Book Review for Neverwhere by Neil Gaimen

I have now read this twice and listened to it once. Neverwhere is about the magical world which is next to our own; in the gaps, underneath us in the sewers and subways and up above us on the rooftops. It is inhabited by people we do not notice, that our eyes wander over without really seeing, people who have fallen between the cracks or who have always been there. There is a hunter who has lived a hundred years and is still young, a girl named Door who is quite appropriately named, a Marquis de Carabas who views the world as a joke which waits to be deceived, and a man, Richard, from London Above (the “real” London) who finds everything in London Below a little hard to believe.

Neverwhere is entertaining, original, exciting, and has fascinating characters. The hero can get a little annoying at times, Richard is so determined he does not belong in the adventure in which he finds himself that he is a little surprised at himself when he does anything useful. He has a hard time accepting everything and consistently wants to get back to his old, normal life. I suppose Richard particularly annoys me because, were I in his situation (not having any family or really even good friends to tie him to the “real” world) and I stumbled into a magical, mysterious world, I wouldn't look back, wouldn't question, but would wholeheartedly plunge in.

I very much enjoyed this each time I read it and the time I listened to it as well, but it does not teach any great lessons, it is not as profound as even some of the children's books I have reviewed. I suppose the lessons which can be learned are to have an opened mind, that our destinies (if you believe in such things) are sometimes hard for us to accept and very different than we think they should be, and that honor is sometimes hard to see.

I would rate it PG-13 for violence, some torture, disturbing situations, suggestiveness, and language. There are some very unsavory characters whose profession is dispatch of people, or to torture them, or both and they delight in it.

If anyone is interested, this was also a mini-series which Neil Gaimen was very involved in the production of. It was made in the early 90's. I tried to watch it but it was too 90's-ish and the characters were far from matching up to my mind's eye ideas of them.