#70 Neil Gaiman: Neverwhere

[bellinghman]

Neil Gaiman: Neverwhere

Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Headline Review (19 Sep 2005)
ISBN-10: 0755322800
Category(ies): Fantasy

I first encountered Neverwhere years ago as a TV series. But here is the novel, which Gaiman started writing while filming.

The basic premise is an odd one, but striking. It's that of a hidden London, a London nobody normally sees, inhabited by those people normal people never see. It starts when Richard Mayhew, off on a date with his fiancee, rescues one of those people that most would studiously try not to see. But she's actually quite a high ranking member of the other London. The problem is, having helped her, and denied those pursuing her, he has now become one of the unseen. The rest of the novel deals partly with what it's like to be invisible when you don't want to be, and partly with how Mayhew deals with his situation and eventually becomes a hero, despite the presence of two of the most terrifying characters in fiction, Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar.

Highly recommended - but what Gaiman novel wouldn't be?