book review: the graveyard book by neil gaiman

*just a note before i begin: you will never hear me say [write] that a book "sucks" or that it is "horrible" or "terrible" or anything else like that. while others may say or write that, that's their opinion, but i don't believe in bad books. i believe in books that aren't necessarily your taste, that don't exactly tickle your fancy, but saying a book "sucks" is like (in my opinion) insulting some one's child. [most] writers spend years on a project. tears are shed, stress is had, times of hopelessness and despair are experienced and when its all said and done they can only hope that their book will one day be successful and admired by even just the smallest amount of people. to say it sucks or is terrible or what have you is like telling that writer "you wasted your time writing this." and that is just down right mean.
SO, that being said, the books i review are books that i enjoy and that i hope others will enjoy as well. most likely if i don't enjoy a book, i wont review it (on my blog. i review everything on my goodreads page.) but all of what i have to say about what i liked and didn't like is strictly a matter of opinion. i will not, however, say "this was a good book/this was a bad book" because, again, i don't believe in bad books. if you're looking for me to tell you what a 'good book' is and what a 'bad book' is, you're looking in the wrong place (and quite frankly, if you ask me, you shouldn't be looking for that at all. read the book yourself. form your own opinion!)
okay. i'm done. now for the review!

the graveyard book (by neil gaiman) is about a young boy (Bod) who is taken in by a ghost couple and raised in a graveyard. it follows his life and all that he learns growing up in the land of the dead.

this is one of those books that the more i think about it, the more i realize how much i truly liked the book. i felt the book was beautifully written. the characters were intriguing and likeable and the over all story was quite interesting. most of the story just follows Bod's life as a kid who grows up in a graveyard, but there is an underlying story going on the whole time that keeps the reader wanting to turn pages to find out how things end. i felt the older Bod got, the more i wanted to read his story and find out what was in store for him. while the ending was a little heart wrenching, i felt it was beautiful closure and that it was the most necessary way for the story to be finished.

while this story was a little morbid (there were only a few living characters in the whole book, everyone else was dead) i found myself getting more and more invested in the graveyard and all the ghosts that inhabited it.

i'd recommend this book to anyone who a) wants to read a downright good story and b) can enjoy stories that might involve something other than an emo romance plot line or dramatic teenagers that complain far too much about their horrible lives.