Neverwhere's protagonist, Richard Mayhew, learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished. He ceases to exist in the ordinary world of London Above, and joins a quest through the dark and dangerous London Below, a shadow city of lost and forgotten people, places, and times. His companions are Door, who is trying to find out who hired the assassins who murdered her family and why; the Marquis of Carabas, a trickster who trades services for very big favors; and Hunter, a mysterious lady who guards bodies and hunts only the biggest game.
I will say that having my attention captured by a book revolving around people who live in a dark sewer underneath a dirty city is quite remarkable. The lead character, Richard Mayhew, was an ordinary guy with a big heart and that's why I enjoyed the book. He meets so many fascinating characters (some of them drove me crazy, however!) and proves over and over that people with kind hearts can do a lot to save the people they love.
My favorite kind of story is one where an ordinary guy (or girl) finds that he's actually extraordinary in the end. I kept hoping that at some point he'd gain some special power or prove that he was born for this particular adventure. Nothing quite like that happened, but the thing is... I still loved the story! Richard grew and overcame difficult circumstances, which is very important.
One thing I did not enjoy was his companion, Door. She drove me a little crazy with her mood swings. One moment, she was running to him for help and guidance; in the next chapter she was ditching him due to his incompetant ways in the underworld. I was never quite sure how she felt about him. Maybe that was the point...
Overall, great job from a wildly successful author! And although I didn't enjoy the theme (again, the sewage thing was a turnoff) as much as his screenplays (i.e. Coraline, Mirrormask), I would still give this book a 3.5 out of 5.
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