Saturday’s Book: “The Graveyard Book” by Neil Gaiman

I ENJOYED  every minute of this book! What fun!

I read it in a week. Slightly less. Just what I needed! Captivates from the very first page.

My youngest just received Neil Gaiman’s latest book “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” as a gift. I told him I had heard it mentioned a lot and expressed interest in reading it. He recommended I read this one first. He says its his best.

The cover calls it a children’s book. It didn’t bother me.  There’s plenty of references and puns I bet kids don’t get, clearly for adults! Just one question though, do all British books have to have a part with a mean teacher/governess in it? Or at least that seems mean in the beginning (this one turns out to be special, unspurprisingly.)? I read a lot of Enod Blyton when I was a kid, not to mention a host of others.

Anyway, I enjoyed it so much I consulted with my son, who had also finished his book in less than a week. I thought I might break my own rule about not reading two books by the same author in a row, even if I really like the author (I usually enjoy the second one less). It’s tempting to have the new book in the house. He advised against it. I quote: “The Ocean book is good, but different and not quite as good as the Graveyard one. You’ll enjoy it more if you wait for a few months”.

I’ve decided to take his advice.

4 thoughts on “Saturday’s Book: “The Graveyard Book” by Neil Gaiman”

  1. Great to see your review Naomi. I’ve wondered about Gaiman’s books and you’ve given me a reason to try them out.

    You’re right about the mean teacher/governess in children’s books. I tried to think of a good one, and could only think of Miss Honey from Roald Dahl’s Matilda. But then that book has Miss Trunchball too, one of the nastiest teachers ever!

    Love your Saturday reviews 🙂

    1. Love discussing books with you Lesley! We should compile a list of mean governesses/teachers in British books, LOL! It seems it would be quite long!
      Naomi

  2. Neil Gaiman is one of my all-time favourite authors. If pushed to name my favourite book (very difficult!) I normally go for Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, which is one of the few books I’ve read multiple times. Although I’ve been reading Pratchett since my early teens, I only picked up one of Gaiman’s other books about five years ago, and I wish I’d started earlier! I haven’t read either of the two books mentioned here, but I would highly recommend Neverwhere, American Gods and Anansi Boys. There are many more I still need to read! I had Anansi Boys as an audiobook, which was a great few days. Both authors take such a delight in words, and are full of thought-provoking ideas, but are also brilliant storytellers too. Look forward to seeing more of them in your Saturday books Naomi!
    Sandy

    1. Thanks for the reccommended titles! I just read somewhere that Neil Gaiman reads his own books on audio books, so I’ll see if I can get one of the ones you mentioned as an audiobook.
      Thanks Sandy!

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