188 pages
English language
Published Feb. 12, 2014 by Bloomsbury.
When a baby escapes a murderer intent on killing the entire family, who would have thought it would find safety and security in the local graveyard? Brought up by the resident ghosts, ghouls and spectres, Bod has an eccentric childhood learning about life from the dead. But for Bod there is also the danger of the murderer still looking for him - after all, he is the last remaining member of the family. This novel features every second year of Bod's life, from babyhood to adolescence. Will Bod survive to be a man?
I love Neil's style in this book and I am happy that I picked this one up to get back into reading.
I forgot how much I liked this book. Gaiman claims it is inspired by the Jungle Book, but to me it felt more like Kidnapped, but improved.
The most remarkable thing (other than me sitting down and reading a book on paper for once), was the complete lack of cynicism. That is not a sure thing with Gaiman.
I'd read the original a long time back, and had forgotten how beautiful and haunting the prose was.
A sad and tender book about a boy growing in a graveyard.
[guessing at the star rating / mining my old FB notes now that they are almost impossible to find]
what at thoroughly charming book! i cannot say enough wonderful things about this allegory of childhood itself... there's a nolatalgia here for adults, and a delicious fear for older children, and a cohesive plot that uses most, if not all, the supposed tangents that come along - fierce and rob and i all loved it. (pepper's up next to listen to it)
oh yes - do it as an audiobook. it's voiced by the author himself and he captures the characters are perfectly as he conceived them
once again - loving the young adult genre
