not so dark

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fantasy

Review: Yes, this book is kind of dark, but I'm not sure why anyone reading a book about a kid being raised by a cemetery full of ghosts would expect otherwise. But Gaiman's characters are more people than ghosts, which helps lighten things up considerably. In particular, Bod, the child in question, is a very engaging character, and since he seemed ok with his circumstances, I found it hard to argue.

My only complaint about this book is that there's too much going on in the background that is clearly significant to the plot, but is never really explained. In fact, the denouement of the story makes little sense because so little is explained. Some of it becomes clear later, but I would have liked to see some of the explanation given as it occurred, rather than just being hinted at a couple of times.