Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (Authors preferred text) is about two very different London’s, the London Above and London Below, London Above, the London that we the reader knows of, is oblivious about London Below, while the London Below is fully aware of the Above London.
Our link to the London Above is Richard Mayhew, a young business man who moved from Scotland to London for work, a few years on he is engaged to a woman who has more drive than he does, and his life is a bit stagnant. Until he helped someone on the street, which causes his whole life to be turned upside down.
With this being the author’s preferred text, you get an author’s note at the start stating his reasons for re-releasing this book with all the things that had been removed from it before. Along with this we get an interview with the author, reading group questions and the second prologue.
Normally I am not a fan of books like this, because many authors put in so many characters and it becomes a little bit difficult for me to remember who is who, but here it’s simple, there isn’t many main characters, and the side characters are fairly limited and easy to remember too.
The character’s are all interesting, Richard is our link to our world, Door a young woman from a rather high ranked London Below family who is on a mission to find out who murdered her family, with troubles following her along the way in regards to that mission. Hunter, a woman who is infamous in London Below for her fighting abilities, yet she remains mysterious for the majority of the book, but it works for the type of character that she portrays. the Marquis is another interesting character that you need to grow to like, the more you read the more you appreciate him, and I would say he is my favourite character out of the book. Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar are the two villians of the piece, they are assasians who are trying to stop Door and they are rather well written, Mr Croup has a bit more layers to him than Mr Vandemar, Mr Vandemar is mainly an ‘what you see is what you get’, kind of character.
Cons:
The main focus is on London Below, London Above is just a link to get Richard there, which would be find, but doesn’t Richard have more friends from Scotland that he would also be talking to?
Door – does she have anyone that is a friend without her father’s influence?
Hunter – is that her actual name or is it a title? Near the end of the novel it seems like it might be a title.
How Richard views Door. He first thought she was a teen, about 16 years old, perhaps a bit younger due to her size, then later on in the book he thinks about kissing her, yet Door’s age is never confirmed, we just know she is the eldest of her three siblings, so it feels a little bit creepy.
Pros:
Richard grows as a character throughout this book. He’s fairly meek at the start and yet he grows considerably over the adventures they have together in this book.
The Marquis – he’s an interesting and rather morally grey character, his main focus is on himself and having many people be in his debt.
Hunter – a mysterious character who is a badass and yet there is a little bit about her that we never learn about until later in the book, which is rather interesting, but she never loses that mystique about her.
The characters are memorable, they have their own quirks and it’s easy to remember who is who, you aren’t overwhelmed with them.
Neverwhere is a charming book, particularly those who want to read sci-fi but aren’t sure if they would like the genre because they usually read fantasy, it’s the perfect go to book for anyone who wants to dip their toe into the world of Neil Gaiman too.
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