Neverwhere

Neil Gaiman

Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)

Very Funny. Very Scary. Very Weird.

Under the streets of London there’s a world most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet, this is London of the people who have fallen between the cracks.

Richard Mayhew is a young businessman who is about to find out more than he ever wanted to about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his safe and predictable life and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and utterly bizarre.

There’s a girl named Door and people who are trying to kill her. There’s an Angel called Islington who lives in a candle-lit hall and Old Bailey who lives among the rooftops. There are intelligent rats and Rat Speakers, and an Earl who holds Court on the carriage of an Underground train. A bridge through the night guards the perilous way to Knightsbridge, there are people in the sewers, a Beast in a labyrinth, and dangers and delights beyond imagining.

And Richard, who only wants to go home, is to find a strange destiny waiting for him down there, below the streets of his native city - Neverwhere.

Review by Ray (170703) Rating (9/10)

Review by Ray
Rating 9/10
Richard Mayhew had it all, a good job in London, an attractive fiancée and life that was going well until one evening they stumble upon a young girl bleeding on the streets. From this moment on Richard's life turns upside down. He discovers a whole new world under the streets of London where monsters and people live that are ignored (literally) by society. A bizarre world that is eerily familiar.

The last book I read that Neil Gaimen had a hand in was Good Omens and it's a firm favorite of the people at BookLore. I found this book recently and to my credit I actually sat down and read it. Not my usual cup of tea I thought but based on Neil's previous effort I though I'd give it a try. And I'm glad I did. Gaimen brings us a dark world under the streets of London where everything isn't quite as it seems. He interweaves familiar London landmarks to help the reader get accustomed to the surroundings and then smacks them in the face with his brilliantly descriptive writing and characterisation.

By far the best characters in the book are Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar. A pair of vicious killers who despite their choice of career will make you laugh out loud at their blasé way of doing things. A fairly dark novel with enough wit to keep you reading and the story keeps going at a pace where I didn't actually want to stop reading. I can't recommend it enough.

Although anytime I'm in the London Underground from now on I'll treat the 'Mind the Gap' sign with utmost importance. You never quite know what might be in it...
Ray (17th July 2003)