Book Reviews, Gothic/Horror, Young Adult

The Graveyard Book Discussion Part 2

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Week two of our discussion of Neil Gaiman’s Newbery Medal-winning novel, The Graveyard Book, includes two of my favorite chapters in the book. It has been a special pleasure driving around the Kansas City area for work this week listening to Gaiman tell me this story in the way that only he can do it. This middle section of the book is a transitional section of the story about a boy growing up. In an unusual location, to be sure, but growing up nonetheless in the same way that we all grow up. We see him begin to test the boundaries of his independence and to push against the constraints of age as he travels down the inevitable path that lays before him, the path that all children take on the road to young adulthood.

So let’s chat about Chapters 4-6 of The Graveyard Book.

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Challenges

A Grave Matter

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(Image Credit: Simon Marsden)

Today’s post comes to you as part of the “A Grave Tale” event that we are doing in conjunction with the group read of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. The request is a simple one: just post something to do with graves or graveyards. The end of this post will have a place in which you can link to yours and on Friday night or Saturday morning I’ll be doing a random drawing for your choice of an image by our R.I.P. VII artist, Gothicrow.

Graveyards have been a source of fascination and fear, dread and delight, for as long as I can remember. My earliest recollections are of the scary kind: the grave of Lucy Westenra in an old version of a Dracula film I saw one Saturday afternoon as a kid, Edward Gorey illustrated scary stories brought home from the library, elaborate decorations adorning poorly lit yards on Halloween nights. It was later in life when graveyards also became a source of interest and then sadness.

It is that dichotomy that makes graveyards such an enduring part of stories and legends.

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Book Reviews, Young Adult

The Graveyard Book Discussion Post 1

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(Image by The Brothers Hilts, illustrators of The Insomniacs)

There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.

One of the things that I love about Neil Gaiman is that he knows that there is a special thrill in being scared, especially when you are a kid. Now I realize that all children are different and some definitely DO NOT enjoy anything frightening, but many, many children are braver and more willing to face fears than some adults are and Neil taps into that with his young adult books, Coraline and The Graveyard Book. When Coraline was released Neil Gaiman shared in many an interview that kids found the book exciting and adults found it terrifying. Gaiman continues the idea that many children delight in a little fright by opening The Graveyard Book on a very dark note.

As we enter this discussion of the first three chapters of The Graveyard Book, one of the things I would especially like to hear about is whether or not you enjoyed being frightened as a child and alternatively, as an adult, what are your thoughts on the opening of this novel.

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Home

Hail, Welcome Friend.

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(Image Credit)

“There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir, We must rise and follow her; When from every hill of flame, She calls and calls each vagabond by name”

~William Bliss Carman

I have been hearing that call for some time now, haven’t you? Post-season baseball, fresh apple cider, haunted evenings, starlit nights, the orange glow of dying leaves and maturing pumpkins…could the promises whispered on the autumn winds be more enticing? Certainly not for me.

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book news

The Graveyard Book Read-Along*

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(Image, sans text, a creation by our 2012 R.I.P. artist, Gothicrow)

We are mere days away from the beginning of October, the final month of this year’s R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril event. And with the onset of October begins the second of our R.I.P. group reads, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Not only is this one of my favorite Gaiman books, it is one of my favorite books in general:

The short story structure of the chapters.

The overarching coming-of-age exploration.

The whimsy and sentiment that is perhaps unexpected in a story set in a graveyard amongst the dead.

I adore this book.

I look forward to exploring in greater detail why that is the case. There are a number of you who have expressed interest in joining this read-along, some of whom have not had the most positive experience with Gaiman’s work and/or this particular book. I welcome the interaction we will have from those who love (or will love) the book as well as those who do/will not. It promises to be an engaging discourse.

If you will follow along I will briefly outline the reading plan and talk about some other fun things I plan to add to our Graveyard Book Read-Along.

*you may also listen to the audio book (which I plan to do this time around) because a) it is ‘reading’ in my book and b) Neil Gaiman’s narration of this story is just wonderful.

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Eclectic Musings of a Renaissance Geek