lizpatanders

I love Stardust and Coraline. I like to read a book before I listen to an audiobook of it. Being assigned the audiobook of The Graveyard Book for a class was a perfect excuse to read my copy of it. My reaction to The Graveyard Book was similar to my reaction towards other titles by Neil Gaiman: I fell in love.One really awesome thing about The Graveyard Book is that it’s a fantasy novel setting in a realistic, contemporary setting, with some awesome historical elements to it. Nobody Owens is our main character and a regular boy, aside from the fact that he’s been raised by ghosts. Some of these ghosts died centuries ago, making for a quirky cast of characters. Bod is very easy to connect with because he has the type of questions that one would expect a child his age to ask. I also thought that the entire plot of the novel was excellent.Of course, what drew me in as per usual was Gaiman’s beautiful prose. His writing in this book was a perfect mixture of magic, British, and creepy. It helped me envision a graveyard that was both quaint and scary, and kept the chills running down my spine the entire time.Gaiman has quickly risen to be one of my favorite authors, and I think everyone should try his work at least once. I loved so many things about The Graveyard Book that I can’t even list them all in one review. Lovers of children’s lit, readers of creepy stories, people who enjoy quality literature, I implore you. If you haven’t read The Graveyard Book, get your hands on a copy and curl up on a dark night with a hot drink. You’ll be glad you did.