The Graveyard Book
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 10/2/2015
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 10/2/2015 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I found this fair-condition softcover at a local Goodwill shop, and decided to give it a try. I love Gaiman's graphic novels and short stories, but have had mixed feelings about his longer works - will see where this one winds up on that spectrum. (The comments compare it to Kipling's Jungle Book, with a dark twist; will have to see about that, too!)
Turns out the comparison is quite apt, and in some cases is a direct re-telling of Kipling's tales, with Bod as Mowgli, Silas as Bagheera, and many other obvious similarities. I was delighted! (The chapter "The Witch's Headstone" compares very well with Kipling's "The King's Ankus"; I'll leave other comparisons for the reader to discover.)
The story itself is a good deal darker, what with the main enemies being malevolent humans rather than a tiger that simply needs to eat. In fact, the story opens with "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife," telling you right away that this is a sinister story. (While avoiding explicit details, the book makes the fates of Bod's family quite clear. {shudder})
Once toddler Bod makes his way to the graveyard and into the protection of ghost-couple Mr. and Mrs. Owens, not to mention the impassive yet commanding Silas, his life takes on a certain whimsy - colored grey with graveyard dust, but rather fun for a child. He grows, and learns such talents as are useful for ghosts, like Fading, as well as those useful for mortals - in a charming scene, he learns his alphabet from gravestones. And he learns why some parts of the graveyard are more dangerous than others, sometimes the hard way...
The chapter "Hounds of God" features Bod discovering one of the more risky parts of the graveyard and very nearly getting in over his head; he's aided by another of the fascinating characters, and the plot is an homage to Kipling's "Kaa's Hunting" with a delightful nod to Lovecraft as well.
All of his adventures pale in contrast to the danger he runs when the man who killed his family gets wind of his location. The story gathers momentum and suspense as we find out where that man came from and what his organization is like - and as we fret over how Bod can possibly escape him. Lots of great scenes there, some of them heartwrenching, with a satisfying, yet bittersweet conclusion.
[There's a TV Tropes page on the novel, with some interesting tidbits. And I see there's a film adaptation under development, though no word of a definite release date.]
Turns out the comparison is quite apt, and in some cases is a direct re-telling of Kipling's tales, with Bod as Mowgli, Silas as Bagheera, and many other obvious similarities. I was delighted! (The chapter "The Witch's Headstone" compares very well with Kipling's "The King's Ankus"; I'll leave other comparisons for the reader to discover.)
The story itself is a good deal darker, what with the main enemies being malevolent humans rather than a tiger that simply needs to eat. In fact, the story opens with "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife," telling you right away that this is a sinister story. (While avoiding explicit details, the book makes the fates of Bod's family quite clear. {shudder})
Once toddler Bod makes his way to the graveyard and into the protection of ghost-couple Mr. and Mrs. Owens, not to mention the impassive yet commanding Silas, his life takes on a certain whimsy - colored grey with graveyard dust, but rather fun for a child. He grows, and learns such talents as are useful for ghosts, like Fading, as well as those useful for mortals - in a charming scene, he learns his alphabet from gravestones. And he learns why some parts of the graveyard are more dangerous than others, sometimes the hard way...
The chapter "Hounds of God" features Bod discovering one of the more risky parts of the graveyard and very nearly getting in over his head; he's aided by another of the fascinating characters, and the plot is an homage to Kipling's "Kaa's Hunting" with a delightful nod to Lovecraft as well.
All of his adventures pale in contrast to the danger he runs when the man who killed his family gets wind of his location. The story gathers momentum and suspense as we find out where that man came from and what his organization is like - and as we fret over how Bod can possibly escape him. Lots of great scenes there, some of them heartwrenching, with a satisfying, yet bittersweet conclusion.
[There's a TV Tropes page on the novel, with some interesting tidbits. And I see there's a film adaptation under development, though no word of a definite release date.]
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at North Cemetery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA on Thursday, October 15, 2015
GoryDetails at North Cemetery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA on Thursday, October 15, 2015
Released 8 yrs ago (10/15/2015 UTC) at North Cemetery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I plan to leave this book on a bench near the entrance of the cemetery at around 1 or so, when I stop by to hunt up an intriguing epitaph that I neglected to write down last time I was there. Hope the finder enjoys the book! Later: Released as planned - and I found the epitaph, for one Ichabod W. Clark, died April 3, 1825, age 30. Since epitaphs rather fit the subject of the book I'm including this one here:
"This languishing head is at rest,
Its thinkings and achings are o'er.
This quiet, immovable breast
Is heav'd by afflictions no more.
This heart is no longer the seat
Of trouble and torturing pain.
It ceases to flutter and beat,
It never shall flutter again."
Turns out it's the first verse of a funeral hymn that must have been better-known back then than it is today!
*** Released as part of the 2015 Spook-tacular release challenge. ***
