Nobody Owens has lived in the graveyard for as long as he can remember. Raised by ghosts and watched over by the vampire Silas Nobody is safe and well loved. He is provided nourishment and an education as well as safety. For Nobody is safe in the graveyard- its walls will protect him from the man with the knife. For he waits. Just outside the graveyard gates waits Jack- the man who murdered Nobody's family. Years pass but still he waits. How long can the graveyard protect Nobody? The longer he stays the more ghost like he becomes but to leave would mean facing Jack.
In this novel the setting becomes a character in its own right. The graveyard is depicted in superb details. in the graveyard the reader is taken back to the time of the ghosts. The language changes into whatever dialect was dominant during the life of the ghosts present. Time seems to have stopped in the graveyard. There are no cell phones, computers, or televisions. Yet the trees and vines, even the earth itself seems to change and morph as Nobody grows and changes.
The changes and feel of the graveyard combined with the plethora of dialects present in this tale gives The graveyard book a style all of its own. Without the changing of dialect readers might become confused as to whom Nobody is currently talking to or even where he is. When he leave the cemetery everything is normal life that readers are used to today, yet when he returns to the graveyard the reader is taken right along with him.
Teh graveyard book has been optioned to become a film. While no actors have been selected for the film, nor has a release date been set, the film is said to be directed by Ron Howard and Neil Gaiman is slated to write the screenplay.
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