The Graveyard Book: Difference between revisions

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[[File:The_Graveyard_Book_8526.jpg|frame|It's [[The Jungle Book (Literature)|The Jungle Book]], [[Recycled in Space|recycled IN A GRAVEYARD!]]]

]

''[[What Do You Mean ~~Its~~ for Kids|There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.]]''

''[[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?|There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.]]''

When a young boy's family is killed, he takes refuge in a graveyard. The dead there take him in, and dub him Nobody Owens (although his friends call him Bod). There, taken care of by a vampire, a werewolf and his adoptive (but dead) parents, Bod learns from the dead all the things he needs to know about life. But the world outside of the graveyard where he is sheltered is not a safe place. The people who killed his family are still out there, and they are searching for him. Badass ensues.

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** Hathi: Elizabeth Hempstock

** Akela: The Lady on the Grey

* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: It's a Neil Gaiman story. Stand by for some horror, including: Becoming a ghoul. Getting trapped in mirrors for eternity. Getting buried in the earth by {{spoiler|the Sleer}}, and possibly the fate of the creatures that were sacrificed to make the Sleer. [[Who Wants to Live Forever|Being Silas.]]

* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: It's a Neil Gaiman story. Stand by for some horror, including: Becoming a ghoul. Getting trapped in mirrors for eternity. Getting buried in the earth by {{spoiler|the Sleer}}, and possibly the fate of the creatures that were sacrificed to make the Sleer. [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|Being Silas.]]

* [[Gainax Ending]]

* [[Genocide Backfire]]

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* [[Monster Mash]]: The team that takes on {{spoiler|the Jacks of All Trades}} include Silas ( {{spoiler|a vampire}}), a werewolf, an ifrit, a winged Sumerian mummy, and a good-luck pig.

* [[Necromancer]]: The Jacks can work magic, powered by death. Their powers are vaguely defined but include greatly enhanced senses (such as smell), magically barring and unbarring thresholds, creating personae for themselves [[Consummate Liar|so that they don't need to act when impersonating someone]], and setting magical traps which can bind someone into a set of mirrors.

* [[Nightmare Fuel ~~Stationattendant~~]]: Bod himself, both to the reader and in-story.

* [[Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant]]: Bod himself, both to the reader and in-story.

* [[The Nondescript]]: "that Owens boy..." (Bod using his powers to Fade)

* [[Not Using the Z Word]]: Or, in this case, the V word, as Silas is never explicitly called {{spoiler|a vampire}} in the text.

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* [[Recycled in Space|Recycled IN A GRAVEYARD!]]

* [[Relationship Reset Button]]: Bod and Scarlett, in a platonic sense.

* [[Self Fulfilling Prophecy]]: If {{spoiler|the Jacks of All Trades hadn't tried killing Bod's family, he'd never have had the means or even a reason to fight them. The Honour Guard only discovered that they existed when they tried killing a family that lived near a graveyard with one of its members in it.}}

* [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]]: If {{spoiler|the Jacks of All Trades hadn't tried killing Bod's family, he'd never have had the means or even a reason to fight them. The Honour Guard only discovered that they existed when they tried killing a family that lived near a graveyard with one of its members in it.}}

** [[Harry Potter|Sound familiar?]]

* [[Shout Out]]: The Night-gaunts are one to the [[Cthulhu Mythos]]. However these Night-gaunts are friendly, and will help you to escape from the Ghouls.

* [[Talking in Your Dreams]]: One of Bod's powers is to be able to enter people's dreams and converse with them.

* [[Tall Dark and Snarky]]: Silas.

* [[Tall, Dark and Snarky]]: Silas.

* [[Time Skip]]: Most chapters take place a few months to a few years after the previous.

* [[Ultimate Evil]]/[[The Voice]]: "We are the Sleer..."

* [[Walking the Earth]]: Silas, though for most of Bod's childhood he hangs around the graveyard.

* [[Werewolf Theme Naming]]: Ms. Lupescu.

* [[What Do You Mean ~~Its~~ for Kids]]: I hope your child likes murder!

* [[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?]]: I hope your child likes murder!

* [[What Happened to The Mouse]]: Although the Sleer make several reappearances, we never do find out who their original master was...or indeed anything about him at all.

* [[What Happened to The Mouse?]]: Although the Sleer make several reappearances, we never do find out who their original master was...or indeed anything about him at all.

* [[Who Is This Guy Again]]: Bod in school. See below.

* [[Who Is This Guy Again?]]: Bod in school. See below.

* [[Whole Plot Reference]]: The book as a whole is heavily inspired by ''[[The Jungle Book (Literature)|The Jungle Book]]'', but some of the chapters deserve special mention:

* [[Whole-Plot Reference]]: The book as a whole is heavily inspired by ''[[The Jungle Book (Literature)|The Jungle Book]]'', but some of the chapters deserve special mention:

** {{spoiler|Kaa's Hunting/The Hounds of God}}: A young boy, feeling frustrated at the no-nonsense attitude of his mentor, attempts to escape his predicament by joining a seemingly fun-loving band of mischievous creatures. He discovers that these creatures don't have intentions as innocent as they made out and ends up in far over his head. In a fit of desperation he calls to a flying creature for help in a language his mentor taught him shortly before his capture. A large and fearsome animal heeds his call for aid, and its appearance strikes terror into the hearts of his would-be captors. They abandon the boy to the mercies of his rescuer.

** {{spoiler|Mowgli's Brothers/How Nobody Came to the Graveyard}}: A cruel and sadistic villain murders an entire family, but their infant son eludes his grasp. He is discovered and protected by a charitable [[Raised By Natives|native couple]], but their peers urge them to give up the child because he belongs to a group outside of their social order. They are all eventually persuaded to adopt the child when swayed by the urgings of their leader and a [[Dark Is Not Evil|shadowy predator]] living on their outskirts.

** {{spoiler|The King's Ankus/The Witch's Headstone}}: A boy journeys into an ancient and forgotten ruin underneath the earth, where he encounters a serpent as old as the ruin itself. The serpent is entrusted in guarding the priceless treasures that lie beneath the ground, and although initially intimidating, the serpent turns out to be insane and rather pitiful. The boy, against the serpent's wishes, robs the tomb of a treasure only to find out that the treasure is [[Maybe Magic Maybe Mundane|cursed in a way that makes it act as a catalyst for human greed]]. The boy is immune to its charms, but other men end up killing each other in order to possess the forbidden prize, and the boy ends up returning the item back to its original place to the smug satisfaction of the serpent.

** {{spoiler|The King's Ankus/The Witch's Headstone}}: A boy journeys into an ancient and forgotten ruin underneath the earth, where he encounters a serpent as old as the ruin itself. The serpent is entrusted in guarding the priceless treasures that lie beneath the ground, and although initially intimidating, the serpent turns out to be insane and rather pitiful. The boy, against the serpent's wishes, robs the tomb of a treasure only to find out that the treasure is [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane|cursed in a way that makes it act as a catalyst for human greed]]. The boy is immune to its charms, but other men end up killing each other in order to possess the forbidden prize, and the boy ends up returning the item back to its original place to the smug satisfaction of the serpent.

* [[You Can See Me]]: Bod's signature move when in school is to be unnoticed and forgotten, at least until he starts to get involved with the other students. This also happens whenever a living character who can see the supernatural meets the Sleer.