The Laughing Listener
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Neil Gaiman
Length: 5 hours & 48 minutes

Story Rating: 5 Stars
Performance Rating: 5 Stars
Overall Rating: 5 Stars

This book was recommended to me ages ago. I remember talking with a friend once about how I wanted to get into more adult fantasy novels and she told me to read Gaiman, mentioning this book specifically. On a whim at the book store one day, I saw this and his other novel [b:Stardust|16793|Stardust|Neil Gaiman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459127484s/16793.jpg|3166179] and bought them. I read Stardust right away, curious about it because I loved the movie so much, but this one has been sitting on my bookshelf collecting dust.

Before this, I didn't know anything could be so terrifying and beautiful at the same time and it instantly became a favorite. I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but this definitely wasn't it. A fact I'm very very happy about.

THE GOOD

This book came as a complete surprise. The only other comparison of Gaiman's work I had was a lighthearted fantasy romance. I didn't even know this was a horror book until part way through when our little boy narrator yanks a worm out of his foot. Ugh. I wish I was kidding. But it was so wonderfully creepy!! The way Gaiman wrote this is completely genius (to me at least) and I fell in love with it straight away. In the beginning it's just a straight forward book of a man going back home and remembering his life. But Gaiman gradually shifts small little things here and there to make you feel off kilter—like something is wrong. The tension builds once Ursula the nanny is hired until everything is completely terrifying.

It's a subtle kind of horror book, which is one of the things I loved most about it. And I thought it was interesting that we never learn the main character's name. It made the whole story more relatable in a that-could-happen-to-anyone kind of way.

Plus, Gaiman's writing is SO BEAUTIFUL. I must have saved like, seventeen quotes from this book. He wrote from a child's perspective so wonderfully, it was easy to picture in my mind and painted the most vivid images. Obviously this book was an exploration in nostalgia and growing older and Gaiman captured that feeling exactly.

THE UGLY

I feel like I've seen some conflicting opinions about this book, and honestly, I can understand why. It's a pretty slow moving book. This didn't bother me at all, especially because it's so short, but I can see how some people might lose interest. There's definitely action, but it wasn't anything that made me sit on the edge of my seat. And even though this is categorized as horror, it's not actually that scary. It's more suspense than anything.

FINAL WORD

This was such a beautiful book!! It instantly became a favorite and I loved every second.