ISBN: 0060530928
Illustrations by Dave McKean (Adult Edition)
Website: http://www.thegraveyardbook.co.uk/
I saw this in a book-haul on a post on Fennell Books the other day and though I don't yet own every Neil Gaiman book I could not believe I missed this one, it's right up my street! So the next time I passed a bookshop I headed in and they had one last copy left. My copy.
Short Synopsis: A toddler escapes from his home while the rest of his family are murdered, and ends up in a graveyard. The ghosts of the graveyard take him in and raise him. He has no name, no family, and he's a nobody. So that's what they call him - Nobody, or Bod for short. This is the story of Bod's life in the graveyard, a coming of age story, with that brilliant Gaiman supernatural twist.
Though written for a teen audience I think young-at-heart adults will thoroughly enjoy this one too. It's delightfully grim, and for younger readers it would be pretty scary. Night gaunts, Ghouls and Ghoul-gates, witches, ghosts, werewolves, and Silas. FAB!
What I liked most: Everything. It's charming and entertaining, there are moments of genuine threat and you don't know how it will turn out exactly.
What I liked least: I've just checked and it said 312 pages for this edition. Maybe it's because it contains a fair few illustrations that take up a few pages, or that the font size is quite large, but it really didn't feel like a 300+ page book. I wanted it to be longer, and I now wish I hadn't read it so quickly.
Favourite Quotes:
“ 'Name the different kinds of people,’ said Miss Lupescu. ‘Now.’
Bod thought for a moment. ‘The living,’ he said. ‘Er. The dead.’ He stopped. Then, ‘... Cats?’ he offered, uncertainly.”
" 'I want to see life. I want to hold it in my hands. I want to leave a footprint on the sand of a desert island. I want to play football with people. I want,' he said, and then he paused and he thought. 'I want everything.' ”
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