This is one of the best books I've read this year! It starts rather episodic, each chapter detailing different moments in Bod's childhood. Bod (short for Nobody) Owens is a live boy raised in a graveyard by ghosts, with the help of a vampire named Silas. The first part of the book tells about his childhood - how he came to be living with the ghosts, his adventures as a child, growing up among ghosts and learning ghostly as well as human things. I guess it reminds me strongly of Kipling's The Jungle Book, which I had been wanting to read or re-read for quite some time (I only read several different abridged versions as a child, and would like to read the actual book) and so it didn't surprise me when Neil Gaiman credited Kipling as the inspiration of The Graveyard Book at the end of it. Having said that, I'm actually dense enough not to realize the similarity in the titles until now. Aha, now everything makes sense. I was wondering the title when I picked it up at Kino last a couple of weeks ago.

As Bod grows older and begins to question why he wasn't allowed out of the graveyard, the main plot picks up. Bod becomes more interested in knowing about his human family and who he used to be, and learns of the danger that the graveyard's inhabitants protect him from. As the man Jack (and his very sharp knife) closes in on Bod, he would have to decide what makes him who he is - where he came from, or the journey to where he is? This is a brilliant novel about identity and growing up. Of course, it's also funny and easy to read with lots of wonderfully eccentric characters!