by Marilla Mulwane

Created on: October 25, 2009

Neil Gaiman's novel Neverwhere is a dark Wizard of Oz type story that takes the London the world knows, and completely flips it around into a whole new world. A dark and creepy world filled with eccentric characters and evil bad guys. Like most Neil Gaiman novels, the reader is sucked in right from the beginning and there is no escaping until the very last page.

Richard Mayhew is a normal male living in London, with a pretty typical life and girlfriend. But, then he accidentally meets a young woman named Door whose family has been murdered. Now, everything Richard thought he knew about London, he learns was completely wrong.

There is an entire world in London Below. A place filled with outcasts and people who worship rats. The entire underground railroad system of London changes. Places and stops along the track are now people. Earl's Court is the home of the Earl of London Below, a man who lives within a train. Blackfriar becomes the place the Blackfriar monks live and protect. The best one though is Islington, who is an angel.

Richard and Door travel through London below with their companions, the Marquis De Carabas and a bodyguard named Hunter who is on a search for a great beast to slay and prove her heroism. Along the way, they meet interesting people and face strange situations, while also trying not to get murdered by the hilarious duo Vandemar and Croup. While they converse in a haughty matter, they are actually pretty stupid, and their dialogue is very amusing. The reader laughs at them more than fears them.

Neverwhere is filled with magical realism that makes the story all the more exciting. You never know what will happen next. It is dark and creepy, and some of the scenes are disgusting. Richard and his adventure in London Below keeps the reader intensely interested all the way through. There is never a dull moment.

The names of the characters leave something to be desired. If Gaiman was trying to be clever, he failed. Door can open doors by touching a wall. Hunter, as mentioned, is a hunter. These names were not humorous or even necessary to the story.

I have never been to London and only realized that the places mentioned in the book were important. I had to look it up online and find a map. Only after that did I realize how clever the book was. I found myself wishing that more mention of the connection between London Above and London Below had been in the book. Or, at least, more description of the places since I have never seen them. However, by the time I finished Neverwhere I wanted to travel to London and ride the Tube to all these destinations.

Fans of Gaiman will love this book, like all the others. Gaiman's ability to create worlds unlike any other is the best I have yet seen, because he takes ideas that have been used before and mixes them up into something new. He knows everything has been done before. It just hasn't been done his way.

Buy Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

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