Рецензия на книгу

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  Vitaliy_Efremov15 января 2021 г.

  I like this book quite a lot. Not even because of magic, or all this likewise fantasy staff…

  I really like British sense of humor and in this book you can find it from the first pages (traditionally for NG). Describing Richard’s rather boring ordinary life NG is able to add so many jokes (deep and not so) that reading becomes a real pleasure for you, but simultaneously you can find there enough subjects to think about (for example Richard and Jessica’s relationship… especially Jessica’s position). And the meeting with Door was a real challenge and salvation for Richard and I thought “whether a lot of people just cannot step out from intended life plan and they all need the d(D)oor? Maybe it’s right for myself too?”.

  The world of NeverWhere (specifically London Below) created by NG isn’t untroubled but rather cruel, strict and exacting; it’s not a welcome-like world and Richard Mayhew isn’t a welcome guest there even for the woman he’d rescued. The world has people with their own interests all over the place: different baronies, different goals, views. Generally, you need to sacrifice smth to get smth. Slyness, boldness, betrayers, poverty, old respected families, dirty old men and women with such a behavior that nudges you to judge about her sexual orientation - you can find all of it in the NeverWhere. Although we don’t get a full perception of the world or full explanations about everything (ok, maybe all it is because NG has plans to continue the story..) but this imagined world seems so close to reality, perhaps precisely because of the lack of these «complete perceptions». You cannot understand real life completely and entirely either, so you have to leave place for imagination and fantasy.

  Almost all characters are reflection of the world where they live. They aren’t good or bad.. (except for Islington of course; no excuse for him, but on the other hand - he doesn’t belong to this world, he is a prisoner in his private cage) the rest of them are just … real. You cannot expect to meet another type of people in the world like that, to be honest. Even Croup and Vandemar.. seems that we need to consider them as smth nasty and vicious.. But no, they are just contractors, and in the story the only fault of theirs is that they’ve been hired by the bad guy. I completely understand that such an attitude to them is so divisive (taking into account what they’ve done).

  So.. All aggregate of these surroundings, characters, plot twists and style of writing makes this fantasy the closest one to the reality (to «what really can happen») of all I’ve ever read. And, you know, that’s why I like this book.

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