Book Review: The Graveyard Book Volume II by Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell
Quote: The midsummer sky was already beginning to lighten in the east, and that was the way Bod began to walk.
But between now and then there was life and Bod walked into it with his eyes and his heart wide open.
The story begins from where we left book one, an eleven-year-old Nobody Owens looking for new friends and understanding how he came to the graveyard.
The last three chapters are beautifully illustrated by David Lafuente, Scott Hampton, and P. Craig Russell, Kevin Nowlan and Glen Showman. I loved David's art the most, it was detailed with solid colours. Maureen Quilling's character design was exactly done the way I imagined while reading the novel.
I love how Silas was fleshed out in the darkness, he looks as cold as his words are. He is so dedicated to the boy that he makes sure Bod gets some access to the ways of living, like sending Bod to a football game.
Liza Hempstock will, of course, remain my favourite dead witch, and I loved the bickering apple-pear scene of Mister and Mistress Owens. I understood why Thackeray Porringer didn't want to part with his copy of Robinson Crusoe, well it was all he owned in his lifetime, it's not a good idea to ask for one's sole possession.
The constant Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth paralleling are hard to miss. Bod is caring, smart and intelligent but he has a penchant for revenge and serving justice to the bully. When he got involved with Mo and Nick's bullying, he tries to do it discreetly and when it backfires he teaches them a lesson in his own way.
Later when Scarlett, questions his conscious decision to send her to the crypt despite knowing the dangers, he is perplexed because 'no one was hurt.' To him, the outcome matters more than the means and it was interesting to find it illustrated so well on paper. Just like Bruce, he can rationalize his actions and Silas does the damage control like Alfred.
To Scarlett, at that moment he was an intelligent monster who chose to endanger her to fend his enemy and not a victim of Jack who made him orphan.
I love the world Neil Gaiman created. An old graveyard with its own micro-histories, forgotten stories and ghosts who care
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