Neverwhere
by Neil Gaiman
★ Top 10 book of 1996 · #6 on Best Books of 1996
Richard Mayhew is an ordinary Londoner whose kindness to a bleeding girl pulls him into London Below, a shadowy place of monsters, saints, murderers and angels. To get back to his old life, he first has to survive.
Best for: Fans of dark urban fantasy who enjoy a hidden world beneath a real city
Neverwhere is #6 on BookWard's Best Books of 1996, out of 38 1996 books that cleared our data bar.
What Neverwhere is about
Richard Mayhew is the kind of man whose days run on rails: a decent job, a decent life, a habit of caring about other people. One evening in London he stops for a girl lying injured on the pavement, and that small decision pulls him out of his own city and into another one beneath it. London Below is a place of constant shadow, home to murderers and angels, monsters and saints, and it does not play by any rules he knows.
Cut off from everything familiar, Richard has to learn how to stay alive in a world that barely notices him. Gaiman blends urban fantasy with folklore, and the mood is dark but often wry. Readers who like atmospheric, offbeat adventures, and stories about people who slip through the cracks, will feel at home.
Neverwhere on the Best Books of 1996
Neverwhere came out in 1996. Of the 38 books first published in 1996 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #6 on our Best Books of 1996 list.
Why it made the list: 497 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.1 out of 5 (129 ratings). The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 1996 list
- Push Sapphire, #4
- Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk, #5
- Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace, #7
- Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt, #8
See all Best Books of 1996 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 1995 Best Books of 1997.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 308 want to read it, 13 are reading it now and 176 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.1 out of 5 from 129 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 82 | 55% |
| Reader love | 71 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 47 | 20% |
Questions about Neverwhere
When was Neverwhere published?
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman was first published in 1996.
Was Neverwhere one of the best books of 1996?
Neverwhere is #6 on BookWard's Best Books of 1996, out of 38 1996 books that cleared our data bar. 497 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.1 out of 5 (129 ratings).
Why is Neverwhere on the Best Books of 1996 list?
497 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.1 out of 5 (129 ratings).
More of the best books of 1996
- A Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin, #1
- The Green Mile Stephen King, #2
- Forbidden Knowledge Roger Shattuck, #3
- Push Sapphire, #4
- Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk, #5
- Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace, #7
See the full Best Books of 1996, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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