Honestly, the world doesn’t really need any more Neil Gaiman fans. His appearances and readings are always packed and sold out. His signings go on for hours longer than intended. To get into one people often camp out all day or overnight. His blog gets millions of hits and any charity or auction or event that he pimps on it becomes wildly popular and gets tons of donations or sells out or reaches its goal.
So when I tell you all about The Graveyard Book, released today, I mean this for Neil Gaiman fans only. How can you tell if you’re a Neil Gaiman fan? Well, if you’ve read and liked some of his more popular works such as the Sandman graphic novels or American Gods. If you like stories that put a new spin on characters both fictional (Sandman) and non fictional (Will Shakespeare). In fact, if you like any sort of fantasy stories, science fiction stories, or even just fairy tales. Come to think of it, if you’re a fan of good, smart, witty writing. Basically, if you can read you should be a Neil Gaiman fan.
The Graveyard Book is the story of a boy raised in a graveyard by all sorts of ghouls and ghosts. It’s being marketed towards young adults, but much like his other children’s books, most popularly Coraline, it’s really written for big kids like myself. His prose is dark, twisted and full of puns and wit that would have gone over my head as a young adult. But like a Pixar movie, Gaiman’s young adult material is written to be enjoyed by children, yet wholly understood by adults. He writes for his daughters, but also for himself, the big kid in a man’s body. I personally can’t wait to get my hands on it. I’m headed over to the book store right now. And if you’re able to read this post, then you should be too.
Still weary about whether to give Neil Gaiman’s stuff a try? Right now you can read one of his earlier novels, Neverwhere, online for free. Yes, I said free. Not much of a gamble there. And if you don’t love him, then good. Like I said, the last thing we need is more Gaiman fans. But I have a feeling that those lines aren’t getting any shorter.
