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.