This was the book that I have been yearning for some time. Before this, I don't even know Neil Gaiman. After I knew of this book existence from a newspaper column, I tried to find this book in the book stores around Kuala Lumpur, however I could not find it. One thing about book stores in Malaysia was that they just keep the best sellers. Some lesser known or specific titles are hard to find. Unlike in Japan, the books were of huge variety. Anyway, at the end, I bought this book from Amazon Japan. There were 2 kinds of cover, actually I spent a great deal of time deciding which one to buy. Then, I decided to buy the darker tone version.
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| The Graveyard Book |
The title itself could attract one's attention. A boy raised by residents of graveyard after his parents and a sister were killed by a killer named Jack. After the folks of the graveyard decided to keep him, they argued about his name, then 'nobody' popped out and he was named as 'Nobody Owens'. His adopted parents were Mr. and Mrs. Owens. All called the boy 'BOD', short for nobody. And he had a god father, named Silas, a figure neither human or ghost who secured him all the necessary items needed for a human survival.
And so Bod grew up in the graveyard. With the ghost kids as his playmate, various ghost teachers and a pair of loving parents. He met a girl, Scarlett and started to have a normal human friend. And with her, they explored the ancient grave that according to the oldest resident of the grave yard, it was the people before the Romans came to America. The old tribe. Inside the grave, they met an indigo man and Bod understood that the men who went inside where scared to death by the hallucination. Since Bod did not have the greedy heart, he left safely with that girl. However, the relationship was cut short because the girl's parent got a job far away, and the whole family had to move.
Then, Bod knew of a girl who was witch hunted and killed. She was not being buried inside the proper grave, so thus did not have to adhere to the rule of the graveyard. To help her to get a gravestone, he was held prisoner by a greedy pawnshop owner. The witch, Liza helped him to escape. After that, he put a glass paperweight and make a gravestone for her, with "E.H. , we don't forget". E.H. was Liza's initial. It was so sweet. However, this case made Jack realise that the boy did not die.
And the time passed by, and Bod experienced a lot of stuffs. Then, Scarlett and her mom moved back. A Mr. Frost befriended them, who was actually Jack. Jack actually came from a secret society 'Jack of all trades'. A man from thousand years ago predicted that a boy who will walk between the realm of living and dead will destroy the 'Jack of all trades'. So, when Bod was born, they killed all his family, but accidentally let Bod escaped. Jack Frost cornered Bod and Scarlett. And Bod tricked Jack into agreeing to the indigo man that he is the master. So, the indigo man trapped Jack and became as one.
This leaves Scarlett afraid of Bod, so Silas made her lose the memories of Bod and everything that happened although Bod disagreed. And so Bod grew up, and started to lose the vision of the ghosts. It was the time for him to leave, it was so sad to read when he had to left his parents, Mr and Mrs Smith. Silas prepared a passport and some money for Bod for him to start his world outside. Bod said to Silas, "If you're ever in trouble, call me. I will come and help." and Silas said, "I do not get into trouble." It was kind of funny and sad. Bod felt reluctant to left his friends, family, everything he knew and tried to cling to it.
I liked this paragraph where Bod told Silas, "I want to see life. I want to hold it in my hands. I want to leave a footprint on the sand of the a desert island. I want to play football with people. I want ......... everything." Isn't this kind of things that we hoped for when we ventured into the world?
And so Bod grew up in the graveyard. With the ghost kids as his playmate, various ghost teachers and a pair of loving parents. He met a girl, Scarlett and started to have a normal human friend. And with her, they explored the ancient grave that according to the oldest resident of the grave yard, it was the people before the Romans came to America. The old tribe. Inside the grave, they met an indigo man and Bod understood that the men who went inside where scared to death by the hallucination. Since Bod did not have the greedy heart, he left safely with that girl. However, the relationship was cut short because the girl's parent got a job far away, and the whole family had to move.
Then, Bod knew of a girl who was witch hunted and killed. She was not being buried inside the proper grave, so thus did not have to adhere to the rule of the graveyard. To help her to get a gravestone, he was held prisoner by a greedy pawnshop owner. The witch, Liza helped him to escape. After that, he put a glass paperweight and make a gravestone for her, with "E.H. , we don't forget". E.H. was Liza's initial. It was so sweet. However, this case made Jack realise that the boy did not die.
And the time passed by, and Bod experienced a lot of stuffs. Then, Scarlett and her mom moved back. A Mr. Frost befriended them, who was actually Jack. Jack actually came from a secret society 'Jack of all trades'. A man from thousand years ago predicted that a boy who will walk between the realm of living and dead will destroy the 'Jack of all trades'. So, when Bod was born, they killed all his family, but accidentally let Bod escaped. Jack Frost cornered Bod and Scarlett. And Bod tricked Jack into agreeing to the indigo man that he is the master. So, the indigo man trapped Jack and became as one.
This leaves Scarlett afraid of Bod, so Silas made her lose the memories of Bod and everything that happened although Bod disagreed. And so Bod grew up, and started to lose the vision of the ghosts. It was the time for him to leave, it was so sad to read when he had to left his parents, Mr and Mrs Smith. Silas prepared a passport and some money for Bod for him to start his world outside. Bod said to Silas, "If you're ever in trouble, call me. I will come and help." and Silas said, "I do not get into trouble." It was kind of funny and sad. Bod felt reluctant to left his friends, family, everything he knew and tried to cling to it.
I liked this paragraph where Bod told Silas, "I want to see life. I want to hold it in my hands. I want to leave a footprint on the sand of the a desert island. I want to play football with people. I want ......... everything." Isn't this kind of things that we hoped for when we ventured into the world?
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