The Graveyard Book

I finished this book last night. Here's my review. This novel is appropriate for 5th grade and up, though the book begins with a grisly murder of a family, leaving an infant boy orphaned and alone. The murder is bloody for a child's book, and some children may be disturbed by the images invoked.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This story felt a bit slow for the first 2/3 of the book. It was interesting--an intimate look at the unseen life that could go on in a graveyard--and the character Bod was endearing. There were many times when I felt like the reader missed out on moments of conflict that would have strengthened the narrative and kept the plot moving. In fact, that was probably this novel's greatest weakness--lack of conflict. From about page 180 on, it got more interesting. The climax of the novel relied on the descriptive "down time" that had felt so slow earlier on, so that gave those slow scenes more meaning. Books that cover a long length of time seem to have this flaw--they feel episodic and less cohesive, and the reader must read with faith that everything will tie together in the end. This novel did tie together, and I liked it much better by the time I got to the end of it. Overall, entertaining.

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