Easily my favourite Gaiman, and one of the rare books that leave me slightly jealous - 'awww Neil, I wanted to write that,' the soul seems to say.

The premise is simple enough: below the London we all know and (ahem) love there's a London that houses all the nobodies who have become literally invisible in London above. It is a premise that Gaiman works with beautifully to produce memorable characters, page-turning events and - best of all - the most inspiredly nightmarish interpretation of the London underground ever. For this reason, knowing London helps with the appreciation of the novel; enjoying it without ever having been there is of course possible but one requires a vaster imagination and probably a map or two.

So why the missing half star, if I love it so much? Purely personal preference, I was not amused at the ending re: my favourite character, but that's a quibble: as always with Gaiman, this is well-written, compelling, darkly humorous and clever. If you've enjoyed any of his others, you'll enjoy this. ( )

This is a perfectly good Neil Gaiman book, but it's pretty much exactly like all the other Neil Gaiman books I've read. It has the same plot - a perfectly ordinary person finds himself suddenly involved in an extraordinary fantasy world and must go through a process of self-discovery and questioning his own sanity while becoming the unlikely hero of the fantasy world. The characters are fun and well-crafted, but not particularly original. Nothing really came as a surprise. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book - after all, Neil Gaiman is really good at writing Neil Gaiman books. But this is pretty much a run-of-the-mill Neil Gaiman book.

I listened to the audiobook, read by the author, and the audiobook is very enjoyable. Gaiman has a nice voice, and his reading is dramatic and he's good at giving all of the characters individual voices. ( )

I liked this book alot and I really enjoyed the whole setting I find myself wishing for more maybe another book to finish where this one left off, different than anything I have ever read. ( )

Since there are so many fine reviews here, I will only add the reasons I enjoyed this book. I liked the speculation about angels and "other" worlds in amongst our own which are unseen but very present. I loved Richard Mayhew, but am hoping that Gaiman will write a sequel to pursue the character a bit further. The creepiness was very creepy and the characters were interesting and unique. It was simply a fun tale and that is the sort of book I enjoy. ( )

My favorite Neil Gaiman book. The world he creates in the London underground is utterly amazing.

"Watch the gap." ( )

Neverwhere is the story of Richard, a good man who seems to be meandering through his life without much of his own purpose or direction. He is engaged to Jessica, an almost domineering woman who is happy to treat him as if he isn't good enough for her. Richard seems readily oblivious to her personality until he finds a bloody, beaten young woman lying on a London street on the way to a dinner with Jessica's boss. When he takes the decision to pick this unknown girl up and take her to his apartment where she can be safe, Jessica is furious and ends their engagement. He had no idea at the time that there would be such dangerous and complicated implications resulting from his decision to be a Good Samaritan. Whether Richard took his fiance's threat seriously, bringing Door back to his apartment alters his life forever. Door was from the London Below and as a result of his involvement with her and the two bounty hunters from Below, Richard is no longer a part of the London Above. Nor is he fully a part of Door's world. He needs to shake himself out of his sluggish approach to life in order to survive.

I am the type of person who loves to delight in the mayhem caused by the bad guys. It's nearly a love to hate type of situation. Not every dark character makes me feel this way, though. The miscreant must be crafty, intelligent, and have just a tad bit of an advantage over the hero or heroine. These are the malfeasants that force the hero or heroine to reach deep within themselves to rise to the occasion. As with The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman proves in Neverwhere that he is a master at bringing to live some of the most wonderful villains. Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemaar, London Below's most talented assassins tasked with the the apprehension and murder of Door, were nothing short of a delight for me. They kept Richard, Door, and Hunter on their toes and always kept a step ahead of them. Their cocky impatience brought a smile to my face and their dialog was in many ways the highlight of this novel for me.

The more I think ab0ut Neverwhere, the more I compare it to the basic storyline of the movie "The Wizard of Oz."

After taking action to help or protect someone else, both Richard and Dorothy find themselves in an unfamiliar world whose rules are foreign and oftentimes frightening.

Both novels include a small band of the most unlikely characters with their own motivations on the same dangerous quest at the request of a magical entity.

All Richard and Dorothy want is to go back home.

While there isn't always a direct connection between Dorothy and Richard, they both are forced to face their greatest fears from both the outside world and within themselves in order to survive these foreign worlds and keep any hope of ever returning home, a place they never fully appreciated in the first place. Without forcibly being removed from their comfort zones, they never would have lived up to their full potential. Dorothy would have spent her life on the farm dreaming of those better places over the rainbow while Richard would have continued to go through the motions of his life. Richard and Dorothy needed their journeys. It was their salvation.

This novel is the first book I've ever owned by Neil Gaiman. It was gifted to my by the lovely Jena from Muse Book Reviews. She sent it to me along with a copy of American Gods in hopes that I could get his autograph. Unfortunately, that never happened, but I treasured the book nonetheless. Now, I can also say that I treasure the story as well. I have found this month that I'm not too old for the fantastical. ( )

Never finished it....didn't like it at all.

Can't even remember what it was about, but a lot of murders and sci-fi....don't like sci-fi. ( )

I had to come home so I wanted a book to read on the train. I went to Janpath, an got this one from a little street bookshop. When I had set out to acquire a book, I had planned to buy both this one and AS Byatt's Possession, so when I got out of this little shop, I went up Janpath, and crossed over and walked down the road, and on a whim, went inside Cafe Coffee Day.

And this is a book you should read alone in a coffee shop, a plate of Chocolate Truffle in front of you. And as you tuck in the rich chocolate, and look forward to going home, you can savour dialouge such as*

I gave her my heart to keep, in case I lose it again.

Home is where my heart is. But my heart is here. I am home

If books had flavours, this one would be chocolate truffle, rich, chocolatey, comforting. Not like being home, which is somewhere between mildly boring and extremely annoying, but like coming home. Like first love, like memories of childhood, not like happiness, but like the promise of happiness, like a lovely dream which breaks your heart when you wake up.

But holding an actual book in your hand, the coarse pages of good quality recyclable paper, and the way they smell, sitting in an empty coffeeshop, walking down the road, lost to the world, in dreams which are both too silly and too pretty, being a teenaged girl again... there are times when you can believe in the dreams of your childhood, and there are times which are simply the best time you ever had.

And no, I won't recommend this, or mine, teenaged imagination to anyone, but this is the book I will end up writing if I was a writer. Because I too am unable to see the ugliness of suffering, the boringness of waiting. I too am young enough to believe that someone will wait from the age of 36 to 82, for one glimpse of her first love. Well I would like to believe that last one, I really would.

And this is the last illusion left, I still believe in true love. And the day I get married, I will have to give up o it, and then I will have nothing left to believe, nothing at all. ( )

Interesting and a page turner. Kept me company during my 2-wk stay in the US and whenever I was eating alone. Though Gaiman never really explained why ppl from London Above cannot notice the existence of ppl from London Below or ppl who had fallen between the cracks so to speak. Is it an arrangement from some Powers That Be and we will just have to accept it is so? Overall still a good read and I wouldn't mind reading more adventures of the Below. ( )

Not without flaws, but a definite improvement over the BBC miniseries. ( )

I always think that I don't enjoy fantasy set in the modern-day, that it just doesn't do anything for me the way that historical fantasy does. And then I read a Neil Gaiman book and start drooling. Honestly, the man has got skill. What a marvelous writer. I didn't know that Neverwhere was a tv series in the UK as well. I am not sure if I should watch the miniseries now, after having read the book. The book was so great that I feel certain the tv version would be a letdown. But maybe not.

Seriously, though, I need to get my hands on more Neil Gaiman. I don't know if I can really say why I liked this book so much. Sometimes, it's really just a matter of the right book at the right time. Maybe this was one of those instances. But for some reason, the characters really resonated with me, and the writing seemed so lyrical as to almost be set to music at times. I could have chosen from so many very descriptive quotes to showcase above- I just chose one.

I loved the way Gaiman wrote this book with a nod to London's history, showing how so many places and things that are now just names- they all resonate with a past that deserves acknowledgement and respect. Where do those Underground stops get their names? Gaiman knows, and tells us. It's remarkable how many important historic events and ideas and places get distilled down through the ages until all the deep meaning is almost completely forgotten. And it's amazing that Gaiman considered that angle to be novel-worthy, and wrote such an incredible novel as this one about just such a situation.

Ok, ok, and I admit to being more than a little in love with the Marquis de Carabas. As Richard Mayhew aptly describes, "the Marquis managed to make being pushed around in a wheelchair look a romantic and swashbuckling thing to do." Sigh. What a man ;-) I'll let you discover him for yourself.

This book cries out for a sequel. And a prequel, really. I don't know if either of the two will ever exist, but here's hoping that there's a possibility. ( )

This is the first book I have read by the popular author Neil Gaiman. In the style of Alice in Wonderland and the Movie "The Matrix", the protagonist Richard Mayhew falls down his own version of a rabbit hole and ends up in a totally unusual environment of people and talking animals which live literally, under London. He is there for a specific purpose, to help a young girl named Door find out who killed her family. Both characters go through trials in this Underground City to find out the truth. Remember, things aren't what they seem and people and animals are not necessarily who they appear to be. Keep an open mind and always have an exit. ( )

This is a lovely story full of interesting characters, musing birds, wise colonies of rats, and a Angel looking for something.

Because of this book, I now have a new, but annoying, joke that I like to tell my friends: No, I'm a frayed knot.

Personally, this book made me want to explore this world further, to see a visual representation of it: to gather up maps that leads me all over London's Underground's Underground… That would be fascinating on so many levels!

However, I must state that I do believe that J. K. Rowling and Neil come from the same school of writing fiction. Everything is very linier. There is a Point A that goes to a Point B without much existential meandering. But, these two authors pull it off rather well. It is just in this case, Gaiman adds a liberal amount of gore with smatterings of the F word (not that there is anything wrong with that). But, the story reads as if it were geared towards a younger person. It is a simple story that does not make the reader feel dumb. Much rather, I felt incredibly at ease with this piece of fiction. ( )

The beginning of this book is a bit boring, but it is worth persisting. Unlike typical fantasies which are either set in a whole other world entirely, or in which a her is catapulted back into the past, this is set in the present day. In this book there are two levels of existence - London Above (where all us boring people live) and London Below which contains all the people who have slipped through the cracks, including angels and mythical beasts. And it is to London Below that our hero finds himself drawn after an act of chivalry leaves him unable to live his normal life Above.

This is an engrossing tale with well-developed characters and twists around every corner. It was definitely better than I expected and I would recommend it to all fantasy fans. ( )

This is my first proper Neil Gaiman book, though I had read his collaboration 'Good Omens' (with Terry Pratchett). So I wasn't very surprised to meet Mr Pin and Mr Tulip. (Neverwhere was published before Pin and Tulip turned up in 'The Truth - I checked). Besides that, the first half of Neverwhere seemed to be shaping up as a lightweight version of Christopher Priest's 'The Glamour'. But the second half of the book was much more gripping and entertaining than the first, so I will look out for some more books by Neil Gaiman.

This is the story of a guy that accidentally "vanishes" from the Lodon Above, the real London we "know", and is transported to the London Below, a fantastic place, with lots of weird beings.
The strenght of the book is the characters. They are very diversified and creative, and well developed. Another great point is the main story, which is very interesting, different in a good way.
But I think the potential o the story was not well used. The plot was kind of childish, seemed that the author didn't take it too seriously. There are lots of inconsistent passages (who would take a bloody unkown homeless woman to home is the first of a series), and some cliches were used here and there.
In an overall evaluation it was a good book. But it could be excelent, if it wasn't for those slips I mentioned. ( )

A tale of a man who finds himself adventuring in London below. This book serves as both an epic quest and as an exploration of the lack of adventure of modern life. There are some very fun parts, but overall I wanted to see more of London Below. The characters are also very well done. Neil Gaiman also does a terrific job voicing. ( )

Neverwhere's protagonist, Richard Mayhew, learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished. He ceases to exist in the ordinary world of London Above, and joins a quest through the dark and dangerous London Below, a shadow city of lost and forgotten people, places, and times. His companions are Door, who is trying to find out who hired the assassins who murdered her family and why; the Marquis of Carabas, a trickster who trades services for very big favors; and Hunter, a mysterious lady who guards bodies and hunts only the biggest game.

I will say that having my attention captured by a book revolving around people who live in a dark sewer underneath a dirty city is quite remarkable. The lead character, Richard Mayhew, was an ordinary guy with a big heart and that's why I enjoyed the book. He meets so many fascinating characters (some of them drove me crazy, however!) and proves over and over that people with kind hearts can do a lot to save the people they love.

My favorite kind of story is one where an ordinary guy (or girl) finds that he's actually extraordinary in the end. I kept hoping that at some point he'd gain some special power or prove that he was born for this particular adventure. Nothing quite like that happened, but the thing is... I still loved the story! Richard grew and overcame difficult circumstances, which is very important.

One thing I did not enjoy was his companion, Door. She drove me a little crazy with her mood swings. One moment, she was running to him for help and guidance; in the next chapter she was ditching him due to his incompetant ways in the underworld. I was never quite sure how she felt about him. Maybe that was the point...

Overall, great job from a wildly successful author! And although I didn't enjoy the theme (again, the sewage thing was a turnoff) as much as his screenplays (i.e. Coraline, Mirrormask), I would still give this book a 4 out of 5. ( )

I think this book is especially fun to read if you know your way around the London Underground system - there are a lot of witty little inside jokes involved. ( )

Not Free SF Reader: Otherworld slip mystery.


A young man not particularly going anywhere finds himself losing touch a bit more with the garden variety normal world, and slowly begins to realise there is more around him than he realises.

Thanks to a meeting he is drawn into this other society and out of his shell by way of this mendicant supernatural society.

While the ordinary world was a bit dull, this one is full of danger and weird that he has to negotiate, whether friends, or new enemies.

Not a book I would have picked but I read it for our recently created little book club by another member's choice. I was pleasantly surprised. The book was an easy read and the characters were well developed. The Marquis was an interesting character as well. ( )

Amazing book by Neil Gaiman. It is very 21st century Alice in Wonderland. The book left amazing images in my head and I could not put this book down. ( )

The main character of Neverwhere is Richard Mayhew, a Scotsman living a settled but uneventful life in London. One day, an injured girl appears on the ground in front of him while he is walking down the street. For no explainable reason, he takes her home to tend to her. While they are there, a pair of sinister men show up looking for her. Richard lies about her being there and, in fact, she seems to disappear during the time the men are there. He learns her name is Door and that she is not from the London he knows but rather a subterranean London, existing in the Underground tunnels and sewers. Door's family has been murdered and she is on a quest to find out who did it while avoiding the two evil men who are tracking her. When she is on her way again, Richard finds that he is no longer able to return to his old life. Something has changed and he has stopped existing in London Above. So he sets off to help Door in her quest in the hopes that she will find a way to get him restored to his life.
I love this book it reminds me of a book that I used to read when I was little with my mom. She would read this mystery to us and my sister and I would sit and bed and just listen.
This is a book I would not read to unless they were in junior high school. i dont think that younger readers would get the concept or sit through the book.

While reading “Neverwhere” I messaged my daughter, “Sometimes I like it and sometimes I don't. The grime and filth creeps me out, which I guess it's supposed to, and that distracts me from the plot.” Later, I read the blurb on the cover saying it was “part daydream and part nightmare” and got un-distracted.The “grime and filth” were just like in a nightmare, at least in some of my nightmares. No wonder it bothered me. Giving the story a dreamlike quality made it work for me. And, no, he doesn’t wake up at the end with it all just being a dream. Neil Gaiman is a great storyteller and writer. He creates a mood around his readings and his writings. You don’t just listen to or read him, you become him. Once I adjusted my perception, the story was “real” to me. I could have dreamed it. Maybe I did. 5 stars for being "wonder"ful-1 star for being a bit icky ( )

While reading “Neverwhere” I messaged my daughter, “Sometimes I like it and sometimes I don't. The grime and filth creeps me out, which I guess it's supposed to, and that distracts me from the plot.” Later, I read the blurb on the cover saying it was “part daydream and part nightmare” and got un-distracted.The “grime and filth” were just like in a nightmare, at least in some of my nightmares. No wonder it bothered me. Giving the story a dreamlike quality made it work for me. And, no, he doesn’t wake up at the end with it all just being a dream. Neil Gaiman is a great storyteller and writer. He creates a mood around his readings and his writings. You don’t just listen to or read him, you become him. Once I adjusted my perception, the story was “real” to me. I could have dreamed it. Maybe I did. 5 stars for being "wonder"ful-1 star for being a bit icky ( )