The Graveyard Book

This book starts with a brutal opening. A mysterious assassin called Jack has murdered an entire family in their sleep, but a tiny toddler has managed to elude him and slips into the graveyard nearby. Jack pursues him there, but is rebuffed by the other-worldly residents of the graveyard. A ghostly couple adopt the toddler, and name him “Nobody Owens”, Bod for short.

Bod has several adventures over the next several years. His parents are ghosts, and his guardian Silas is a vampire. He has several tutors, but the most interesing one is a werewolf with an Eastern European accent. He befriends a witch and enters a prehistoric tomb of a king guarded by a trio of creatures called “the sleer”. He is captured by very hungry ghouls and has a very narrow escape from them. He even dances the “Macabray”, the dance where the living and the dead dance together.

But the real adventure, one that threatens his very existence, is that Jack (a.k.a. Jack Frost) and his ilk (Jack of all trades) are still on his trail. Jack, pretending to be a historian, befriends Scarlett, Bod’s sole flesh-and-blood friend. Bod and Scarlett visit Jack Frost, when he reveals his identity, and starts chasing them along with three other Jacks. Bod escapes to the graveyard, and uses his unique knowledge of the graveyard, his home, to defeat the Jacks.

Once the Jacks are eliminated and Bod is about 15, Bod moves on from the graveyard to make his way in the real world.

This is such a loveable book despite the grim tone and macabre setting. The language is rich and the tone is visceral, but what stands out are the characters in the book, who are all so unique and loveable. This book is intended as a children’s book, and I wish I had read more books like this rather than the more staid fare like Dickens and RL Stevenson. I cannot recommend this book enough.