The Graveyard Book
#1604.15 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 2008 Reading commitment Low Neil Gaiman Last reviewed 2026-08-06
Overview
Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book (2008) follows Nobody "Bod" Owens, an orphaned boy raised by the ghosts of a graveyard after his family is murdered by a mysterious assassin who is still hunting him, across eight chapters each set roughly two years after the last, tracking Bod's childhood and adolescence among the dead. Loosely inspired by Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, the novel replaces Kipling's jungle with a graveyard and its animal mentors with ghosts, a vampire-like guardian named Silas, and other supernatural residents who teach Bod skills -- Fading, Haunting, Dreamwalking -- suited to his unusual upbringing rather than survival in the wild. An unusually cross-category award record followed, spanning children's literature and genre fiction alike: the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal in the same year, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel, making it one of very few books to win major prizes in both the children's-literature and science-fiction/fantasy award circuits.
Dark fantasy · For Middle grade
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
The Graveyard Book (2008) core · 4.15 (571,477 ratings); A single continuous novel told across 8 chapters, each set 2 years after the last, following an orphaned boy raised by ghosts in a graveyard. No sequels or companion works exist in this specific continuity, unlike American Gods -- registered as a single-work universe (same category as The Once and Future King, Uprooted, Spinning Silver, Ysabel).
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Graveyard Book? The Graveyard Book's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is The Graveyard Book finished? Complete (2008).
- How much reading does The Graveyard Book take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book).
- How is The Graveyard Book ranked? #160 in this site's official ranking, based on 571,477 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #160?
Ranked #160 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.15 across 1 core book.
- Backed by 571k reader ratings.
- 0.04 behind #159, El Ciclo de la Luna Roja.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 1 book · Complete · 571k ratings · Ranks #160 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment dark fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- Newbery Medal, 2009: won: The Graveyard Book
- Carnegie Medal, 2010: won: The Graveyard Book
- Hugo Award (Best Novel), 2009: won: The Graveyard Book
- Locus Award (Best Young Adult Book), 2009: won: The Graveyard Book
Related universes
- Same author American Gods / Anansi Boys: Both by Neil Gaiman. Deliberately distinct universes sharing no characters, setting, or continuity.
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Suggestions computed from what The Graveyard Book and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.15 across 571,477 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: The Graveyard Book admitted as a single-work universe accepted 2026-08-06
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Related universes: see the Related universes section above.
Last reviewed: 2026-08-06
Rule: Core = the 1 novel, registered as a single-work universe (same category as The Once and Future King, Uprooted, Spinning Silver, Ysabel) since it is one continuous story with no companion works or sequels in its own continuity. No Expanded Canon.