The Graveyard Book - Book Review #6

by Platypus

Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐⭐️/5

Do you enjoy reading fantasy books? If so then The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman might be a great book for you!  

The Graveyard Book follows Nobody Owens (also called, Bod) as he is raised by ghosts in a graveyard which he calls his home. One night when Bod was a toddler, his family was murdered. Unknowingly, he wanders into a nearby graveyard and meets the ghosts who live there. When they realise that Bod is helpless and has nowhere to go, all of the ghosts agree to help raise him. He is given to his foster parents Mr. and Mrs. Owens along with “The Freedom of The Graveyard.” He also is taken care of by Silas, his guardian, who is able to leave the graveyard to get Bod food and clothing.

As Bod grows up, he experiences all sorts of fantastical adventures as he explores all the corners of his little graveyard. While everything is mainly happy for him, Bod still has many questions about who killed his family, eventually learning that the person is still out there looking for him.

I really enjoyed this book because of the characters and the descriptions in the story. The characters have a lot of depth to them and you can really imagine what they would be like. While some of the characters only appeared for a chapter, you can still learn a lot about them because they have very defined personalities. The descriptions of the setting and emotions the characters felt were also very enjoyable and detailed.

One of my favorite things about the book are the insightful quotes that the characters say like this one from Silas when he was talking about a death from suicide: “...  It’s like the people who believe they’ll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn’t work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. If you see what I mean.” (pg 104)

I have read that they are going to be making a movie of this, but nothing seems to have happened so far. I really hope that someone will.