With a blurb by Diana Wynne Jones on the front stating “The best book Neil Gaiman has ever written,” I may have started reading The Graveyard Book with high expectations because that is high praise from a very talented author. I must admit the association did make me think of this book as the most Diana-Wynne-Jones-like book that Neil Gaiman has written if that makes any sense. I hope it does and that alone I think is praise in itself.
Though this wasn’t my favorite Neil Gaiman book, it is a solid story that I think likely resonates well with many younger readers while older readers probably understand more of the vague references to supernatural elements.
This book is the story of Nobody “Bod” Owens. He is a boy who is raised in a graveyard. The circumstances of his situation are rather dark and the opening of the book does well to avoid any gruesome details, but Bod is a toddler when is family is killed by a man named Jack. What follows is Bod’s story among the residents of the graveyard and occasional lessons with the living. His experience is unique and the lessons he learns are lessons for us all.
The mystery behind Bod’s guardian, Silas, as well as the man named Jack present a unique knowledge of the world as it once was and what it could become. It is an ancient knowledge that remains hidden from the living world yet remains tied to it. There is definitely a larger story happening beyond Bod’s point of view.
I actually bought this book in a collection alongside Coraline and Fortunately, The Milk with all three illustrated by Chris Riddell. This was the last of the collection I read but I enjoyed all of them. I will likely read this book to my own children when they are a bit older.
Happy Reading.
Maus by Art Spiegelman, published over the course of 11 years, covers the story of Art Spiegelman’s father during the second World War and how he survived the Holocaust. This was the first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize (1992). The story is a mix of Art talking with his father and having his father tell his story. It is also a quasi-memoir of Art’s creation of the comic itself.
Orange is a story by Ichigo Takano that follows a group of high school friends. I have not seen the show but have heard about this story multiple times and it always sounded interesting. The main character, Naho, is a young woman in high school who receives a letter from herself ten years in the future. She thinks it is a prank at first until the events detailed in the letter come true one after another. The letter talks about regrets her future-self has regarding certain events that are about to happen in the upcoming school year. The letter also details what she wished she had done differently. The primary regret is the loss of one of their friends, and the letter guides Naho to make changes so as to change the future.
I read this story in the two-volume Complete Collection. Though there were times where I didn’t quite understand some character interactions (the primary conflict being the inability or failure to communicate felt repetitive or forced at times), I really did enjoy the story and gave it a small pass when it tried to explain or hint at how the letters were sent back in time. I think that was actually irrelevant to the overall story and explaining it would have taken away much of what the story was trying to accomplish. The focus is the group of friends and them treasuring the lives they have with each other and the time they get to spend together. The time-travel aspect is interesting and is a catalyst to the events of the story, but the focus on interpersonal relationships and communication is what makes this story worth a read.
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage is a hell of a title by Haruki Murakami. This is the first novel by Murakami I have read. I was going to start with Norwegian Wood but ended up choosing this one after reading Murakami’s nonfiction book Novelist as a Vocation where he mentions this book as one he is particularly proud of (though I can’t recall the details).
I don’t know what it is, but there is something about A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Oima that speaks to me on a fundamental level. I first came across this story when I noticed the movie and was interested in seeing it, and then I finally watched it. This was a few years ago. I recently picked up the collector’s additions which combine the 7 volume serialization into two, hardback volumes that also includes interviews and supplementary materials. I read both volumes in two days.
Have you ever wished you could/would have said something to a friend or in a specific situation? Have you ever failed to speak up or defend someone who was bullied? Maybe not, but I think we’ve all encountered some barrier or failure of communication which has resulted in someone being hurt, confused, rejected, or otherwise misinterpreted to their detriment.
Ryan Yarber 