Confession: I love Neil Gaiman’s books. Fantasy is like literary candy. It’s my guilty pleasure so it was geek-tastic to discover Neverehere a Neil Gaiman title on goodreads’ Around the World in 80 Books group’s February list. Oh yes! Sign me up for THAT one!
A fantasy book on the reading list of a group dedicated to traveling the world through books? Absolutely! Neverwhere is set in in London. The real London (London Above) and a fantasy London based on the Tube stations, catacombs, sewers, and ancient foundations and dungeons under London (London Below.) London Below is inspired in part by the incredible world that actually exists below London’s street level and the invisible people that live only tangentially attached to the “real” world of London Above. The homless, the sewer scavengers, the run-aways, the street performers, all have another life in the London Below that us “up-worlders” can hardly immagine. Neverwhere imagines it for us.
What it’s about:
Neverwhere is the story of Richard, an ordinary, up-worlder from Scotland who went to London to get started in the securities business. After several years, he knows London very well, maintains (if not quite enjoys) a modestly stable career, a successful relationship with a fiancé just a little out of his league, and is looking forward to happily ever aftering in one of the great capitals of the world. Then the story starts.
Walking with his fiancé after an embarrassing disaster of a date, they stumble upon a street person who appears to be severely injured. The fiancé wants to call 999 (that’s like 911 in the UK) and continue on but Richard takes the poor child-like creature in his arms and carries her home. There he discovers it is a very dirty and stinky young woman but her wound isn’t as bad as it first appeared. He renders her aid in returning home only to discover her home is a mysterious world accessed through basements, alleys, and tube stations in London Below. More shocking still, after exposure to this underworld, he is less and less visible to people in London Above. It’s as if up-worlders are under a spell and literally cannot notice under-worlders even when the fringes of their comings and goings overlap at the edges. Richard has no choice but to seek the young woman in London Below to make sense of this awkward situation.
Of course, eventually, Richard can only live in one world or the other. After following his experiences and witnessing his choice, come on over to the goodreads group Around the World in 80 Books and join the discussion!
What WanderReaders will love:
Neverwhere has some wonderful scenes set all over actual London (London Above) We visit several museums as Richard is dragged to them by his fiancé. We are treated to Richard’s walking tours as he goes about his business and negotiates his life. But unexpectedly, London Below turns out to be an amazing tour as well. Much of the fantasy world is, as you would expect, pure imagination but then much of it faithfully renders some of the amazing features actually found below London. Abandoned tube stations are frequent settings. The spectacular sewers commissioned by Queen Victoria, basements and subterranean catacombs all present a lovely stage for a dark and frightening fantasy world.
Want to explore more of the REAL under-London wonderland?
Visit my earlier book review of Stephen Smith’s book Underground London: travels beneath the city streets Because I had read it, I think I was able to appreciate some of the locations Neil Gaiman used in Neverwhere better. I enjoyed the feeling I got recognizing some of the things he described from my earlier reading. I felt like maybe I was also a savvy under-world traveler myself.
Read ~ Write~ Wander
~Angie