The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman - 2 stars

I wanted to get this book read since I have had it for a pretty long time, and I had heard pretty good things about it. So I decided to read it for this Year's Spook Season and I still needed a 'G' for the A-Z challenge. I thought it would serve a purpose for me this year so I got it read. I have to say though, this book was just ok for me.
Synopsis
After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family...

Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic Coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, The Graveyard Book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.

Don't let the synopsis fool you like it did me. The first keywords for me to pick up this book were 'grisly murder'. Well I barely even caught that his family was murdered. I even went back and reread that part so I could understand better what had happened and why Bod was in the graveyard in the first place. That part of the story almost just felt kind of nonchalant to me. Like ho hum so what. I was hoping there would much more excitement as the book went on, that there would be a lot of adventures for Bod and I really just did not get that. I do feel like the author is a decent writer, I just don't think this book was for me. It did pick up at the very end of the book, it became a little more exciting, but it was pretty much a page to late.

The characters were pretty good. I liked most of them and they all served a purpose. I remember thinking that Bid has to be a pretty tough character living in a graveyard his whole young life. I never really understood what type of being Silas was though, I did not find that to be very clear, unless of course I missed it. I did like his character though and I found that this book was more character driven than it was plot driven.

All I can say about recommending this book is just pick it up and decide for yourself what you think of it. Maybe it will be more for you than it was for me. I just did not get into it is all. It is definitely directed towards younger audiences as well.