“There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.
"The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately.
"The knife had done almost everything it was brought to that house to do, and both the blade and the handle were wet.”
The Graveyard Book by
An assassin sneaks into a house and plans to kill the entire family within. Unbeknownst to him, the youngest member of the family escapes and toddles (he is a baby of course) into the nearby graveyard. Nobody, now a little boy, grows up in the graveyard with only the ghosts and ghouls of the yard as his friends, guardians, teachers, and adoptive parents. No visitor or worker in the graveyard ever notices him. It’s almost like he is half alive himself. Though he is not without love or support. All the ghosts and ghouls love him. He's a well adjusted if ill-educated kid. Everything seems fine, even though he’s a living among the dead, until two things occur. Bod, Nobody’s nickname, meets a real, live girl and the assassin learns that someone survived the attack from so many years ago.
This book is a brilliant book. Gaiman almost always consistently proves why he is a master of his craft. With this retelling of the Jungle Book, Gaiman strips the jungle adventure and reminds us of how Mowgli was an orphan, alone in the world. It is because the jungle always feels warm and fertile, a place where anyone can get food; however an English graveyard is cold at times and definitely not fertile. Where is Nobody getting food? How is he not becoming sick all the time? But in a strange dichotomy, Nobody is cared for and loved. The ghosts and ghouls are creepy but kind, something like an Addams Family feel. In fact, the whole book feels like this, "creepy, kooky, mysterious, spooky, all together ooky." Gaiman imbues all this with his signature, story-telling, fairy-tale like prose, transporting you into a world where the magic feels surreal yet matter-of-fact.
This book is a masterpiece. Though this book was written as a middle grade book, it is not limited in scope to whom could really enjoy it. It’s creepy but warm-hearted which just shows that Gaiman masterfully writes dichotomy well. A great read for Halloween but not something that could scare you.
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