The Graveyard Book

I finished another book very late last night called "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman. It's about a boy who lives in a graveyard. When he was but a baby, an assassin murdered all of his family one night and through luck, he escaped into a ancient graveyard nearby. At the pleading of his mother's ghost, the inhabitants of the graveyard adopt and protect him. He is "adopted" by the Owens' and is given the name Nobody Owen. The book is a collection of snapshots of Bod's, as he is called by the graveyard inhabitants, life as he grows into a young man. Because he was adopted by the graveyard, Bod was granted the Freedom of the Graveyard. This allows him to do almost anything within the graveyard that a normal inhabitant can do. It even extends somewhat outside the fences and such. But, still being alive, Bod has to put more effort into what the others take for granted.

I liked the book and I was sad when it came to an end. But Bod had grown old enough to be on his own and the living have no place with the dead. The dead have already finished their lives and have nothing further to do. But the living have near infinite potential to do anything. I liked that idea and that idea is how Bod sees his future. He sets out to use his live to its fullest, mistakes are just as welcome as successes; they're things only the living can do.