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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Easy and fun read, a befuddled main character accidentally thrust into a hidden and very dangerous part of London. Classic Gaiman.
An adult fairy tale that takes the reader to the dark underground of a mythical world beneath London.
A friend recommended the book, and the truth is that the cover somewhat deterred me at first yet I have no idea why. It’s a little hard for me to read books that don’t attract my attention that much.
But after I started reading it, I drifted into a fascinating world that I think only Gaiman can describe.
One of the best books I have read, very …
3 of 5 stars to Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, a fantasy full of quirky characters and commentary on society, published in 1996. This was another book group selection (not mine), but by someone who has very good taste in books.
I’d never read Gaiman before, but he seems to be immensely popular. We read it in 2009, many years after it first hit print, …
This is an artist at the top of his game
Easily one of my favourite Neil Gaiman books – so much so that just thinking about it makes me wish he had another novel out right now. I’d read it immediately.
In ‘Neverwhere’ readers are given a brilliant mix of comic, dark, surreal and fantastical elements as they follow the out-of-his-depth Richard Mayhew through the mysteries and horrors of …
I had mixed feelings about the events described in this book, but it was so well written that it kept me engaged from beginning to end.
Neverwhere is one of those books that grabs you near the lapels and shakes you mercilessly until the fabric tears and you are released. It is pure fantasy, taking place in an alternate world filled with all kinds of villains and the occasional hero.
This classic early Neil Gaiman book comes out of his frustration with the screenplay. This is sort of the director’s cut of the novel produced by Gaiman to clarify what he thought was obscure in both the story and the earlier edition of the book. It is worth reading at least once if not twice or three times because is that good. If you love Neil …
First time I read a story about a “hidden world” ( years ago). Superbly constructed. Well-told. One of the top 10 stories of the last 20 years.
Liked it, especially since I got it for .99 and would never have bought it for the ridiculously high regular price. A page turner that kept me guessing about how it would turn out. Now I know what good modern fantasy is like.
I’ve read most of Neil Gaiman’s books and honestly have loved every one I’ve read and he is one of my favorite authors. In saying that, Neverwhere is far and away my favorite novel of his. I love the idea of an underground London and I really loved the characters.
One of my favorite books.
I found Neil’s author-preferred version of this book. I never saw the tv series, nor had I read any other version. I’m glad. This is a terrific story of the two Londons, Above and Below. Above is predictable and safe and mundane, Below is dangerous and magical. The hero is an honest man from Above and that’s all I’m going to say. I loved this book.
I love this story. Inventive and original. While there is some sadness, it is happy and uplifting. Even the villains are entertaining.
In Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, Richard Mayhew is yanked out of his ordinary London existence when he finds a girl bleeding in the streets. After helping her, he learns that a) her name is Door, b) she lives in London Below, a subterranean version of the city, and c) by helping her, he’s made himself invisible to London Above. What follows becomes a …
If you had told me a year ago I would be reviewing a Neil Gaiman book as my first book review of 2021 I wouldn’t believe you. I’ve DNFed multiple Gaiman books, not because of the writing, but because the worlds he built weren’t for me. I respect Gaiman’s talent and am glad so many people can find entertainment in his stories, I was just never one …
This was such a brilliant modern fantasy. Honestly, the originality and magic in the world this author built was just: *chef’s kiss*. I want to read this again just to re-live all the moments of intrigue and magic. It’s on the darker side and also gives you those English feels with the UK word-choice and setting, so if you’re into that sorta …
Really love this one of his. Even with some of the darker themes, it’s got a real sweetness to it, and the world-building is fantastic. I absolutely ADORE this kind of premise, where you have a switch from an ordinary world full of its petty problems and issues to one that is fantastical, filled with strange creatures and a whole different set of …
Typical Gaiman…buckle up and enjoy the ride. I feel like he enjoys writing a good story as much as I like reading one. There isn’t much that he writes, that I wouldn’t recommend.