The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I bought this book a long time ago – well, it can only have been four years ago at most but it feels like I made the purchase a long time ago. A friend recommended Gaiman to me, this book in particular. I listened to them in so much as I bought the book but whenever I sat in front of my bookcase looking for my next read it just never caught my eye until now.

Well, as they say, better late than never!

Information:

Title: The Graveyard Book

Author: Neil Gaiman

Publisher: HarperCollins

Target Audience: Children’s / YA / Adult???

Pages: 307

Chapters: 8

PoV: 3^rd person

Tense : Past tense

Story: After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own. 

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family . . . 

Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic Coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, The Graveyard Book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.

(from Goodreads)

Thoughts and impressions: My first thought upon starting this book was that the style was very singular. The opening scene is of a man wiping blood from the knife he’s just used to kill three people but the language used almost makes it sound as though the story is aimed at a younger readership.

The style continues in this same manner but the events described are sometimes quite complex. The reader is only given part of the information and left to draw their own conclusions. I’m not sure that some of what’s going on wouldn’t just go over the heads of much younger readers. That said, the content is not particularly scary – I’ve read scarier books aimed at ten-year-olds – as you might imagine from the title, the synopsis, the knowledge that a man wants to kill the main character and the fact that it all takes place in a graveyard. I found it difficult to place the target audience with this one. Whenever I see the book in the shops, it’s always in the adult section but I think the story would appeal to younger readers too.

Each chapter follows a certain even in Bod’s life and each time these events take place two years apart. For the most part, the stories aren’t particularly interconnected but they show Bod’s evolution from a toddler to a young man. In each the reader is invited to explore an area of a reality that exists alongside ours – whether this be a trip along a plane where the “ghouls” live or an encounter with a millennia-old power.

I enjoyed each and every one of the short stories from Bod’s life, though at 80+ pages the 7^th was a bit of a push (I like to read chapter by chapter and not stop in the middle of one if at all possible). My favourite story was when Bod meets the ghost of a young woman who was burnt as a witch and buried on unconsecrated ground. She, Liza, has no headstones and this makes her sad so a young Bod decides to go out into the big wide world and buy one for her. I found this really sweet, especially as he’s only eight at the time.

Of course, the recurring theme across the novel is Bod’s existence in the graveyard living with the dead in a world apart from the living. Sometimes this is hard for him as he fights the urge to socialise with others like him – especially as he gets older. His struggles were always worthy of a child at whatever age he is in the chapter, though his speech did seem a bit formal. This could be put down to his having effectively been brought up by people who died anything between a hundred and just under two thousand years ago.

At one point, I thought it might turn out that “the man Jack” was some form of Jack the Ripper, what with his blade and all that. I’ve read a few novels over the past few months that incorporated Jack the Ripper in some way and I have to say that I’m glad that this book did not go down that same road. The idea of the Jacks of all trades really intrigued me; it was certainly something very different though I would have liked to have learnt more about them.

In all, this is a fairly short book. I read it in an afternoon. Dave McKean’s illustrations really serve to set it apart from the norm and I’m sure that they will make the book appeal all the more to certain readers. I have to admit that once or twice I couldn’t work out just what was being illustrated, though!

Style: The style was fairly simple, which was what led me to speculate about just what age of reader this book is aimed at. It’s one that a ten-year-old could likely tackle on their own, but it also hides more advanced hidden ideas.

Final verdict: As mentioned, this was my first Gaiman read. While I enjoyed it, I’m not chomping at the bit to go and read more by him. At times I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue reading or take a short break from the book. I might have enjoyed it more had I taken my time with it but instead I pushed through it all. This meant that I did occasionally feel worn down by the book. I’d advise other readers to not do as I did and to go at the pace their minds dictate. Maybe the book will earn a full 5 stars from these people but it gets a still good 4 stars from me.

Extra notes: I don’t think there was any bad language. No sex.

Voyage on the Great Titanic - The Diary of Margaret Anne Brady, 1912 by Ellen Emerson White

As with the review of Destined by Allison Kraft earlier this week, this review is in order to commemorate the centennial of the sinking of the Titanic. Originally I had planned to review three books about the Titanic this week, but unfortunately circumstances meant that I only had time to read two of the three.

This particular book is one that I’ve owned since I was only ten or so. I read it a few times before we moved to France but I never touched it again after that. This means that it’s been at least 11 years since I last read it. As my mother brought it over with a batch of other books that had been stored in my room there, I figured now was as good a time as any to revisit it.

I had no strong memories either way of this book so I went into it with a clean slate.

Information:

Title: Voyage on the Great Titanic, The Diary of Margaret Anne Brady, R.M.S. Titanic, 1912

Author: Ellen Emerson White

Series: My Story, Dear America

Publisher: Scholtastic

Target Audience: Children (8+)

Genre: Historical, diary

Length: 189 pages (story stops at p159)

Story: Monday, 15 April 1912
It was after midnight, I could still hear people moving about in the passageway. Before I had time to go out and join them, there was a sharp knock on my door. I opened it to see Robert. He was smiling, but his eyes looked urgent.

"Good evening, Miss Brady," he said "Need to put on something warm, and report to the Boat Deck with your life belt."

Miss Brady? When I heard that, I felt alarmed for the first time, but I was also startled....

"A routine drill," he said. "No need to fret."

I knew he needed to get on with his duties, so I found a smile for him and nodded.... Robert started for the next stateroom, but then stopped. "You'll not want to take your time," he said in a very quiet voice.

It did not seem possible--but maybe this was not a drill.

Thoughts and impressions: I have to be honest, the first third or so of the book is not particularly interesting or inspiring. The story starts several days prior to the ship sailing and a lot of scene setting takes place. The reader learns that Margaret is an orphan who was left at a convent by her brother when living on the streets meant that her health had taken a turn for the worse. He left to make a living in America, the plan being for her to join him there as soon as he’d saved up enough for her crossing. Fortunately for her, an American woman in need of a companion chooses to take Margaret with her on the Titanic.

The first third is mostly talking about the orphanage, the hotel where Mrs Carstairs is staying, Margaret’s own past, etc. Eventually they get to Southampton and they’re on the ship. Margaret’s from a family that always struggled to get by even before she lost both of her parents so travelling first class on such a ship as the Titanic is something that she would never even have dreamt of under normal circumstances. It also means that the reader gets the unique perspective of a young girl (she’s 13) discovering such opulence for the first time in her life. It also means that she’s able to give a specific commentary of those on board with her.

Unfortunately, it also means that she’s in the dark about certain things. When the ship hits the iceberg she naïvely believes there to be enough lifeboats for everyone on board and spends most of her time just observing the other people on deck. The very simplistic voice of a younger narrator also lends a very poignant side to this story. The way the final, devastating events are shown in such terms reduced me to tears (though I have to admit that this could be due to fatigue and emotional levels). This commentary of events was far more effective than any flowery prose ever could be.

Taking into consideration that this book is aimed at children, it is a wonderful exploration of how circumstances were that night for the first class passengers for such an audience. Moreover, there are a historical note, a timeline of events and a number of photographs after the final page of the story that will ensure that the reader has a good grasp of the actual history. It’s a sad, sad day when people believe in ignorance that the 1997 Titanic film was entirely fictional (I have to wonder whether these people slept through school or even paid attention to the start of the film with all the footage of the real Titanic at the bottom of the ocean).

Anyway, this story is a wonderful introduction to the story of the Titanic. It is one that I will be keeping for the day when I have children of my own and they are old enough to appreciate the book.

Style: As mentioned, simplistic but all the more poignant for it.

Final verdict: In spite of the fact that the start of the story was slow and not all that interesting, I’m giving this book the full 5 stars.

Extra notes: No swearing. No sex.

City of Masks by Mary Hoffman

I found this book on my shelves in France partly read but never finished. I bought it so many years ago that I no longer remember what drew me to the book. I decided to give it a second chance and restarted it.

Author: Mary Hoffman appears to be a relatively prolific author writing for younger readers with numerous titles under her belt. This is my first book by her.

Presentation: Fairly large font, well spaced. There are 360 pages broken down into a prologue, 21 chapters and an epilogue. All of the chapters are of roughly the same length.

Story: 15-year-old Lucien has just finished receiving chemotherapy for his brain cancer. He feels weak, he can barely eat  and sometimes he doesn't even have the energy to talk. But when his dad brings him a book to write in in order to communicate, something wonderful happens. Lucien finds himself transported to another time, another place. He is in 16th century Belleza (a Talian city similar to our Venice but in a parallel universe) on a day when none but those born in the city are permitted to be there. Something odd about him catches the eye of another in the city and Lucien soon finds himself faced with the idea that he is a stravagante, able to travel between the two parallel universes with the aid of a talisman.
Lucien is fascinated by this other city, visiting it every night, as he makes friends and learns more about the two realities and how they are linked. But Bellezza is also fraught with political tension: the Duchessa's life is in danger and Lucien finds himself embroiled in the plot.

Thoughts and impressions: The story starts off somewhat slowly and I can see why it lost my attention the first time around. For such an easy read it took me a long time to get through it. The twists and turns are pretty obvious and you can see them all being set up.
I don't like that Enrico doesn't get his just desserts. In fact, with the exception of one person, no one really suffers for the roles they play in the plots. Also, I don't understand why the di Chimicis are just referred to as the Chimicis. You'd never refer to Leonardo di Caprio as just Caprio. But maybe that's just an English ideal set on names from another language. I'd have to ask an Italian to be sure.
The author definitely did her research on Venice and Italian history, imposing her alterations in certain areas (like having a female power over the city rather than a male one, silver being more valuable than gold, etc.) making the concept more interesting.

Style: Very simple. Quite frequently I found that the style tells more than it shows, especially regarding emotions. The two main characters, Lucien and Arianna, are both 15 but I'm sure that the style is aimed at readers younger than that. It is too basic for me to consider it YA as I had originally thought it to be.

Final verdict: Very good idea. Unfortunately the execution left a little to be desired for me and I didn't enjoy it as much as I feel I could have. I would have preferred a little more depth to the narrative even in a book aimed at younger readers. 3 stars


Extra notes: No swearing. No sex. Suitable for younger readers.

The Doomspell by Cliff McNish

This is the first book in a trilogy written for children between the ages of 9 and 12.

Author: Cliff McNish is now a fairly well established children's author. The Doomspell was his first book. He is British and writes in British English.

Presentation: Quite a large paperback. The writing is relatively small for a children's book with quite a lot of it on each page. There are 21 chapters of roughly the same length.

Story: Rachel and her brother Eric get pulled through a gate between dimensions. They arrive on a planet where the Witch Dragwena has been exiled. For many years she has been looking for a child with enough magical potential to help her to return to Earth. Rachel immediately proves to be a wielder of powerful magic but her brother does not seem to have any magic at all, which is odd on Dragwena's planet where all of Earth's children usually have at least some magic. Dragwena forgets about Eric and hopes to make Rachel a Witch like herself. Dragwena's servants, children she brought to her perpertually grey planet many years before, hope that Rachel will be their salvation, that Rachel will be the child to bring Dragwena's rule to an end.

Thoughts and impressions: For a children's book this is a very interesting read with a lot of ideas set in place for the other two books in the trilogy. As a child (reading it around the age of 12) I adored the book, as an adult I was not drawn into the world quite so much but it was still an engrossing read. McNish describes his world, I think the name was Ithrea, very well and I found it very easy to envision the grey skies, endless snowfall and dreary atmosphere - conditions that some of the characters have been living in for hundreds and hundreds of years.

It has to be said that the Witch is a very powerful antagonist and the descriptions of her may be upsetting for some. Personally, I found it quite hard to imagine some of her physical features: for example, she is described as having slitted eyes that reach to the back of her head. I, however, found her an interesting antagonist. She has no redeeming qualities, but that is often the case with evil characters in books aimed at a younger audience. 

I am not entirely sure how old the two children are supposed to be. I get the impression that Eric is about 8 and Rachel closer to 10 or 11 but I may be a bit off on this. Both of them are well-drawn characters. Eric takes a bit of a backseat but I think that his intriguing powers will play a more vital role in the other two books in the series.

Final Verdict: Certainly a recommended read for younger readers who are not daunted by evil characters and like a good fantasy. 4 stars.

Extra notes: No content that would not be appropriate for children. As mentioned, the antagonist may be a little too evil for some. For younger children it may be better if the parent reads the book outloud.