HRO
2/5/2014
If you had a 10 year old child, would you allow them to read a book in which a toddler's family gets mass murdered and consequently the child is raised by ghosts in a graveyard? I know I wouldn't. I couldn't. The thought of exposing their hearts to something so macabre turns my stomach. And that was my biggest problem with The Graveyard Book.
It's well written and creative and engaging. It's a well done allegory about how children discover themselves as they explore the boundaries of their world and how they learn the ways in which relationships work. The denouement is poignant (if far fetched).
But I think Gaiman really missed the mark when he crafted something so gruesome for children so young.