Richard Mayhew is an ordinary London guy with an ordinary London life, until a chance encounter with an injured girl plunges him into a world he doesn’t know exists, London Below. London Below is where “the other people” live, those that have been forgotten by society and fallen through the cracks. Lady Door is from an esteemed family in this universe with unique talent, the ability to open things, and when her family is torn apart (um, literally) she goes on a quest to discover why. Mayhew’s life is forever changed forever as he follows Lady Door as part of her motley crew, and tries to find his way back home.
The concept of this story is very intriguing, this possibility of a world within ours, just beyond what we can see. Overall I enjoyed the story but found it a bit of a slog. Actually, a reviewer on Amazon, Staring Girl, summed up my chief complaints perfectly. “My only complaint is that the plot seemed to lack momentum at times and he didn’t really delve into the minds of the characters very much.” This isn’t to say the book is bad, it is well-written and creative, but just not my cup of tea. I prefer stories with a lot of character development, and this one was much more about the setting of London Below than the people in it. Overall, not my favorite of the Gaiman I have read but for someone who gets lost in the exploration of an interesting location, it would be a very enjoyable read.
