Neverwhere

Neil Gaiman
1996
ISBN 0-563-38746-7

Richard Mayhew is a Scottish office worker living out his life in London. He is engaged, has friends at work, and is dragged around art galleries on weekends by his fiance. He is a sap, but a sap happy enough with his life.

Until he stumbles over a bleeding girl lying in the street. Disobeying his girlfriend, he picks her up and takes her home, and finds his whole life changing in unpleasant ways. First, his desk at work is replaced by a plant, his girlfriend doesn't recognise, and his flat is let to new tenants while he stands naked and invisible in the bathroom.

Richard does the only thing he can think of: he follows Door into London Below, a strange world of the forgotten people of London. He joins her in her quest to avenge her murdered family, meeting some odd people, some odder places and finally, the oddest thing of all, his own mind, talking back to him and forcing him to grow up.

I really enjoyed this book. The range of characters mixed into the twisting plot isn't overwhelming, and Richard's evolution from sap to hero is touched with a dry humour that I really liked. The ending was an opening, so hopefully there will be more books, and is already a BBC series that I will have to investigate.

One of the best of the year.

Date Finished: 17/11/07
Year Total: 39