PDF The Graveyard Book FullCast Production Audible Audio Edition Neil Gaiman Derek Jacobi Robert Madge Clare Corbett Miriam Margolyes Andrew Scott Julian RhindTutt HarperAudio Books

Product details Audible Audiobook Listening Length 8 hours and 24 minutes Program Type Audiobook Version Unabridged Publisher HarperAudio Audible.com Release Date September 30, 2014 Whispersync for Voice Ready Language English, English ASIN B00LXHLS9Q

The Graveyard Book FullCast Production Audible Audio Edition Neil Gaiman Derek Jacobi Robert Madge Clare Corbett Miriam Margolyes Andrew Scott Julian RhindTutt HarperAudio Books Reviews

• Long the king of fantasy fiction for adults, Gaiman has turned his talented attention to younger audiences lately. In The Graveyard Book, he cements his greatness in YA fiction once and for all.
  Gaiman spins the tale of Nobody Owens, a child who escaped the mysterious murder of his birth family and is taken in by none other than the ghosts at the local graveyard. Under the watchful eye of his new, ghostly parents and an otherworldly guardian named Silas, tiny "Bod," as he comes to be known, makes the land within the graveyard his own.
  But as he grows, questions arise why isn't Bod allowed to leave the graveyard? Will the one human girl he met as a small child ever return to visit? Who is searching for this innocent boy, and why does Silas leave him, for weeks at a time, under the watchful eye of taciturn Miss Lupescu? Who - or WHAT - lives deep within the bowels of darkest, most forbidding hillside at the edge of the graveyard?
  The complicated answers to all of this and much more Gaiman weaves together into a beautiful, terrifying blanket, and in so doing, he shows his readers that it is only the most porous (and important) of curtains that separates life and death, that magic still exists, and that love cannot be limited by any boundaries, no matter how impenetrable they may seem. Truly, a book for all ages. An instant classic.
• This is my 3rd Gaiman I've finished "American Gods" and "Norse Mythology". And I would have the same review of his work for each so far.
  
  Gaiman is an extraordinary, a gifted wordsmith. His sentences are beautiful - really, read them aloud. He is a master of tone and of place. He is an efficient writer, and there are not many of them around, at least in F&SF. But...
  
  But he is a poor story teller. His fascinating characters shuffle around, and they learn a technique or two, and they experience, and they try to learn some more. But they never have significant interactions that create conflict and resolution, and thus a sense of satisfaction at the end of his tales. And they NEED that because everything about his work is mythic, fundamental, playful in the depths of us all. There are lessons you have to teach us, Gaiman, and there are lessons we have to learn from you. You must not remain aloof from the drama of humanness, buddy.
  
  And so here, in "The Graveyard Book," we have the sudden realization from Gaiman somewhere around the two-thirds mark that, maybe, he'd better get moving and try to find some ending so he can call it a day and have a beer. He has to bring back a character from early on just for the occasion. Evil grows a little gray hair and masquerades as a lover of roasted potatoes (which, I suppose, is the kind of thing we might fear most about true evil - its true banality; except in a mythic construction, darn it!)
  
  And so the reader is, ultimately, left slack-jawed. What just happened? A bad guy broke his ankle? That is Justice, capital J? Don't set us up for sequels ("Um. Silas. If you're ever in trouble, call me. I'll come and help.") if you haven't fully established heroic perseverance from the gitgo.
  
  So, yes, read this book because Gaiman writes as one should write. He just hasn't discovered how to create - yet.... And when he does, it will be, well, very special.
• LOVED IT! LOVED IT! LOVED IT! This story left me wanting more when it was over. The Graveyard Book is by far my favorite novel from Neil Gaiman. The story revolves around a little boy named Nobody Owens, and the peculiar circumstances that led his life down the even more peculiar path that he now travels. If you read only one of Neil Gaiman's novels in your lifetime, might I suggest that The Graveyard Book be the one you choose?
• This is the story of Nobody Owens and his guardians and friends in a graveyard. They became his protectors and family when he was a toddler and a Man Jack did away with his family, shortly before coming after him to do the same. He grows up among the long-dead people and other supernatural beings. He is protected from the world, but soon his past and his future beckon him into the world of the living. His interactions with beings from both worlds are witty, humorous, moving, and at times nerve-wracking or dangerous. Yet always, these qualities underscore deeper truths about the human. And not-so-human, condition. This is one of Neil Gaiman's finest works for grade-school level kids and up (including adults). He remains one of my favorite tellers of Other Worldly tales. Highly recommended.
• I was amazed at how dark this book was, considering it's written for children. But it has the hypnotic tug you find in dreams and the story logic has the oddness and inevitability of old children's fables and fairy tales. Hard to imagine someone not enjoying this book, whether an adult or middle-grade reader (or listener). I bought the audible version, which I highly recommend. It is read by the author and it turns out Neil Gaiman could have had a second career as a voice actor. I loved his unique characterizations and accents, and I enjoyed hearing it read in the author's own voice (although this often doesn't work out well). In short, I loved it, recommend it, and will probably buy the print version to go with the audio.