Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Book #65: The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard BookTitle: The Graveyard Book
Author: Neil Gaiman

I'm taking a young adult fiction writing class in fall semester, and The Graveyard Book is one of the books my professor suggested might be helpful as I prepare to work on my own novel. I picked it up eagerly, since I'd heard great things about Gaiman as an author, but never taken the chance to read one of his novels. He narrates the audiobook, and his voice is one of the best things about the recording. The Graveyard Book tells the story of Nobody (Bod) Owens, who toddled out of his house in the middle of the night when a murderer was killing the rest of the family. The baby wandered into the graveyard up the hill, where the members of the graveyard (mostly ghosts, with a witch, a hellhound and a vampire thrown in for good measure) took on the task of raising him to adulthood while protecting him from the murderer, who needed to finish the job.

As I listened to the book, I was struck by the way that Gaiman employed Chekov's idea of "the gun on the wall" in which parts of the story that seem extraneous should eventually work toward advancing the plot or else be cut. For five or six chapters, seemingly random things happen to Bod as he grows up in the graveyard, and I was impressed with the way that Gaiman worked together the disparate events in the concluding chapters. It was a really interesting read. It's funny though, the book is marketed for 9-12 year olds, and I have two kids who read in that age group, and I think that The Graveyard Book would scare the pants off them. It scared me. Maybe the audio recording is more dramatic and scarier than reading the text, but I'm not sure that I'd recommend it for my kids right now, not unless I want them sleeping in my bed with me for the next few months.

3 comments:

Valarie said...

no, you're right. it's pretty scary for juvenile fiction. We read it for my bookclub. True to form, I picked it up late the night before. I was thoroughly creeped out as I sat up alone reading it at 1 am.

Reba said...

haven't read this yet, but I listened to Fragile Things (which he also narrated) and I agree, his voice was fantastic. What are you getting your degree in? I'd love to hear more

Becca said...

Hi, I wanted to let you know that there is a blog award waiting for you here:

http://completepoppycock.blogspot.com/2010/05/i-won-i-won.html

By the way this is the review that finally made me go pull this book of the library shelf!