the book may make it difficult for the especially young.

Still, this is a very well crafted book. I also must point out that the mist like illustrations that accompany it complement the book nicely. In fact, It makes me wish more books (aside from graphic novels) used illustrations as effectively.