Neverwhere

Avon

Neverwhere
Neil Gaiman
1998

The Summary
"Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk.  His small act of kindness propels him into a world he never dreamed existed.  There are people who fall through the cracks, and Richard has become one of them.  And he must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels, if he is ever to return to the London that he knew."

The Good
Door is endearing and (most of the time) sweet, if only a little scary.  De Carabas is unusual, possibly dangerous, but always interesting.  And Richard Mayhew - well, you simply feel sorry for the poor sot who gets mixed up in all the madness.  Together, they have a very intriguing dynamic and an interesting story to weave.

All told, I enjoyed Neverwhere.  It has an intriguing blend of myth and urban legend, human error and horror, and a good versus evil dynamic - or, more accurately, an epic struggle for survival between good and evil, between survival and oblivion - that kept me coming back time and again.

Islington, the angel, was particularly interesting:  I wanted to know who he (or, more accurately, it) was and what he was planning and where he fit into the whole grand scheme of things.  He's an intriguing and intimidating character, and I was constantly curious to see where he would lead.

The Bad
Neverwhere was highly unusual.

Not a bad thing for the most part, but I wasn't quite sure what to make of it.  Laced with urban legends, myths, religious detritus, and horrors that can only come from the most terrifying nightmares, Neverwhere is a story that has no clear resolution.  It simply is what it is - and there's certainly more to it, but I'm just not sure what.

The Ugly
There is death involved, which is gruesome and disheartening on its own, but coupled with Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar, it's downright bloody.  Moreover, I found the world under London to be incredibly frightening.  There's something inherently terrifying about the notion of an invisible world existing beneath our own, of getting sucked into it and being completely, utterly forgotten.

Total obscurity is a frightening thing.