Pros: Has ghosts, interesting variation on Harry Potter
Cons: Missing something, Nobody Owens needs a goal
The Bottom Line: This novel has an intriguing gothic concept that blends the themes of Harry Potter and Tim Burton, but the main character lacks a goal.
adriennefoster's Full Review: Neil Gaiman - The Graveyard Book
The Graveyard Book has won the Newberry Medal and is nominated for the 2009 Hugo Award for best novel, which will have the winner announced in August. The idea is intriguing; it comes off as a cross between Harry Potter and the work of Director Tim Burton. As compelling as the gothic concept is, the main character misses something.
The story opens with the man Jack slaying the Dorian family. During the commotion, he wakes the one-year-old toddler son, who climbs out of his crib and wanders through the front door while the killer is terminating the lives of the baby's parents and older sister. With no one stop him, the boy eventually races into a garden area and stumbles into an old graveyard. The ghosts of the graveyard immediately come to the rescue of the baby and when they chase the murderer off, one of the long-deceased couples decides to take him in, with another, Silas, acting as his guardian. They rename him Nobody Owens.
Each chapter is an episodic adventure as the young man grows up and they string together to make the resolution. Gaiman's description of the boy climbing out of his crib and wandering out of the house is both cute and believable. However, this is the extent of what Nobody does throughout the novel. He has no particular "overwhelming passion" or goal the reader can sympathize with him pursuing. He just reacts to situations thrusted on him without doing much to turn the plotline himself. He starts with an adventurous spirit with nothing to challenge it before his story closes. Nobody's only distinction is that he was raised in a graveyard. It's an incomplete theme with no character growth aside from physical.
Obviously the man Jack doesn't give up on finishing his job, which brings the parallels to Harry Potter even closer. Like Harry, Nobody loses his parents at the age of one, finds mentor like Dumbledore in Silas, and again faces the threat of his babyhood—but with a twist of Burton's macabre style. On the other hand, Author Neil Gaiman avoids some of irritating, overused plot gimmicks J.K. Rowling usually employs.
Dave McKean's black and white illustrations are sprinkled throughout the book and have a distinct style. They add to the story's atmosphere.
Gaiman is a popular author and the guest of honor among the membership of this year's World Science Fiction Convention (aka Worldcon), so there is good chance he may win "the big one." Anathem has been receiving many raves in the community, so it will be interesting race. The Graveyard Book has a fun concept, but because of its feel of incompleteness, this is a slightly-less-than-hearty recommendation for it as light reading.
*With apologies to Audrey Neffenegger, who used this phrase in her dustjacket blurb on the book. (This idea really did flash in my mind before I read your comment.)
In his first full-length novel for middle-graders since the international bestseller "Coraline," Neil Gaiman introduces Bod, a boy who is the only liv...More at HotBookSale
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