(Just a note: I haven't stopped reading, just slowed down on posting the reviews. I may have to motor the next couple of months, but I'm still on track to finish 26 books by December 31, 2013.)
I think
the word 'meh' is overused, but if someone asked me what I thought of this
book, I would say shrug my shoulders and say 'meh.' I hate to say that about
Neil Gaiman. And I really hate to say that about a Neil Gaiman book that
received so many awards and accolades.
Like many
of his books, The Graveyard Book combines elements of fantasy, horror and the
supernatural. The premise is clever; a young boy is orphaned as a baby and
raised by ghosts in a nearby graveyard. His foster parents name him Nobody
Owens or Bod. They could've named him Anybody Owens, because, despite his
upbringing, Bod is like any other kid. He is curious, introverted, bullied, love
struck and eventually longs for a life beyond the graveyard. For me, the best
parts of the book dealt with Bod simply as a boy navigating adolescence.
But there
are parallel stories of ghosts and shifters and supernatural tokens and a
secret society of killers led by 'the man Jack.' All these elements may have added
pages to the story but I don't think they always complemented it.
Sometimes
if I don't like a book I dismiss the author altogether. After this book I'm not
dismissing Gaiman. I still hope to be a fan. This just wasn't the book that did
it.
