"There was a silent implosion, a flutter of velvet darkness, and Silas was gone".
The descriptive narrative is a real joy to read, dripping with a poetic beauty delicious in it's dark humour and subtle danger While the authors own unique and slightly macabre style is quite evident the book does feel very different to those of his I have read previously - there is still that gritty and dark urban atmosphere but it's somehow combined with a more youthful exuberence - an innocence and positive vibe that somehow still fit's in with the authors naturally dark and grungy voice. Instead the reader is treated with intelligence and respect resulting in a novel of quiet intensity that should appeal to both children and adults - young or old. The main reason I am reading this now is due to that last award, a self imposed desire to read each and every Hugo winning novel (although I would have got round to reading it at some point anyway) It's one of the only Young adult novels to ever win the Hugo.Īlthough this book is clearly written for the younger reader and has an uncluttered style it doesn't fall foul of the all too often made mistake of dumbing down the prose which usually ends up coming across as patronising. The Graveyard book was released in 2008 and received critical acclaim, winning the Newbery Medal, the Locus Award, the Carnegie Medal and the much coveted Hugo award. I have yet to read anything by Neil Gaiman that I didn't like, American Gods and Neverwhere are both favourites of mine while Good Omens co-written with Sir Terry Pratchett was just fantastic. There are plenty of distractions and adventures for a growing boy but if Bod ever left the graveyard, he would risk coming under attack from a man called Jack, the man who has already killed Bod's family and still looks to complete the job. Growing up in a sprawling graveyard - now used by the locals as a "beauty spot", Nobody (Bod to his friends) is educated by ghosts and looked after by a solitary guardian who skirts the void between the living and the dead. Taking pity on the innocent child the ghosts agree to raise him as their own, naming him Nobody Owens and giving him the freedom of this eternal home. At age 15, Bod loses the ability to see ghosts and leaves the graveyard for the wider world, which suggests that his guardians have done their job and he’s successfully come of age.Following the horrific murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a dis-used graveyard populated by ghosts and other undead creatures of the night - completely unaware of the death of his parents. In other words, he realizes that it’s the people (or ghosts) who helped him on his way to adulthood that were more integral to his identity and development than his origins. At this time, Bod also decides to accept his identity as Nobody Owens as his true identity and to stop seeking out the name his biological parents gave him. Bod uses all that he’s learned from his ghostly community to defeat Jack and his cronies, though this also brings about the end of Bod and Scarlett’s friendship. Frost, a friend of Scarlett’s mother, is actually Jack. As Bod reconnects with a childhood friend, Scarlett, as teenagers, they dig into the murder of Bod’s biological parents.
Over time, Bod grows curious about the outside world, what his biological name is, and who killed his biological family. They even attend to his education, which speaks to the novel’s broader point that it really does take a village to raise a child. However, Bod is surrounded by ghosts and mythical beings who care deeply for him and function as a kind of extended chosen family.
But as he grows up, Bod’s curiosity sometimes get him into trouble-for instance, he once decides to trust ghouls and follows them through the graveyard’s ghoul-gate to Hell. There, the resident ghosts decide to give Bod the Freedom of the Graveyard (the ability to see and interact with dead people) and adopt him as one of their own. Unaware that he’s being hunted by an evil man named Jack (who has just murdered Bod’s family), baby Bod wanders into a graveyard near his family’s house. Bod is fearless and curious, qualities that save his life at the beginning of the novel when he’s a toddler. Bod is the novel’s protagonist and the adoptive son of the ghosts Mr.
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