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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My favorite of the Neil Gaiman books. This book still freaks me out.
I always go into cult classics a little scared. what if it doesn’t resonate with me? I loved this; it reminded me Douglas Adams’ “Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul.” I should know better than to doubt Gaiman at this point!
I really enjoyed this book. I think it was the first thing I’ve read by Neil Gaiman. It was different and wonderful. Fabulous storytelling.
Smart writing, I want to read more from this author.
I loved this book, its about a guy who think he has it all in life, great job, nice girl pretty much everithing we wanted and how by a strange turn of fate he looses everithing to find out that it maybe it wasn´t that good.
i don´t want to spoil it for you but I can highly recomend it if you like fantasy
This book was my introduction to Neil Gaiman, and I was hooked! He is one of my favorite authors, and this is one of my favorite books.
Richard Mayhew is a doormat. A bland drone in the office, and a spineless wimp to his over-controlling fiancée. But when he witnesses a beaten and wearied young woman seemingly appear from out of nowhere and steps up to aid her (much to his fiancée’s chagrin), he has no idea of the sea change his beige life is in for.
Becoming a faceless stranger …
This is the first full novel I’ve read by Mr. Gaiman and I loved it every bit as much his short story I read. The way he combines boring reality with the surreal is a thing of beauty. He makes absurdity feel simultaneously bizarre and commonplace. To anyone who loves fantasy or British humor, I would 100% recommend this book!
I think this story would have been told faster but BETTER in half the pages. The author gets far too caught up in his word-play and leaves the plot behind. I found it self-indulgent and tedious, although interesting.
Great world building – love the language.
Rereading this for the 6th time or so… my favorite book by my favorite author! An urban fantasy unlike any you’ve read before… but then, that’s all of Neil Gaiman’s books. Dark, whimsical, funny. An underground magical London. A part at the end that makes me ugly cry in the best way every time. Must read for lovers of any type fantasy book.
One of my favorite books from one of my favorite authors.
In the world below London, you never know what you might find. Or what might kill you. It’s a shadowy world, where beauty is lethal and friends hard to find. And if you fall through the cracks from the world above, you will find little resemblence to the London you left behind.
This is what happens to Richard Mayhew. An ordinary man, with an …
Love Neil Gaimon
I am currently reading this and love it so far. I’m looking forward to finding out the fate of Richard and Door.
One of Neil’s best. Immersive, creative, and sort of mind blowing. Hard to imagine anyone not enjoying this alternate reality version of our world..
I found this book fantastically imaginative and entertaining. Great world building. Wonderful characters. I listened to the audible. The author narrates and gives full insight into his characters voices, thoughts and mannerisms. Highly recommended.
Did not want this book to end!
Great story and it’s worth reading ‘How the Marquis got his Coat Back’ as soon as you finish.
Thinking about rereading! This is one of my all time favorites. Thanks for writing it, Mr. Gaiman!