Richard Mayhew is an unassuming young businessman living in London, with a dull job and a pretty but demanding fiancee. Then one night he stumbles across a girl bleeding on the sidewalk. He stops to help her – -and the life he knows vanishes like smoke.
Several hours later, the girl is gone too. And by the following morning Richard Mayhew has been erased from his world. His bank cards no longer … no longer work, taxi drivers won’t stop for him, his landlord rents his apartment out to strangers. He has become invisible, and inexplicably consigned to a London of shadows and darkness a city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, that exists entirely in a subterranean labyrinth of sewer canals and abandoned subway stations. He has fallen through the cracks of reality and has landed somewhere different, somewhere that is Neverwhere.
For this is the home of Door, the mysterious girl whom Richard rescued in the London Above. A personage of great power and nobility in this murky, candlelit realm, she is on a mission to discover the cause of her family’s slaughter, and in doing so preserve this strange underworld kingdom from the malevolence that means to destroy it. And with nowhere else to turn, Richard Mayhew must now join the Lady Door’s entourage in their determined — and possibly fatal — quest.
For the dread journey ever-downward — through bizarre anachronisms and dangerous incongruities, and into dusty corners of stalled time — is Richard’s final hope, his last road back to a “real” world that is growing disturbingly less real by the minute.
If Tim Burton reimaginedThe Phantom of the Opera,if Jack Finney let his dark side take over, if you rolled the best work of Clive Barker, Peter Straub and Caleb Carr into one, you still would have something that fell far short of Neil Gaiman’sNeverwhere.It is a masterful debut novel of darkly hypnotic power, and one of the most absorbing reads to come along in years.
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I wasn’t quite sure about Neverwhere when I started. Richard, the reluctant hero, is just living his boring, but safe life, until he helps a girl in need. Then his world turns upside down and the ride begins. Gaiman has the reader questioning their own life and what’s real. And, we start to question what’s important.
Cozy readers who love London …
This book made me a fan of Neil Gaiman! By the end, the characters will become friends (and enemies!) and you’ll feel like you really visited Underside. The story is original and will leave you wondering if just maybe, there really is an Underside that most people just can’t see.
One of my favorites of his…
I would probably choose this book, if I were stranded on an island. This was the first novel I read by Neil Gaiman, and he’s been one of my favorites ever since.
It’s a blend of fantasy in our reality, the magic in the underground of London. I love his writing style, and I love the growth of each character in the novel. Reading this book would …
One of the things I love about Neil Gaiman is just how quirky his stories are. I can relate to quirky and unique. Like the world of NEVERWHERE itself, once you walk through the door and enter this parallel universe, you’ll find it difficult to get out.
All of Neil Gaiman’s novels are wonderful pieces of literature, but “Neverwhere” surpasses all others. It is awash in fantastic characters who speak quotable prose into the ears of the reader. If it were twice as long I would love it ever more fiercely.
“Neverwhere” is the story of Richard Mayhew a young up and coming Londoner. Here is a quote …
Of the books of Neil Gaiman that I’ve read, Neverwhere is my absolute favorite. It’s an incredibly imagined fantasy set beyond the veil of modern London, and if there are two things I love, it’s fantasy tales set in modern times, and London. (I suspect it may have influenced how I approached writing Memory of Dragons.)
Just Gaiman. Beautiful style, great characters, original and imaginative is all respect, Another world so vividly described that it has to be real somewhere. You will never look again at a closed subway station in the same way. Terrifying without getting into horror, and so beautiful in its own subtle way.
Neil Gaiman is one of my all-time favorites, and this is my favorite of the favorites. I love almost anything with a world-behind-the-world story – in the hands of a great writer though, these types of stories are incredible… There’s so much opportunity for originality and cleverness and wonder – Neverwhere is a prime example of an exceedingly …
(Audiobook)
Beneath London lies a different kind of city – one filled with monsters and angels, villains and rat-talkers. When businessman Richard Mayhew finds a young woman hurt and bleeding on the streets, he takes her back to his flat and soon discovers she is not all she seems. But if he is to help her, Richard will have to deal with some very …
One of the best books I’ve ever read. It was so fantastical, and yet, it appeals to people like me who don’t even read fantasy that often. It was a world of its own.
I’m new to audiobook fandom. I have been listening to audiobooks for less than a year. So please keep that in mind when I say that Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and narrated by the author himself is one of the best I have ever heard. Neverwhere is a darkly hilarious (which I love so, so much), clever (oh, how I love clever), intriguing (not once was …
This is the first of Neil Gaiman’s books I’ve read, as a newcomer to fantasy, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was like an Alice in Wonderland for adults. I loved the world of London Below, the characters, the subtle, very British humour and the story with its gradual unfolding twists and turns kept me engrossed. A very fitting ending, too. I’ll be …
I thought this book was a great read. It’s a bit lighter fare than Gaiman’s fantastic “American Gods” but is still engrossing. It’s sort of like Harry Potter for a slighty older audience. Don’t hesitate to give this a shot!
Gaiman is a master of the slightly off normal world. IN this book he has London above and London below where all the people that slip through the cracks live. This world is full of magic, terror and lots of death and dying. It’s great.
How would a person from London above cope with a world where “Mind the gap.” means something ugly will grab …
I have loved this book for years. It’s like the Wizard of Oz for us grown kids. It’s the kind of book I want to reread while I’m reading it. I’ve seen the original 6 part BBC show as well.
Neil Gaiman’s magical world is intriguing. I initially thought of London Below to be on occasion a mockery of the real London (e.g.: the things available for sale in the Floating Market), although Neil himself has said it was not always his intention.
Satire or not, it’s a world that I would like to return to, and one I hope Neil would return to …
Fantastic world that I didn’t want to leave. Funny, strange, and intoxicating – if you love fantasy, this is a no-brainer.
Loved this book. It’s full of mystery and magic with a few twists and turns. I think it definitely takes a certain kind of person to a have a taste for Neil Gaiman. I’d call his brand “smart” fantasy novels.
Neverwhere is not only a great book to fall into but they also made a mini series out if it as well. Characters are wonderful, and the story line is interesting, there is darkness too. Like so many other books and characters that Neil Gaiman has created, this oldie is a classic and one of my favorites.