I’d always been aware of Neil Gaiman growing up. After all, Coraline haunted us all as children. But I hadn’t read any of his work until college when I picked up The Graveyard Book. And from that moment on I was in love.
You would think that I would just devour every single thing Gaiman wrote after that, but life always pulls you in multiple directions. And I wasn’t in middle school anymore where I could get through 10 books a month. I would tell myself that I can read for fun on breaks and on weekends. But winter, spring, and summer vacations were devoted to recovery, recuperation, and whatever internship, summer classes, or other commitments I’d bound myself to. The pandemic brought unexpected free time and the ability to read again, and I had realized that it had been almost five years since I sat down with a book I wasn’t assigned to read.
And then law school started, and I realized that I wouldn’t be able to read anything besides cases unless I was proactive about it, and realistic. Thus began my one book a month goal for 2021.
This month, I came back to Gaiman and finally read Neverwhere, his debut solo novel. Neverwhere follows protagonist Richard Mayhew, a normal and honestly a little boring business man from Scotland, whose mundane life never veered off-course…until he rescued a peculiar girl named Door.
After saving her life, Richard disappeared from existence. No mark of his life remained in the world. Determined to set things right, he follows Door into the dark and dangerous world of London Below and ends up going on an adventure that was a lot more than he bargained for.
I loved this story. The characters from Richard, to the Marquis were compelling, and the world of London Below was so masterfully crafted it was easy to get lost in the world. As a huge fan of urban fantasy, the way London Above and London Below melded together, magic weaving in between the two worlds effortlessly, set high goals for my own writing.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone who loves the underground, mirror worlds, and fantastical adventures.
5/5
Rena Patel 