Neverwhere

Set around the London tube map, Neverwhere is the fantastic story of ordinary Londoner Richard Mayhew. Having stopped to help an injured homeless girl, he finds himself made invisible to the normal London above and sucked into the world of London below. A frightening place of Black Friars and Angels, Ratspeakers and Assassins, the Court of a Medieval Earl and a girl who can open any door with just the power of her mind. Richard must stay alive long enough for Door to find the people behind the murder of her family. Then he might just be able to come home. The story is an amazing feat of imagination with innumerable I-didn't-see-that-coming moments. I found myself missing Richard and Door, Hunter and the Marquis when I wasn't listening to their tale and actually wishing myself back onto a Stagecoach bus so they could continue their journey! Gaiman writes well for realistic female characters and I do appreciate that, in his stories, women are rarely just adornments to male storylines. Indeed, in Neverwhere, the traditional male-female dynamic is almost totally reversed through Door and Richard.

Neverwhere is the fourth Neil Gaiman book I've listened to and he is definitely one of my favourite authors. I also love that he is an excellent narrator. Hearing an author read their own work means you know you're getting exactly the emphasis and tone they meant all the time. If you're looking for a book to read or hear soon, I highly recommend Neverwhere.

I feel ambivalent about this book. I like the world that Gaiman imagines, where people who "fall through the cracks" end up in parallel societies below the world's metropolises. I also like the idea, that these people are not perceived as persons anymore by the inhabitants of the cities above and are generally ignored and overlooked. In my opinion, there is a certain poetic value to this thought.

I felt a bit disappointed though by the rather mediocre storyline. A journey, a 3-parted challenge, the old who-is-friend-and-who-is-foe-game? Yeah, we have seen that before... many times.

Also I usually appreciate a witty writing style, but Gaiman tries to hard at times, up to a point where it feels like a lame imitation of the writings of [a:Douglas Adams|4|Douglas Adams|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1189120061p2/4.jpg] or [a:Terry Pratchett|1654|Terry Pratchett|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1235562205p2/1654.jpg].

The narrative style of this book felt kind of "visual". It kept me thinking that it would have been more fitting for a graphic novel. I am aware, that there actually IS a Neverwhere graphic novel ([b:Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere|14498|Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere|Mike Carey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309582431s/14498.jpg|3899092])... Although the story did not thrill me too much, I would nevertheless love to read it for the atmosphere of London below.