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Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.

He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.

But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family. . . .

Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, the graveyard book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.

Average Customer Rating:

big wind-up, no finish

Customer Rating:

Perhaps the rave reviews here are because this book actually makes sense as part of some larger series by this author. If you aren't familiar with the complete Gaiman, tho', you might find this book hugely disappointing. It starts really well, with a small boy escaping his family's murder and being taken in by ghosts in a graveyard, but you'll never get any real answers. Why were his parents killed? (It has to do with an unexplained prophecy, and you never find out why this kid, or who made the prophecy, or why it matters.) He's run afoul of a secret society, but who they really are, or why we should care, or what they do when they're not threatening this kid, is never explained either. Most of the action at the end is unexplained, off-screen deus ex machina involving some group called the Honour Guard (nope, you guessed it-- you won't find out who they are or why they care either). Is it supposed to be a prequel? Is it supposed to make sense? Or is it a colossal rip-off and a total waste of time? The ghost scenes were good, but for a book with ghosts that actually makes sense and has an ending, you might try Alive in Necropolis... this is just the author making $$ for nothing, I thought.

In a word, exceptional

Customer Rating:

There are few writers out there today who have the ability to keep me totally spellbound. David Almond, for sure. A handful of adult novelists. One author who gets my undivided attention every time with his mastery of language and devotion to limitless imagination is Neil Gaiman. Whether he's writing graphic novels, short stories, sci-fi novels or fiction for young adults, he always brings his "A" game to the table. His most recent work, THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, takes his standard "A" game to a whole new level of measured storytelling. Drawing inspiration from Rudyard Kipling's classic THE JUNGLE BOOK, Gaiman tells the story of an orphaned boy, raised not in a jungle by animals but in a graveyard by ghosts. Bod, short for Nobody, wanders into the graveyard as an infant as his family is dispatched by "the man Jack." In the graveyard, Bod is discovered by the kindly ghosts of Mr. and Mrs. Owens, who entice the other local spirits to take the boy in and grant him the "Freedom of the Graveyard" (a special charm that gives Bod sanctuary within the graveyard's boundaries). A being called Silas --- who is neither fully dead nor alive (and may actually be a vampire) --- is charged with being the boy's guardian and seeing that he's educated. Bod's childhood is filled with the varied lessons taught to him from the graveyard's residents. His teachers include Miss Lupescu, a strict but sympathetic werewolf, and a witch named Liza Hempstock, who skulks about the graveyard's unsanctified ground. But, as you'd expect, the graveyard is also full of dangers, such as the set of devious ghouls Bod encounters who go by names like the Duke of Westminster and the Thirty-Third President of the United States. But little prepares him for the day when the man Jack returns to finish the job he started years ago. Although he tips his hat to Kipling, Gaiman skillfully makes the story his own with his boundlessly creative imagery and energetic prose. In crafting the tale of Bod, Gaiman revisits the occasionally dark and funny, and always enthralling, ground he covered in CORALINE. Many of the chapters stand alone as short stories, but every small adventure adds up to form a complete tale that feels timeless and important. And the climactic scene towards the end is not to be missed. Fans of his other works will not be disappointed, and there's a very good chance he'll amass an entirely new armada of admirers once word spreads about how phenomenal this book is. THE GRAVEYARD BOOK is, in a word, exceptional. Gaiman remains a force to be reckoned with, no matter the intended audience, regardless of the subject matter. --- Reviewed by Brian Farrey

the graveyard protects its own in an eerie coming-of-age story

Customer Rating:

Neil Gaiman writes with a light touch, tenderly drawing back the curtains on his stories. "The Graveyard Book" is an eerie tale of a boy who grows up in a graveyard, but the eerieness is not where you would expect it to be. His adoptive ghostly parents and the other residents of graveyard are normal to the boy. Outside the graveyard (both in the world of the living and in the supernatural world), though, the adventures are frightening. The boy tackles these adventures, as well as his own advancement towards adulthood, and finally leaves the graveyard to learn more about the world and his place in it. Any weaknesses in the story are where the curtains were left firmly in place. The murders that start the story are never explained. The inscrutable Silas, the boy's primary protector, is allowed in the graveyard but for unknown reasons. There is a bigger story to be told, but it is unclear whether Gaiman is going tell it. I enjoyed every second of the book, and would love to know more about what happens to him.

It Takes a Graveyard

Customer Rating:

There is a moment in Gaiman's opus Sandman which stands out to this day. As punishment to a writer, a power curses him with an endless flow of ideas which he can neither control nor even pause to write (the two that I remember were about a "were-goldfish" and a man who inherits a library card to the great library at Alexandria). What stood out was how each of the ideas was intriguing as it was bizarre. Reading the Grave Yard Book I am reminded of the question that occurred to me at the time - how close is that character's experience to Neil Gaiman's real life? Long recognized by those readers who appreciate his extraordinary imagination and his gift for prose, The Grave Yard book serves as a case in point; how does Gaiman come up with these ideas? A series of linked short stories, the novel features the protagonist of "Nobody Owens," who as a toddler after the murder of his family wonders into a grave yard where the Ghosts in residence adopt him agreeing to raise him as there own. What follows are a series of linked short stories, each bearing the author's trademarks of dark humor, a deep understanding of a variety of topics mundane and arcane, and an ability to take common myths in uncommon new directions. No one would be surprised at the gallows humor which run through this work, yet it is Gaiman's sensitivity to his characters which marks this work with a tenderness not found in much of his other work (Sandman standing out for me as a notable exception). In his treatment of Nobody's struggles Gaiman show's a tenderness for his circumstance, while at the same time tapping into a number of universal themes of the challenges of childhood. Gaiman famously composed his Stardust as a sort of homage to a time when distinctions of genre were far less severe and high fiction fantasy was noted more for the former description than the latter (such as Tolkien's day). In the same way, the Grave Yard Book shows flashes for Gaiman's appreciation of the Brother's Grimm. In the end, the highest two points of praise I can give this book are that not only could I not put it down, but also that I seem unable to stop recommending it to near everyone I see. As is so often the case in his work, Gaiman has crafted a world at once unique, familiar, scary, and wholly mesmerizing.

Macabre and Fascinating -- A Modern Grimm's Fairy Tale

Customer Rating:

I find it fascinating that so many reviewers think that darkness and grim plot devices are anything new in children's literature. L. Frank Baum, who gave us The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 100th Anniversary Edition (Books of Wonder), was especially fond of decapitations, and no one can say that the Brothers Grimm shied away from blood or gore in telling their "happily-ever-after" ditties. But a well-told story is not as common as a merely scary one -- and the story of Nobody Owens, raised by ghosts and a benevolent vampire after the grisly murders of his entire family is a very well-told story. This imaginative tale had me from the first ghostly whisper of "Who goes there?" after the barely-toddling hero of this novel wanders into an ancient graveyard and falls into surprisingly friendly, but very dead, hands. The novel follows the adventures of Nobody (nicknamed "Bod") as he matures from a small boy to a teenager of sixteen, as he tries to become both human, and protect himself from the evil Jacks who are intent upon his death. The novel stands on its own, although I would not be surprised to see more adventures of Bod in the future. Neil Gaiman's wonderful world of ghouls, werewolves and eerie secret parallel universes grabs the reader and never lets go. I loved this book, and I'm not usually a fan of the paranormal. But after reading The Twilight Saga in order to find out what my teenage daughters were raving about, I am going to be watching these authors very carefully. I recommend this book highly.