Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, A Review by Lindsey

Darkly whimsical perfectly describes the mood set in this book, especially when you are crossing the line between the real world and the shadow world lying beneath the surface.

If you’ve ever been to London, or any major city for that fact, you’ve more than likely traveled in that city’s underground.  But what if there was a world, a very real world, underneath that. The true “Underground.” A world completely unlike the one you know, where the rules of physics and biology don’t necessarily apply.

Richard Mayhew is young man living an ordinary life, with a good job, a “good” girlfriend, and a good heart. It is his good heart that drives him to help a bloody, strange and oddly regal girl named Door. By helping Door, Richard finds himself unknowingly entering the Underground, where their  allies are the marquis de Carabas and Hunter and their enemies are Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar, two of the most ghastly and other-worldly villains in that world.

Soon, Richard’s life as he knows it doesn’t exist anymore.  He walks among the world, completely unseen by those around him. Knowing he must find Door, Richard makes his way literally into Underground, into a world he still doesn’t fully believe exist. Trials and tribulations abound as he accompanies Door on her mission to find who murdered her family, all so he can return to the world he left behind. From the Rat-Speakers to a manor where tragedy occurred, to floating markets and finding the Blackfriars, and from an angelic home to a hellish cavernous maze (to name a few). Friends come and go, heroes are made and broken, and answers are found.

Go along for the journey as you fall through the cracks into a horridly fantastic dark world where you never know what is around the next shadowy corner...