This is why British, middle-aged, white guys shouldn't be allowed to go on adventures.

I actually pulled Neverwhere from my TBR jar about two months ago, but I didn't pick it up from the library until a few days ago. It sounded a bit like A Darker Shade of Magic, so I was pretty excited about it. I also haven't read much Neil Gaiman (I read Stardust for school two years ago). That being said...I'm not sure I'm really a fan of Gaiman's writing style.
This story is about a 30-year-old British dude named Richard who "falls between the cracks of London" and ends up in London Below, a dark fantasy world filled with secret markets, all kinds of creatures, and doors to other realms. The plot is relatively fast-paced, and I rounded my rating up because of the plot twists at the end, which I didn't predict but wasn't super surprised about, either. That being said, there are a lot of POV switches to characters/scenes that are partly irrelevant. And, as I said before, I'm not a huge fan of the style. I'd consider this book to fall into the category I call "quirky fiction," which is always a hit or miss for me. There's a lot of general "weirdness" and oddly specific descriptions, and while I know it's meant to be humorous, I just wasn't a fan of it... and I don't know why.
I also didn't love any of the characters. The marquis was my favorite, but I don't have an explanation. I thought Door was cool, too, and I didn't hate Hunter. The villains were fairly cool, especially following the plot twist. I just hated Richard, which is a horrible thing to say when he's the main character. I found him annoying and whiny, and I disagreed with the majority of the decisions he made. I don't know what it is about authors picking middle-aged, white British businessmen with no real personality to be their narrators, but I'm not a fan.
While I'm sure fans of the author will enjoy Neverwhere, I personally found that it fell a bit flat of my expectations, and I didn't enjoy the narrative style.

3.5/5