Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
I literally have boarded the Neil Gaiman train and can NOT GET OFF OF IT people!!
And seriously….
why in the WORLD would I want to when everything I read by him is so so WONDERFUL?
Here is a summary of the latest book I indulged in:
“Selected as one of NPR’S Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of All Time
The #1 New York Times bestselling author’s ultimate edition of his wildly successful first novel featuring his “preferred text”—and including his special Neverwhere tale, “How the Marquis Got His Coat Back”
Published in 1997, Neverwhere heralded the arrival of a major talent and became a touchstone of urban fantasy. Over the years, a number of versions were produced both in the U.S. and the U.K. Now Gaiman’s preferred edition of his classic novel reconciles these works and reinstates a number of scenes cut from the original published books.
Richard Mayhew is a young London businessman with a good heart whose life is changed forever when he stops to help a bleeding girl—an act of kindness that plunges him into a world he never dreamed existed. Slipping through the cracks of reality, Richard lands in Neverwhere—a London of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels that exists entirely in a subterranean labyrinth.
Neverwhere is home to Door, the mysterious girl Richard helped in the London Above. Here in Neverwhere, Door is a powerful noblewoman who has vowed to find the evil agent of her family’s slaughter and thwart the destruction of this strange underworld kingdom. If Richard is ever to return to his former life and home, he must join Lady Door’s quest to save her world—and may well die trying.”
Growing up as a kid in the 80s, I imagined fictional beings that lived underground would be that of the likes of Ninja Turtles, super scary clowns, and even modern day Beauty & the Beast (y’all remember that show with Linda Hamilton? 🤣🤣🤣)
But the world Neil Gaiman creates in this book is WAAAYYY more interesting (although…there are some sort of talking rats…but nothing along the lines of Splinter)
I really love books that just totally take ahold of your imagination…the kind of stories that are plain lovely, a teensy creepy, a smidge eerie, and a BUNCH of magical.
That is this book.
And as always, Neil Gaiman handles the issue of humans and our struggles with our emotions, our relationships and our life’s purpose SPLENDIDLY.
The author reads this book himself…. which always adds a unique kind of magic in and of itself because you “hear” things exactly how his own brain and pen WANT the reader to hear things.
I have yet to meet a Neil Gaiman book I don’t like…this was not an exception.
❤️