I’m a fan of Neil Gaiman, his stories and his style of writing are totally unique. I’ve had this on my to-read list for quite a while, but in fact I’ve got far too many books on my to-read list! 163 to be exact. That’s why it’s taken so long to getting around to reading it, well that and the fact that because Neil Gaiman’s stories are so unique I have to be in the correct frame of mind to begin one.

Reading his books are a little bit like going on a LSD trip with a really emotionally intelligent friend. Probably the worst analogy ever, sorry. But I’ll stand by it as it’s out there now.

So what is it about? Well mostly it’s about Richard Mayhew and his trip, it’s based in London and includes monsters, angels, magic doors and assassins. It sounds like a terrible mess of a fantasy book but in fact the wild, bizarre story holds together easily. That’s Neil Gaiman’s specialty taking something that might be a car crash of an idea for any other writer and turning it into something brilliant.

“It sounded like a piece of blackboard being dragged over the nails of a wall of severed fingers.”

I really liked Richard Mayhew, his character brought stability to the story. Neil has a gift at building characters in all his books, its hard to explain but he has a knack of turning regular character concepts upside down. He somehow allows the real evil characters to come across humorous and all together likeable but also manages to show a darkness in the good characters. I suppose he blurs the lines between the two.

“I mean, maybe I am crazy. I mean, maybe. But if this is all there is, then I don’t want to be sane.”

I’m not sure if Neverwhere would appeal to all, certainly I like all of his books I have read so far. But something tells me that his style of story might be like Marmite. Personally I love Marmite and I love Neil Gaiman’s books.

4 out of 5