Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book
Call me slow, but it didn't dawn on me that the title The Graveyard Book, is a play on The Jungle Book until I was half through, and then I couldn't believe I had missed it before. On the other hand, there was a point where I thought "aha, Pinocchio allusion", so there you go. But enough about other classics: The Graveyard Book is another example of Neil Gaiman being quite simply one of the best storytellers around.
Also, trust Gaiman to pull off a children's book that starts with murder of a family. Father, mother and daughter, and only the toddler son escapes, being taken in by the ghosts of the nearby graveyard. (At which point our author is unable to resist to let a character comment "it takes a graveyard to raise a child".) Quite a few Neil Gaiman stories start with a character being tossed into another world - Neverwhere, American Gods, Stardust - but this one has the central character raised on one, and experiencing the "normal" human world as the Other later. Graves, ghosts and various other supernatural creatures, on the other hand, are his every day life. The premise allows for ghosts of all periods, from respectable Victorians to killed witches (from the unconsecrated part of the graveyard) to ancient Romans, and because Gaiman is great with ensembles, you get the sense that all of them have their own stories. What I especially admire is that despite of the switch that the supernatural world is home and the "normal" world is the otherworld in this story (and the one from which most threats hail, from school bullies to ruthless killers), the supernatural isn't banalized or "safe", any more, come to think of it, than Kipling's animals are in The Jungle Book. There are things older than that Roman lurking in the graveyard, and they have waited for a long time.
Doesn't mean, incidentally, that the book doesn't play with certain supernatural types and has a sense of humour about them. One of the ghosts is the one of a poet who took so much offense at his critics that he ordered his poems buried with him, unpublished, so there. Disappointingly, his wishes were obeyed and there hasn't been a graverobbery yet. The werewolf of the story is in her other appearances a prim governess type, which I adored. And there's a ghoul who calls himself the Thirty Third President of the United States.
Our orphan boy hero, Nobody Owens - Bod for short - is a believable child in this coming of age story, not implausibly perfect (he screws up a few times) but likeable and brave. One parallel with The Jungle Book made me damn near cry, as I had when I read the Kipling book, and yet the story sells this as the right ending. There is also a twist from all similar stories I know - to wit, Bod's childhood friend Scarlett's reaction to his method of saving the day - which I thought was an inspired departure of the way you expect the story to go at this point.
The villain(s) of the story, while menacing enough, are the least interesting part of the book - the brand of vicious killers Neil Gaiman used in several of his stories, though elsewhere they're usually just the tools of the big bad - and they don't need to be more; this is an author who succeeds in making the hero and the community around him far more compelling. At a guess, Bod's guardian Silas will be the character ending up in next Yuletide's fanfiction, though I hope for more Liza Hempstock (that would be the witch) stories as well. And more Miss Lupescu. (Three guesses as to what supernatural creature she is, with that name.) Which clearly means that you, faithful reader, if you haven't read the novel yet, must go out, buy it, and feel inspired! And if the muse fails you, just enjoy a wonderfully well written book.
Also, trust Gaiman to pull off a children's book that starts with murder of a family. Father, mother and daughter, and only the toddler son escapes, being taken in by the ghosts of the nearby graveyard. (At which point our author is unable to resist to let a character comment "it takes a graveyard to raise a child".) Quite a few Neil Gaiman stories start with a character being tossed into another world - Neverwhere, American Gods, Stardust - but this one has the central character raised on one, and experiencing the "normal" human world as the Other later. Graves, ghosts and various other supernatural creatures, on the other hand, are his every day life. The premise allows for ghosts of all periods, from respectable Victorians to killed witches (from the unconsecrated part of the graveyard) to ancient Romans, and because Gaiman is great with ensembles, you get the sense that all of them have their own stories. What I especially admire is that despite of the switch that the supernatural world is home and the "normal" world is the otherworld in this story (and the one from which most threats hail, from school bullies to ruthless killers), the supernatural isn't banalized or "safe", any more, come to think of it, than Kipling's animals are in The Jungle Book. There are things older than that Roman lurking in the graveyard, and they have waited for a long time.
Doesn't mean, incidentally, that the book doesn't play with certain supernatural types and has a sense of humour about them. One of the ghosts is the one of a poet who took so much offense at his critics that he ordered his poems buried with him, unpublished, so there. Disappointingly, his wishes were obeyed and there hasn't been a graverobbery yet. The werewolf of the story is in her other appearances a prim governess type, which I adored. And there's a ghoul who calls himself the Thirty Third President of the United States.
Our orphan boy hero, Nobody Owens - Bod for short - is a believable child in this coming of age story, not implausibly perfect (he screws up a few times) but likeable and brave. One parallel with The Jungle Book made me damn near cry, as I had when I read the Kipling book, and yet the story sells this as the right ending. There is also a twist from all similar stories I know - to wit, Bod's childhood friend Scarlett's reaction to his method of saving the day - which I thought was an inspired departure of the way you expect the story to go at this point.
The villain(s) of the story, while menacing enough, are the least interesting part of the book - the brand of vicious killers Neil Gaiman used in several of his stories, though elsewhere they're usually just the tools of the big bad - and they don't need to be more; this is an author who succeeds in making the hero and the community around him far more compelling. At a guess, Bod's guardian Silas will be the character ending up in next Yuletide's fanfiction, though I hope for more Liza Hempstock (that would be the witch) stories as well. And more Miss Lupescu. (Three guesses as to what supernatural creature she is, with that name.) Which clearly means that you, faithful reader, if you haven't read the novel yet, must go out, buy it, and feel inspired! And if the muse fails you, just enjoy a wonderfully well written book.