Overall, this was a highly enjoyable book, worthy of the many awards it's won and appealing to a much wider range of readers than the young adult. I particularly enjoyed the opening and use of setting. Gaiman turns the home into a graveyard and the graveyard into a home. Bod's graveyard is rich and varied, complete with not only the expected tombs, but ancient burial tunnels, portals to the underworld, and unhallowed ground. The nooks and crannies of Bod's home contained fascinating psychological resonances for the child character. Having grown up blocks away from a graveyard myself, I have always felt a special fondness for the peace and spaciousness of that setting. It was exciting to spend a whole book in a world created by someone who clearly felt a similar affinity.

A brilliant touch was the use of the inscriptions on a ghost's tombstone to identify and characterize her. It's part of the way Bod must keep it all straight, living in a neighborhood where people range in age many hundreds of years. As a speculative element, the idea that the words your loved ones leave to memorialize you become your calling card in the afterlife struck me as highly creative.