Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place—he's the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians' time as well as their ghostly teachings—such as the ability to Fade so mere mortals cannot see him.
Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead? And then there are beings such as ghouls that aren't really one thing or the other.
My second book of Gaiman's (following Stardust), I grabbed this mostly due to the enthusiasm I'd heard online. I think the best word I have for it would be "quaint".
The story of Nobody "Bod" Owens is far from a happy tale, but at the same time it's a story of growth, of childhood follies and gradual coming of age, so it's hard to paint the tale as all doom and gloom. Still, when one's whole family is murdered before he can remember them, such that he is taken in and raised by ghosts, it's not exactly pointing towards a happily ever after.
The book is mostly made up of short stories in the way of Where the Red Fern Grows or books like it. We follow Bod along various adventures as he grows up, each one able to stand alone, but stitched together in one life. Things really only come together in the final chapters when a thought-to-be-long-lost friend comes back to town. Some of the adventures are still a bit stand-alone in nature, but most of the lessons or characters do weave back in in one way or another.
I wish we could have seen more of the 'underworld' in the story. With Bod spending most of his life within the boundaries of the graveyard, we don't see much of the world in general, but we at least know that there are computers and personal phones, so we can assume it's very similar to ours. But the underworld in which Silas (and perhaps the man Jack) operates is mostly kept from Bod, and therefore us. I wanted to know more about the Hounds of God and vampires (which must be what Silas is) and the like. I get it, Silas kept Bod out of that world because it wasn't to be his world. That doesn't mean I don't want to know more about it.
Overall, it's a nice book. A bit grim and dark, as should be evident from the title, but a quaint coming of age story for those of us wanting something more modern than Wilson Rawls.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
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Really nice and informative blog, keep it up buddy…
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