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English Book…
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- Emotional Design (147)
- Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things
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By Donald A. Norman -
Finished on Dec 2, 2012 
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- Designing for Emotion (33)
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By Aaron Walter -
Finished on Nov 21, 2012
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- The Windup Girl (144)
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By Paolo Bacigalupi -
Finished on Oct 14, 2012
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- American Psycho (843)
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By Bret Easton Ellis -
Finished on Aug 25, 2012
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- The Cold Commands (15)
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By Richard Morgan -
Finished on Jun 9, 2012
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- Fight Club (1972)
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By Chuck Palahniuk -
Finished on Apr 22, 2012
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- The steel remains (43)
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By Richard Morgan -
Finished on Apr 2, 2012
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- The Zombie Survival Guide (289)
- Complete Protection from the Living Dead
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By Max Brooks -
Finished on Feb 18, 2012
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- After Dark (725)
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By Haruki Murakami -
Finished on Feb 4, 2012
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- The Stress of Her Regard (21)
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By Tim Powers -
Finished on Jan 2, 2012
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- The Ice Dragon (30)
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By George R. R. Martin -
Finished on Nov 10, 2011
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- A Dance with Dragons (1663)
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By George R. R. Martin -
Finished on Sep 18, 2011
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- Real World (62)
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By Natsuo Kirino -
Finished on Jun 13, 2011
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- Maurice (248)
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By E. M. Forster -
Finished in Dec 2006
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- The Graveyard Book (657)
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By Neil Gaiman -
Finished on May 8, 2011
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Lucky July C…
The Graveyard Book
***This comment contains spoilers! ***
Truly, I didn't expect that it would captivate me with such intensity!continue)
I chiefly buy it (it's sad to admit it) due to its front-drawing. I loved it. Besides there was the fact that I do love Gaiman's writing and stories (exception made for Neverwhere, I've never could with that book yet), so I suppo ... (
Truly, I didn't expect that it would captivate me with such intensity!
I chiefly buy it (it's sad to admit it) due to its front-drawing. I loved it. Besides there was the fact that I do love Gaiman's writing and stories (exception made for Neverwhere, I've never could with that book yet), so I supposed this one wouldn't be different. The only thing that slowed me was that it's labelled for 'young adults', aka teens, and though I had been the people who was most fond of that kind of novels, I had left them behind long, long ago, so I didn't know which impression it'd cause on me.
And I have to say it's the best impression of all.
But let's take it easy: I admit The Graveyard Book is a slow burn. I can't say when one is young if the impression is different, but for a twentish girl, it starts strikingly, but after the first, maybe second chapter, as I see it, the intensity decreases a little, in fact I left the book untouched for several days, I know I was making a mountain out of a molehill, but it was utterly out of my depth.
Thereafter I reconsidered and I took it again, and ''forced'' myself to keep reading, and in fact when I had already read the ghoul stuff I resumed my interest in it (although seen it now, I enjoyed the ghouls chapt too!).
The story develops in several chapters and each one (at least in the first ones) contains a oneshot story. In each oneshot, Bod has grown about two years, and it is that way until he reaches youth.
The truth is that in spite of the novel being for teens, I enjoyed it enormously, and I think Gaiman achieves a novel that can both entertain children, for they get lost in the adventure and so forth, but also adults, for it has dialogues and little jokes that maybe an adult enjoys better.
I just enjoyed it so much I ended up crying like a child when I finished it.
I would enlight the character that's Silas. OK, I admit it, I love him. And as Gaiman himself tells, there's been other people who also love him. And why? I cannot tell exactly why, the truth is that he doesn't appear that often and his role, although remarkable, it's not the definitive role, but as far as I'm concerned, I just can't stop loving him! The way he cares for Bod, SPOILERS from now on that he even lets himself get involved in a car accident to protect him , his misty and misterious attitude (that only unravels its truth at the end, and it's something I will write about later)... For instance, the way Gaiman introduces him to us, I quote: "The man Jack was tall. This man was taller. The man Jack wore dark clothes. This man's clothes were darker. People who noticed the man Jackwhen he went about his business were troubled, or made uncomfortable, or found themselves unaccountably scared. The man Jack looked up at the stranger, and it was the man Jack who was troubled." And if you know what the man Jack is, I swear to you it's a bloody good introduction to Silas.
What unravels at the end, at least as I see it, is that Silas is actually a vampire, one who did very, very weird things when young and now seems that has found his path, and that's a good fellow. But you understand all at once the feeling you couldn't get over along the book that something was odd with Silas. You knew he was a good one, but there was something dark in him. And it makes him interesting!
I have to admit that it startled me at the very first aknowledge of what Silas was, for Gaiman doesn't tell anything about vampires through the book, and when you lear Silas doesn't reflect in a pizzeria's table, it's a little bit what the? but thereafter it starts to make sense (though I wouldn't have disliked it if Gaiman had left Silas as a riddle).
Moreover, there are a lot of remarkable characters, and I dare to say the most of them are very secondary ones, dead people from the graveyard but that make you laugh, as it does the poet who accomplish a great vengeance (form it's point of view).
There's also the Sleer, Liza the witch, the little friend of Bod Scarlett, the loving Mrs Owens and the old-fashioned Mr Owens, the misterious Grey Lady, and so forth.
Summarizing, Gaiman creates a book which both adults and teenagers can enjoy, and if you're an adult one, let youself get caught by the magic of the book, let yourself remember yourself when you were twelve, thirteen and how would you have enjoyed such a book.
Finally, I just want to say I'm sure you will enjoy The Graveyard Book, and specially I would recommend it to you if, in some aspect, you've never stopped being a child.