The Graveyard Book

Very tall with a deep voice, Silas is a looming, shadowy presence who can roam the world, but enjoys the privilege of sanctuary at the graveyard. He serves as Bod’s guardian. Wise and kind, but ruthless when he needs to be, Silas has pale-white skin, sleeps during the day in the chapel steeple, can fly, enjoys great strength and speed, can manipulate people’s minds, and never eats human food. In short, he’s a vampire, though the book never says so directly. Silas once was evil, but he changed and became a member of the Honour Guard, a group of super beings who serve goodness and fight against evil forces. Silas is Bod’s guardian but also a mentor and father figure to the boy.

Jack Frost, or “man Jack,” is an assassin who planned for many years the killing of the Dorian family on behalf of a mysterious group, the Convocation. His name a play on the phrase “any man Jack”—as in “any man Jack could have done it”—the assassin does his work carefully and with precision. His last intended victim, the Dorian boy, ruins the plan by wandering off toward the graveyard, where Silas uses mind control to deter his pursuer. Man Jack is later revealed to be Jack Frost of the ancient society the Jacks of All Trades, whose Convocation assigns him the duty of killing Bod before he grows up to become the prophesied destroyer of their group.

Jack tricks Scarlett into bringing Bod to him. Though four other Jacks join the final hunt for Bod, Jack Frost is the story’s main antagonist, whom Bod meets at the beginning and near the end of the tale. Bod vanquishes all the Jacks and arranges for Jack Frost to be interred alive in the Indigo Man crypt, where he’ll be held forever by the Sleer. Jack encapsulates all the fear and danger a growing boy can imagine; Bod vanquishes his fear and meets the challenge.

A lonely five-year-old girl from the neighborhood, Scarlett Amber Perkins—her name an anticipation of the vibrant clothing she wears—becomes a friend of Bod, “a little older than he was, a little taller, and was dressed in bright colors” (40). She’s smart and imaginative and greatly enjoys Bod’s company. She moves to Scotland with her family but returns when she’s 15, and she and Bod rekindle their friendship. Her research into the killing of Bod’s family leads them to the assassin, Jack Frost, who tries to kill them both. Scarlett escapes, blames Bod, and returns to Scotland.

Scarlett is Jack’s best friend and first love. Their friendship, interrupted in childhood and frustrated when they’re teens, is a close one—they can visit each other’s dreams—but fraught because Scarlett can’t resolve the break between her view of the world and the frightening truth she witnesses with Bod. She’s the first heartbreaking disappointment that Bod experiences in the world of the living.

Elizabeth “Liza” Hempstock, born in the early 1600s and drowned and burned in her teens by witch hunters, actually is a witch who retains her powers even as a ghost. She and Bod strike up a friendship—he goes to great lengths to find her a proper gravestone—and, as he gets older, she helps him out of scrapes and develops a crush on him to which he’s oblivious. Not until he finally leaves the graveyard at story’s end does she reveal her affection for him. Liza is an important friend to Bod, and, like Scarlett, a girl who can’t quite be a romantic interest because of the differences between her and Bod.

Ten thousand people lie buried in the graveyard, and Bod meets many of them during his years there. Many get a mention only once, usually by the writing on their tombstones—for example, “Digby Poole (1785–1860, As I Am So Shall You Be)” (163-64). Some, though, like Bod’s parents, the Owenses, and the witch Liza Hempstock, are the story’s principle supporting characters. They form an extended family for Bod, each of them helping, in her or his own way, to raise, teach, and protect him.

Alongside her husband a resident of the graveyard for over 300 years, Betsy Owens becomes Bod’s adoptive mother. Childless in life, she discovers the toddler Nobody in the graveyard and instantly wants to protect and rear him. She convinces Silas to help her win over the other ghosts; with the aid of the Lady on the Grey’s strong recommendation, the community of ghosts accepts the little boy into their company. Betsy raises Bod with love and care, and Bod receives from her and Master Owens a home life, a sense of comfort, and a feeling of security. Bod loves her as would any boy his mother.

Betsy’s husband, Master Owens, in life was “the prosperous head of the local cabinetmaker’s guild” (31), which honored him with a small tomb at the graveyard. At Betsy’s urging, he becomes the adoptive father of Nobody. He’s the boy’s chief disciplinarian—at one point, he spanks Bod for a serious violation of graveyard rules—but otherwise he’s in the background, while his wife figures more prominently in Bod’s life.

Mrs. Owens is the emotional foundation for Bod’s upbringing and growth; she establishes a basis of safety on which Bod can grow and from which he can explore the graveyard, learn from ghosts and books, and finally seek out the larger world.

Miss Lupescu, a fussy grey-haired lady, acts as Bod’s guardian and instructor when Silas is away. Bod dislikes her until he learns that Lupescu is a Hound of God who can cross the Gates of Hell and who rescues him from the ghouls. Thereafter they’re close, but Lupescu dies as part of the Honour Guard that fights the Jacks of All Trades to protect Bod. Miss Lupescu represents babysitters and teachers who present severe faces while hiding compassionate, caring hearts. She’s an object lesson for Bod in not judging a person by her appearance.

The graveyard contains a ghoul-gate in one of its graves, and ghouls open it and bring Bod with them to their world, hoping either to convert him or eat him. The ghouls give themselves absurd names: the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh, the Duke of Westminster, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 33rd president of the US, Emperor of China, and so forth. They all look hideous—mummified faces, fingers like talons, clothing misfit and shredded—and they love to eat disgusting things.

Like Pinocchio, who’s tempted by Pleasure Island but learns there that self-indulgence leads to sorrow, Bod is tempted to run away from his unpleasant guardian Miss Lupescu and join the ghouls but discovers that their idea of the good life disgusts and terrifies him. Still, he remembers their language and uses it to open the graveyard’s ghoul-gate and send three of the murderous Jacks to Hell.

Abanazer Bolger, proprietor of an antique shop, and his partner, Tom Hustings, are much more interested in making a quick buck than curating old things. When Bod appears bearing a priceless ruby brooch, their minds go into overdrive, and they decide they must force the boy to reveal the location of more treasures. Bolger also realizes Bod might be the boy sought by man Jack. Bod, with help from Liza, Fades from sight, and the two men fight over the brooch and knock each other out while Bod escapes with the brooch. A couple of years later, Bod sees Bolger dancing at the Macabray celebration. Bolger and Hustings represent the dangers of being an innocent in a world that contains conniving, selfish people.

Large for a 12-year-old and fond of stealing, Nick Farthing gets his job assignments from fellow student Maureen “Mo” Quilling, the brains of their little theft ring. Nick bullies kids out of their lunch money or other possessions and splits the take with Mo. Bod finds Nick easy to intimidate: He Dreamwalks into Nick’s nighttime reveries, terrifies him with threats, and leaves him with a warning not to bully the other school kids.

Mo, on the other hand, realizes that, though Bod has some sort of strange power, she can best him by reporting him for vagrancy and vandalism to her uncle on the police force. Her plan backfires only because Silas intervenes and saves Bod. Bod later haunts Mo briefly at school, as a reminder that she must mend her ways. Nick and Mo represent the difficult people that would make Bod’s life difficult, were he to persist in his efforts to receive a formal education.

An ancient society of murderers who kill people for the magic power they impart at death, the Jacks of All Trades—including man Jack, otherwise known as Jack Frost, who kills Bod’s family and tries to kill him, too—must assassinate Bod lest he become the man whom prophecy says will destroy the Jacks. They become embroiled in a worldwide battle against Silas, Lupescu, and other members of the Honour Guard, unusual creatures who fight evil and manage to reduce the Jacks’ numbers until only a few are left to attack Bod. Four of the Jacks, including Jack Dandy, Jack Ketch, Jack Tar, and Jack Nimble, chase after Bod but are foiled or sent to ghoul Hell. The Jacks serve as supporting antagonists behind Jack Frost’s effort to prevail against Bod and the Guard.