Thursday, July 09, 2009

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

I recently read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. (See the first link in the previous sentence, for more about the book, including a plot summary.) The book won the Newbery Award.

I don't have a lot to say about the book, because I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone, and there isn't any direct religious practice as such.

I will just say that the plot clearly involves a conflict between good and evil. Even though the main characters (except for a "normal" boy, who grows up throughout the story) are ghosts, a vampire, and worse beings, there is such a conflict, and a feeling of goodness from Gaiman's descriptions of those on the side of good, and of Nobody Owens, the boy.

A nice touch is that Gaiman gives us inscriptions from various gravestones, to accompany the names of the people who are buried there. The book mostly takes place in a graveyard, after all.

Thanks for reading.

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