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Richard Mayhew has a normal,if not happy life. He has a good job, a girlfriend and a cozy apartment in the bustling city of London. But a simple act of kindness changes all that and sends him tumbling into a London he never knew existed. Here, he must come to terms with an entire new existence in London Below, located in the sewers and underground tunnels of London Above. Forming part of a world just as populated as the London where he used to live and look after his survival in a place where nothing and no one is as they seem. Touted as the elder sibling of Alice in Wonderland, Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is the perfect piece of escapism you never knew you needed.

There are some authors you just know you'll love even before you've ever read their book. That's the inkling I felt about Neil Gaiman and had felt about John Green. These authors once you have actually experienced their brilliance first hand go on to occupy a special place in your heart and you connect to them in a way you have never connected with people you have interacted with in real life. It's almost magical, and proves to you what you have always known, the immense power of books to instill a fervent ardor towards characters and places that never existed and authors you have never met.

Neverwhere constructs an enchanting world full of vivid characters, mysterious objects and interweaves it with the historically rich and enigmatic London we all know to exist. Every such story needs a common man who leads the reader through these bizarre cosmos the writers concoct and to help translate it for their audience. Richard Mayhew is an excellent medium as such, he is passive, hesitant and even downright infuriatingly whiny at the start but he undergoes a gradual change as the novel progresses. Door and her backstory endear us to her. Hunter is as fascinating as you expect her to be. Marquis de carabas lends the group just the right amount of panache.

I immensely enjoyed the novel and it would have been a 5 star book for me had the ending not been so anti climatic. Newerwhere is the book that it is because of its characters and the intriguing world of London below it builds, the plot is secondary. I do wish we had even more insight into the characters, I found them to be an unexplored depth of tales buried inside. And frankly, I wouldn't mind if the book had continued for another 100 pages to make it happen, that's how invested I am in the lives underground.

One thing is for sure, I'm surely reading every Neil Gaiman book I can get my hands on!

And if you complete the book and still long for London Below do not despair.

Neverwhere was based on a miniseries and has been recently adapted as a BBC radio show with an impeccable cast.



I mean can you think of a better person than our Cumberbatch himself to voice an angel?