Neverwhere

The marquis scratched the side of his nose. "Young man," he said, "understand this: there are two Londons. There's London Above - that's where you lived - and then there's London Below - the Underside - inhabited by the people who fell through the cracks in the world. Now you're one of them. Good

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night."

When Alice fell through the rabbit hole she discovered her Wonderland. When Richard Mayhew fell through his sewer hole, what he discovers is a world that is eerily reminiscent of London from days gone by tainted by a whole lot of strange, and all of it happening underground. Train stations take on a whole new identity, mice are the messengers of the dark, a floating market where all manner of odd and odder folks congregate, and to top it off, Richard finds himself embroiled in a murder mystery where the stakes may cost heaven and earth.

I can't believe this book has been sitting on my shelves for years, just collecting dust. This underground world that Gaiman has conjured is utterly immersive and fantastical in every meaning of the word. The sense that you are in a familiar place, and yet everything is just slightly off enough to make it all magical is brilliant. Often times I lament the fact that there aren't enough stand alone books and too many series, and yet Neverwhere may be my one exception. The characters have such a rich, but unexplored history; London Below and how it came to be is a story left to the imagination, and all these things, I only wish Gaiman had more time to flesh out in detail. If every sewer cover lead to a London Below, filled with it's Marquis de Carabas or a diminutive elfish girl in search of the reason behind her family's murder, I'd dive in head first. Highly recommended.

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When a girl stumbles, exhausted and bleeding, into the path of Richard Mayhew and his fiancee Jessica, Richard, much to Jessica's dismay, has to stop and help her out. But there is something unusual about the girl, and the very act of helping her draws Richard away from real life and into a place

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existing between the cracks of everyday London. A place where tube stations and people are not what they seem and nothing is safe - London Below.

When I was small, I used to sit on the tube wondering just what went on in all those nooks and crannies and locked up tunnels you see around the older underground stations in London and wondering where the station names really came from. In Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman has taken these kind of meanderings and created a parallel London, existing out of reality, but somehow still true in spirit. It is very easy, even in a busy place like Covent Garden or Picadilly Circus (for example), to turn down a tiny side street and enter what feels like a completely different world. It is a city steeped in history, where the ancient is muddled together with the new and it doesn't take a huge leap of faith to imagine the Marquis de Carabas striding round the corner of St Paul's towards the river. Neil Gaiman is wonderful at suffusing a book with atmosphere - I first read this when I had been travelling for months and in a strange way, it made me quite homesick (and I'm neither a Londoner, or a person who gets homesick).

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One day, Richard Mayhew is running around London with his beautiful, demanding, career-oriented fiancée who is about to have the most important moment in her life as she drags him to an exclusive restaurant to meet with her powerful boss. Then Richard stumbles upon a young girl who is obviously

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injured and in need of help, and forsaking his beautiful Jessica, brings the girl, called Door, to his place to give her a chance to recuperate and hide away from two sadistic killers who are on her heels. Suddenly, Richard becomes invisible to everyone, can't seem to get a taxi or get into the subway station to get to his job, and when he does, discovers his desk is being removed and his coworkers can't see him. He rushes to his apartment to take a bath and calm down and is appalled when a real-estate agent appears with a couple who decide to take the flat, even as Richard is standing stark naked and dripping right in front of them. Richard then plunges into London Below which is peopled with strange inhabitants who abide by different rules of physics (among other things) in search of Door. He finds Door at a floating market as she is auditioning for a bodyguard before embarking on a perilous journey. Door's family has been brutally murdered and she must find a key for the angel Islington as a bargain in exchange of which he will reveal the identity of those who killed her family.

An adventure filled with surprises and satisfying plot twist, with a cast of memorable characters that seem to be delightfully real, even as they display behaviours that are strange, when not downright deranged. This was a satisfying romp, made all the more delectable in the audiobook version narrated by the incomparable Neil Gaiman. Do I sound like a smitten fan? That's because I am.

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Richard Mayhew has been living in London for three years and life is grand. He has a good job and is engaged to a beautiful young woman, from a wealthy family. One night, on the way to dinner with his fiancé, he finds a girl, lying injured on the sidewalk. He decides to stop and help her, much to

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the disappointment of his disgusted girlfriend. This kind-hearted decision will change his life forever. There are dangerous people hunting this girl down and he must bring her to safety, which leads him into a dark underworld, hidden beneath the city subway system. Here he meets a ragtag group of misfits, all trying to protect “Door”, this special young girl, hotly pursued by a pair of colorful hired killers named Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar, who has a fondness for eating mice. When Mr. Vandemar attempted a smile: “It was unquestionably the most horrible thing that Richard had ever seen.”
This story is filled with adventure, humor, fantasy and horror and for me a wonderful introduction to this gifted author.

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Absolutely one of my favorite books to re-read and re-read. Yes, none of it is world-shattering, never-seen-it-before, genre-changing fiction, but it's still as fun and engaging on the fifteenth read-through as it is on the first: and how many books can boast that?

The idea of another, more magical

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world that runs parallel to our own is a common one in fantasy literature, but Gaiman's London Below is not a Faery land, unless you're reading some of the more nasty tales. To me, the juxtaposition of the world so mundane that we never notice it (sewer tunnels and homeless drifters) and the world so fantastical we'd never imagine it (floating markets held in closed department stores, girls who can open doors to other dimensions) help make this book so special.

Mostly, however, I love the characters. Richard the Everyman whom we (like the London Below denizens) despise for being so "normal" even while we can't help but pity him. Door, lost and afraid, trying to find her way back to safety. Old Bailey the pigeon man, the sly Marquis de Carrabbas, the terrifying yet strangely humorous Misters Croup and Vandemar. Hunter, Anesthesia, the angel Islington. Any author would be proud to have created half of these characters; yet, kindly, Mr. Gaiman allows us to share in all of them.

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Richard Mayhew's life is perfectly ordinary. A transplant from Scotland living in London he has a perfectly normal job and is engaged to Jessica, who likes to drag him around art museums on weekends. But on one evening, Richard finds a young woman bleeding on the sidewalk and decides to help. In

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doing so he discovers a whole other world beneath the city. But in becoming entangled with events in London Below, Richard discovers that the darker life there may never allow him to return to London Above.

Gaiman's fantasy alternate London is a brilliant and dark world that is at turns delightful and disgusting and at all times utterly fascinating. In some ways, [Neverwhere] is a dark take on [Alice in Wonderland] with Richard pulled into a strange world that almost never makes sense to him. With a riveting plot and detailed characters, there isn't anymore to ask for from this book. But Gaiman also adds in his tremendous way with words, his delight in playing with the English language, that is an extra bonus on an already delightful package.

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I loved this: the ultimate urban fantasy. In our modern society, when a person falls below the social net and becomes a streetperson, we talk of them "falling through the cracks." In the London of Neverwhere, when people "fall through the cracks" they reach the "underside" of "London Below." The

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kind of place where Knightsbridge becomes Night's Bridge, where crossing into nightmare takes a toll beyond price. Where the "Floating Market", a bizarre bazaar, might take place in a closed Harrods after dark or the docked HMS Belfast. I liked how Gaiman uses the London's layers of history. As a New Yorker, it wasn't hard to translate it into the terms of my city and imagine, as the novel mentions at one point, that there really are alligators in our sewers. And a floating market might by found at Macy's after dark or the USS Intrepid.

It was easy to relate to the protagonist, Richard Mayhew, an everyman urban dweller; a nice guy who slips into a world out of our modern urban fears and reacts in ways I can identify with. I've heard this novel described as a "dark fantasy" and it certainly fits, some parts come across as Stephen King-like horror. The novel is populated with other unforgettable characters such as Door, Hunter (both strong female characters), Islington the Angel, the Marquis de Carabas--and Croup and Vandemar, two of the creepiest villains in fiction.

Well, paced, with a great flow, this made for a great read. My first Gaiman, but emphatically not my last.

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I tried to read this awhile ago in book form but just couldn't seem to get into it. Knowing that some books are better listened to than read (for me, at least), and having the chance to hear the author, Neil Gaiman himself, doing the reading, I decided to give it another chance. Oh, my! I'm so glad

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I did! It was nothing short of magical! Gaiman is one of the few authors who can (and really should) read his own work. He infuses the characters with so much life and the story with so much verve, at least the two I've heard so far (this one and "The Graveyard Book"). Shuddery villains, villainous heroes (and heroines), heroic nobodies, angels and demons and monsters galore. Made me want to try and find a way into that shadowy, glittery, dangerous underworld of Neverwhere.

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Richard Mayhew was a normal guy, until he met Door. She took him in to the London underground, not the subway, but another world that lives underneath the world we know. Richard is caught in a struggle for power in London Below. Neil Gaiman does it again with this delightedly light yet dark

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fantasy. I think my favorite characters were actually the despicable but articulate assassins that the heroes are constantly escaping.

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This is the first book I have read by Gaiman. I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I opened it. I had heard such great things about him but for some reason I still wasn’t convinced he was going to fall short of my expectations.

Boy was I ever surprised. I loved this book. The story was

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fantastic and the characters were lovable (even as I hated some). Door was adorable and I even loved bad Mr. Vandenmar. I was literally laughing out loud at almost everything Mr. Vandemar said…

“What,” asked Mr. Croup, “do you want?”
“What,” asked the marquis de Carabas, a little more rhetorically, “does anyone want?”
“Dead things,” suggested Mr. Vandemar. “Extra teeth.”
-page 205

Gaiman created a world that was exciting, captivating, and even frightening but he also gave me something to think about. He took reality and shifted it so I now see a story in the shadows. I want to go to London and read this book there. I want to read this book on the Underground. I can’t wait to read more from Gaiman.

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Good escape from "serious non-fiction" books that I've been reading. Good story, some of his descriptions seem a little forced and the main character seems a little too much like Arthur Dent, but it's a compelling story. Somewhat reminiscent of Charles De Lint.

Neverwhere is the first solo novel by modern fantasy master Neil Gaiman. I first encountered Gaiman in his graphic novel series Sandman and later picked up his novel American Gods both of which are worthwhile pursuits, and what led me to begin pursuing his other works. Immediately upon beginning

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Neverwhere it was apparent from tone, style and thematic elements that I was reading Gaiman's work which has a very distinctive feel. From that point on I rarely slowed pace as I devoured this novel.

Neverwhere has a fairly straight forward adventure plot line. Heroes on a quest for answers to a series of murders, all be it with an unknown destination and unknown dangers along the way. What makes it such a good read is the amazingly rich world of London Underground, a new dimension in reality that is thoroughly through the looking glass. A dimension that coexists with the day to day life of everyday London (London Aboveground) but hidden in the shadows and abandoned sewers and subways and empty train cars. A dimension with boundaries that can only be traversed in one direction by those that fall through the cracks of reality.

The story is told from the perspective of one Richard Mayhew, a Londoner who through an act of kindness finds that he has fallen through the cracks and like Alice is trapped in this strange and exotic existence where nothing is as it seems. With no other anchor in this new world, Richard determines to embark on a mission with the girl he rescues, to find out who had her family assassinated and why. During the course of solving this mystery Richard has an existential transformation, learning things about himself that he never suspecte

Neverwhere is a masterpiece of fantasy which I would recommend to both those familiar with Gaiman and those who are not as of yet acquainted with his works. Gaiman is an artist in a world of artisans in the arena of modern fantasy fiction. If you are looking for a brief escape from reality that does not involve becoming a telezombie, Neverwhere is it. Pick up a copy today.

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Richard Mayhew gets inbetween the two London universes - "down below" and "above". How he manages to get along with his quest and braves all adventures until he finally finds out what he _really_ wants to achieve and how he finds his own happy end is a thrilling and at the same time moving story.

Richard is just a normal bloke trying to make it through his less-than-exciting life, doing his job, remembering his fiance's engagements. But when he stops to help a wounded and bleeding girl, everything is turned upside down. The girl he has rescued is Door, the last surviving relative of Lord

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Portico of London Beneath, and on a journey to find out what happened to her family. Suddenly, he finds that his entire life seems to never have happened, and he only truly exists in this new world of darkness and tunnels. His only hope is to accompany Door on her quest and maybe find a way to go back to the life he once knew in a world he understands.

Shocking, I know, I read yet another Neil Gaiman novel. Well, that's why he has his own tag, now isn't it? Not shocking, however, is the fact that I absolutely adored this novel, though I only picked it up when I did because I was tired of seeing the TV miniseries at Barnes and Noble without being able to honestly want to get it since I had yet to read the book. I know, I'm weird.

Though the characters were solid and interesting, and the plot was as well, I would have to say my favorite part of this novel was actually his descriptions. For some reason, I have a distinct fondness for worlds that are much like our own but subtley different--or wrong. This would, most likely, explain my attraction to the Pratchett novels which are pretty much our world through a fisheye lens. Neverwhere, however, presents a world that is not so much a reflection as a self-sufficient shadow of our world, existing as a skewed parallel to our own with pockets of time and darkness. Gaiman's brilliance comes in his wordsmithing and artistry in explaining what this world is, how one gets there and how it is logical and has rules while still breaking our concepts of reality. Boundaries are stretched, borders are fuzzier and Door has the power to open, well, doors more or less anywhere she needs to.

What Gaiman does to create a picture of this world is to give you textures and sounds, relate these things to things you already know. The descriptions are, indeed, fantastical--the unseen beast that resides in the tunnels, the darkness that is physically present, the sewers that are more than they seem--but rooted in day-to-day realities. Sewers are forever sewers and smell of must and filth, are drippy and contained and more or less unpleasant. Markets are big and busy and carnivals of smells, sights and sounds. Things we know, but altered.

I find humor in that this London Beneath, or however you would like to know it, has a remarkable resemblance to a sort of black-market world. Bartering and favors carry more weight than currency. I'm sure it's not meant to be clever or funny in any overt way, but rather to be entwined with the whole theme of underneath in a much more artful way, but the [pathetic] lover of puns in me enjoyed it far too much for it to go unmentioned. Just be glad I didn't make any seemy underbelly or something jokes. Seriously, I could probably come up with a lot.

I expect that most any reader could thoroughly enjoy this novel, as long as they have the key ability to open themselves to the fantastic. It is not an overbearing or overdone fantasy, it is not Tolkien; it is not Pratchett. Seeing as the reader is following Richard in his introduction to the new, or rather old, world, and processing it as he is doing so himself, it is all rather...accessible without being dumbed down. I would also vote this as a solid way to start into Gaiman's grown-up writing, as American Gods is a good book, well written and interesting, but is substantially more dense and, in a way, I would almost say more niche. In Neverwhere, Gaimain tells his story beautifully and concisely, introducing very real-feeling characters who, like so many of us, are just trying to figure out what the heck is going on and leading them through the adventure that lies ahead of them.

It's some good stuff.

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The setting takes place in the London underground, with 'literal' translations of some stations, like Islington, Blackfriars and Earl's Court...The novel is dark and fantastic, a bit like Pullman's Oxford, a parallele world that is also very familiar. By the end, you'll be careful to 'mind the

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gap'! This is a definite read if you do not know Gaiman's works.

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This book was very flat, childish and cliched, which isn't to say it was horrible, just not all that spectacular. Using very stock characters, humor, setting and story, it was told with reasonable flair by Gaiman, but I would not recommend it to anyone other than his rabid enthusiasts. I've read

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and enjoyed several of his short stories in the past, but was disappointed with the childish simplicity of his debut novel.

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If you're anything like me, you despise the dreaded lowest form of writing: the novelization. However, if you're ga-ga for Gaiman, like me, you'll overlook that previous statement and proudly display this book on your shelves.

Neverwhere, the novelization of the BBC miniseries by the same name,

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written by Gaiman, who also wrote the mini, is by far the best, and quite possibly the only decent novelization available ever.

But let's get over the novelization aspect, shall we?

Richard Mayhew is your normal business man. He has his life ahead of him, he has a successful career, he has a steady relationship, he has everything, until a chance encounter with a member of London Below seemingly makes him invisible to the rest of the world. He is ignored unless he makes too big a fuss, at which point, he is escorted out of whatever building he's fussing in, and then promptly ignored once again.

In his efforts to rejoin society, he finds himself entering London Below, essentially London's Underground and sewers, and tries to help Door, the girl who caused him to fall out of society in the first place.

He goes on a journey through London Below to the Angel Islington, all while he and Door are pursued by a pair of thugs known as Croup and Vandemar.

The plot thickens as we learn the true identities and loyalties of all the characters involved.

This is a great novel, if you're a fan of urban fantasy. Additionally, any fan of Gaiman is sure to appreciate it.

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Amazing. Absolutely fucking amazing. A dark modern version of Alice in Wonderland. Blew me away. I absolutely loved it.

Neil Gaiman's urban fantasy takes its main character, Richard Mayhew, to a hidden world within London, a dark place where people find themselves when they fall between the cracks of society. It begins when he helps a young girl, broken and bleeding, who stumbles out of a doorway in front of him as

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he is walking to a very important dinner with his fiancee. Against his girlfriend's wishes, he helps the girl, picking her up and carrying her to his house when she refuses a hospital. The move costs him his relationship, but it will cost him much more. After Door is in his apartment, she directs Richard in giving her first aid. Although her presence brings oddity into his life - she has a conversation with a rat, and sends Richard with cryptic directions for finding the Marquis de Carabas that read straight from a fairy tale, he follows the insouciant man to places that don't seem normal - Richard is nonetheless ready to resume life as normal once she leaves. Unfortunately, he can't.

The day after starts like any other. When no taxi will stop for him, Richard just blames it on surly taxi drivers. When he can't get on the train, he thinks it an unlucky accident. But when he gets to his office, and no one pays the slightest attention to him, and his desk is gone, Richard realizes that bad things are happening. The world moves around him, but not with him, like a river streaming around a rock. Richard is invisible. What's worse, the two men who came looking for Door while she was recovering (and couldn't find her) call Richard, and confirm his suspicions that he no longer belongs to the regular world, along with plainly tell him that they are coming to kill him. After his panic and fear subside, Richard contemplates the mess that is his life, and realizes that Door knew this was going to happen. With nothing to lose, he sets off to find her, and luck or possibly fate draws him to London Below, the land of Door and the Marquis de Carabas.

London Below is a hidden city. It is underground, or preserved in pockets of time past, or conducted in vacated markets and squares. The populace of this world are all like Richard: people living in what we call the real world, what they call London Above, can't seem them or register their presence. Due to this, the society has diverged greatly from our own. They exist on scraps and leftovers, their clothes are patchworks of a variety of times and styles, their currency is a barter system, and their dominion is an odd fusion of medieval kingdoms, mythical clans, and the dispossessed. Into this confusion stumbles Richard, not sure where to look or what to do, only knowing that he wants his old life back. As he searches for Door, he learns that her whole family has been slaughtered, and she is the only one left. He manages to cross the awful Night Bridge and make it to the floating market, with help from the gorgeous Hunter (who only tells him that she sells her body for a living), and there finds Door and the Marquis, interviewing bodyguards. Richard learns that Door is on a mission to discover who killed her family, and to protect herself, and the Marquis is helping her. Neither of them are pleased to see Richard, but are distracted when Hunter arrives at the very end of bodyguard trials (sells her body for a living, clever). They hire the astounding fighter on as bodyguard, and reluctantly bring Richard on board too, since Door feels guilty for forcing this life upon him. Together, they set off to find answers, and soon learn that much more is at stake than they ever imagined.

This is the third book of Gaiman's that I've read (the other two being children's novels), and I enjoyed it every bit as much as my previous encounters. He creates wonderfully odd and rounded worlds, that are fantastic, strange, and occasionally sinister. They feel fully realized to me. In all of those that I have read, he starts with a realistic fiction setting, and introduces his characters to a fantasy world that coexists with the real world, although they never knew it. I am a fan of this urban fantasy style, and Gaiman does it well. London Below was marvelous. Every time I read the book, I was completely transported to this world. I would love to read other works in this setting that further explored the world; alas, none exist at this time. Also, I loved the characters. They were unique, and flawed, and heroic, and intriguing. The ensemble team that is off to save the world is a concept I see in a large majority of fantasy novels, but this group was different from a typical epic adventure team. The Marquis was morally ambiguous, the Hunter was a study in contrasts, and Richard was a hero more in his good heart, steadfast loyalty, and character than in deeds. Even his big action moment at the end was mostly accomplished for him by Hunter. Everything joined together in a seamless story. I was greatly surprised to discover that this plot was put forward in a television series first (also partially created by Gaiman) before being novelized. My impressions from this book only further me in an appreciation of the author's work, and I will continue to read his books with anticipation.

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Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

I listened to this on CD. Gaiman is a very good narrator for his own tales. This story is about Richard Mayhew, who leads a rather unspectacular life in London. One evening he and his fiancé are going out and they see a young injured girl collapsed on the sidewalk. Richard

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cannot walk by without offering some assistance to the girl. He later finds out her name is Door, which is a very symbolic name, and she is a person from “London-below”. The decision he made right then and there changes his whole life and he winds up in the unusual world of London-below. It exists underneath regular London, has the same landmarks, but life is very different there. He goes on a quest of sorts in London-below and the tale continues. He discovers himself along the way, has scrapes with death and all sorts of odd folk there such as the rat-speakers, Hunter, The Count, the black friars, and the angel Islington while trying to attain his ultimate goal of going back to his old life in London above. A very unusual story; with elements of the fantastical, supernatural and horror, and a few plot twists thrown in. If you are a Gaiman fan you will probably like this. I noticed some similar elements from other works by him in this book, such as the villains-who are almost the same as those in The Graveyard Book (which I happened to like better). The story seemed to drag in the middle, but finally started picking up again and I liked how it ended, it was the end I was hoping for (no spoilers here). The thoughts about it that linger in my head are that this was a strange tale, but Gaiman has a gift for odd stuff, which is part of the appeal.

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As a "fan" of London, I loved the premise of the book. Clueless geek guy from Scotland (although a resident of London for several years) heads to the Underground after getting tangled up in the life of a damsel-in-distress who appears on first glance to be nothing more than a street urchin. After

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this tangling, he becomes utterly invisible to his conventional, above ground world, and must find his "Lady Door" in the bowels of London. He becomes more involved in Lady Door's life when she tells hm that her family has been murdered and they must find the killer(s).
Gaiman mixes in lots of interesting London history as well as the obscure history of the Underground itself. The characters are compelling and entertaining (the Marquis being my favorite). The "scenery" of the Underground is described to the point (and perhaps to excess) where the reader can see him/herself there.
However, I felt that the ending was a disappointment. I just couldn't buy it.

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Fairly standard tale of a Young Man Finding Himself, except that you never really feel any sympathy for the young twit before he finds himself, and he's still pretty much a twit afterwards too. But the use of the London Underground and all the history are nice touches.

Good escapist fantasy from the writer of stardust, with comedy reminding me of hitchhiker guide. There isn't much else to say - I'd recommend this book, and it was quite a fast read, and has just the right amount of zaniness in it.

The characters weren't overly well developed and sometimes in the

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crazy world things don't quite make sense - but then the characters don't need to be developed to have fun, and the entire point of crazy is that it is nonsensical. By the end I was having difficulties putting the book down, and feel like there should be a sequel - and if there is, I will have to get it and buy it.

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Richard Meyhew has a good, respectable life with a good job and a fiancée. It's a typical, boring existence that he doesn't really feel any satisfaction in. His whole world is thrown into turmoil when he kindly helps a bleeding homeless girl despite the protestations of his callous and cold

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fiancée who would rather continue on to their important meeting than help a fellow human being. He brings the girl to his apartment and she introduces herself as Door. He then encounters two very frightening men, Mr. Vandemar and Mr. Croup, who are searching for the girl, claiming to be her concerned family. Richard continues to protect the girl and she soon leaves his life as abruptly as she entered it. The next day, he tries to go through his daily routine as usual and finds that everyone ignores him. It's as if he doesn't exist at all. His desk at work is empty and his apartment was being sold as he was in it. His only course of action is to find Door and try to get his life back. He has no idea that his journey will take him to London Below, a hidden, dark part of London that people who live above never see. It's populated by the forgotten people of Above, royalty, merchants, angels, assassins, and creatures we had all hoped were just the stuff of nightmares. Richard has to come to terms with this other world and find the hero within himself to survive.

I don't really know why it took me so long to start reading this book. It's been sitting on my shelf for over a year. I guess I figured I could always get to it later. I've read and love most of Neil Gaiman's other works and this one was no different. This is the typical story of a normal, boring guy of the modern age being thrown into a supernatural world he knows nothing about and his struggle to become a hero or die. It's a situation seen very commonly in urban fantasy, but he makes the genre his own. I became completely caught up in this world within our own. I loved that the setting was familiar, such as Harrods, with fantastical goings on. In this case, Harrods served as the place for The Floating Market, a moving bazaar for the inhabitants of London Below to sell their wares unseen by normal people. The book really sparked my interest in London's more mundane places. The writing is incredibly descriptive and elegantly written. The language flows seamlessly and just sucks you in. Sometimes I would completely lose track of time while reading. The world feels complete, but the book just couldn't encompass the whole thing. We just see what the individual characters see and some other glimpses from conversations, but it's still shrouded in mystery at the end of the novel. To me, this is a strength of the novel that it can be expanded upon and the novel is just a small slice of the larger picture.

I truly loved or loved to hate all of the characters without exception. All of them had their own complete stories. I never knew if the secondary characters where on Door and Richard's side or not until the very end. My favorite character was Richard because he started out as a boring businessman with no sense of adventure and grew into so much more because of his exposure to this other dark and savage world. He thought his life was pretty wonderful at the beginning, but he later realizes that his fiancée is a cold person who wishes he were someone else and his job just makes him into a mindless corporate automaton. I really enjoyed following his hero journey throughout the novel.

Neverwhere is a richly imagined urban fantasy that takes the familiar and makes it distorted and dark. I highly recommend it to just about anyone.

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