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#5 Platform - The Graveyard Book
Dec. 1st, 2008 11:49 pmNot as morbid as you might expect, even considering it's not an adult work.
Book #47: The Graveyard Book
Author: Neil Gaiman
Provenance: Bought at the Indigo on Ste. Catharine
I suppose that my expectations for this book were a bit too high, being that I really do like Gaiman. That's not to say that the book is bad; it's in fact pretty well done, but it's got some flaws that keep it from being as good as it could be.
The premise is actually quite good, though: A baby, who comes to be known as Nobody Owens or Bod, that needs to be taken in by the ghostly inhabitants of a graveyard to protect him from the man that killed the rest of his family. So his new parents are a couple of ghosts, and his guardian is another other-worldly being. He's raised in the graveyard, a living boy with some abilities of the dead, like fading from view or being able to walk through stone. The book, then, is him growing up, with each of the chapters checking in on him at a different age.
The individual stories tend to be pretty good, with particular favorites being the hunt for a witch's headstone and dealing with some bullies. But I couldn't help but feel like it didn't come together well. It's not even that different points from the book didn't come together at the end for the grand finale; it's more that it just didn't feel like it was building to anywhere. All the elements were floating about, but they seemed not all that well joined in the end. The end, too, felt a bit unsatisfying, as if it wasn't entirely earned.
The characters definitely hit some good notes, but you had to fill in a lot of them on your own. That's not necessarily bad, in some cases; I really liked the witch, for example. But the people who are supposed to be the most important in young Bod's life, his parents and his guardian, are not really well sketched. There's some notes, but not tons, particularly with his parents.
Anyway, it's enjoyable, well written, and in my opinion a better read for adults than Coraline, but it's not quite what I expected. That's what you get for high hopes, I suppose.
Next up: Living with the Dead. I'm surprised I didn't get to the Armstrong sooner.
Book #47: The Graveyard Book
Author: Neil Gaiman
Provenance: Bought at the Indigo on Ste. Catharine
I suppose that my expectations for this book were a bit too high, being that I really do like Gaiman. That's not to say that the book is bad; it's in fact pretty well done, but it's got some flaws that keep it from being as good as it could be.
The premise is actually quite good, though: A baby, who comes to be known as Nobody Owens or Bod, that needs to be taken in by the ghostly inhabitants of a graveyard to protect him from the man that killed the rest of his family. So his new parents are a couple of ghosts, and his guardian is another other-worldly being. He's raised in the graveyard, a living boy with some abilities of the dead, like fading from view or being able to walk through stone. The book, then, is him growing up, with each of the chapters checking in on him at a different age.
The individual stories tend to be pretty good, with particular favorites being the hunt for a witch's headstone and dealing with some bullies. But I couldn't help but feel like it didn't come together well. It's not even that different points from the book didn't come together at the end for the grand finale; it's more that it just didn't feel like it was building to anywhere. All the elements were floating about, but they seemed not all that well joined in the end. The end, too, felt a bit unsatisfying, as if it wasn't entirely earned.
The characters definitely hit some good notes, but you had to fill in a lot of them on your own. That's not necessarily bad, in some cases; I really liked the witch, for example. But the people who are supposed to be the most important in young Bod's life, his parents and his guardian, are not really well sketched. There's some notes, but not tons, particularly with his parents.
Anyway, it's enjoyable, well written, and in my opinion a better read for adults than Coraline, but it's not quite what I expected. That's what you get for high hopes, I suppose.
Next up: Living with the Dead. I'm surprised I didn't get to the Armstrong sooner.
