Review: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Published February 19th 2019 by Vertigo (first published October 1st 1998)

Goodreads Synopsis

Half a crusading epic, half based in Tolkien-esque mythology, Neil Gaiman's award-winning graphic novel fantasy is now back in a brand-new edition!

Life moves at a leisurely pace in the tiny town of Wall—named after the imposing stone barrier which separates the town from a grassy meadow. Here, young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the beautiful Victoria Forester and for the coveted prize of her hand, Tristran vows to retrieve a fallen star and deliver it to his beloved. It is an oath that sends him over the ancient wall and into a world that is dangerous and strange beyond imagining...

Neil Gaiman's Stardust features the New York Times best-selling author (The Sandman) and one of the industry's best illustrators at the height of their creative powers. 

My Review

“A philosopher once asked, "Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?" Pointless, really..."Do the stars gaze back?" Now, that's a question.”

I'd been wanting to try out graphic novels for a very long time. It was just one of those things that I told myself that I would do and I kept procrastinating due to sheer lack of enthusiasm for it. So when I received an illustrated copy of Neil Gaiman's Stardust for my birthday, it was the perfect happenstance. I started reading it with no small amount of reluctance though, because I believed graphic novels were for children. I didn't need nor want pretty pictures in my books to make them more readable.

But I was in for a pleasant surprise. I've always been a big fan of fairy tales: beginning from the sweet, innocent stories of Rapunzel and Cinderella when I was a little girl, to the magnificence of the Arabian Nights, to the the still darker versions of these tales in the original Grimm Brother's stories. There's a certain magical charm to these stories that is timeless.

In Stardust, Gaiman channels the same charm and tells the story of young Tristan Thorne who sets out on a quest to win his one true love. On the first look, the premise is nothing new or special. There are evil witches, castles on cliffs, royal politics and backstabbing, face off with monsters, and of course, romance that ends in a happily-ever-after. All the ingredients that would make up a good old fairy tale! But Gaiman manages to take these ingredients and weave it into a fantastic story of adventure and intrigue. His writing style is quite unique, unlike anything that I've read before. He writes like he is one of the bards in a Royal Court who is narrating a saga. The beautiful drawings by Charles Vess just accentuates the mystical quality of it all. I realized that having pretty pictures accompanying the splendid text isn't an irritating add on but an intelligent one.

This book isn't for children. There is gore and sex and violence. It can be safely classified as young adult though. I would recommend this book for everyone who loves fairy tales and like their fantasies peppered with romance and drama.

Rating: 4/5 stars!