Neverwhere is an exceptionally cool book that was written by the very talented British author, Neil Gaiman.  That's him on the banner up there.  He's kinda cute. ^_^;;  I love everything that he writes because it's always creative and interesting.  Neverwhere is my favorite though, it's really unique and the characters are memorable.  By the way, there was a Tv mini-series made based on the book, but it was only shown in England.  Luckily, I managed to convince a cousin living over there to tape it for me, and so I got to see it.  Yay!  So this page is based on both the book and the series, which are really pretty much identical.  When describing the characters, I used pictures from the series when they were available, since there are obviously none in the book. ^_^;;

The hero of the book is Richard Meyhew, who moves to London from the British countryside to get a job.  He becomes fairly sucessful, and gets engaged to a pretty business woman.  However, Richard isn't completely happy with his life.  One night, on a date with his fiencee, he encounters a young girl badly injured.  When he tries to take her to a hospital, she begs him not to.  So he takes her to his home, and in doing so pisses his fiencee off enough that she breaks the wedding off.

The girl's name is Door, and she lets Richard help her with her wounds.  As he does this, Richard is interrupted by two extremely creepy strangers looking for Door.  Richard doesn't give her up, and when the strangers leave, Door goes from Richard to find a friend called the Marquis de Carabas.

Richard tries to get on with his life, but it soon becomes obvious that people around him don't seem to know that he's there.  Those that do see him, including his friends and ex-fiencee, don't recognize him.  Freaked out, Richard goes to try and find Door.  He saw them leave through the sewers, and so goes down after them.

Underground, he finds a strange world that he never knew existed - the world of the rat speakers, literally people who talk to rats and revere them as their lords.  A girl, Anaestasia is told to take him to find Door at the Market.  Anaestasia and Richard go off through the tunnels underground on their way to the market; the two become quite fond of each other.  Unfortunately, to get to the market they have to cross a dangerous bridge of night that occasionally claims souls as a sacrifice.  A beautiful woman named Hunter helps them across, but Anaestasia is taken into the night by the bridge.  Richard is heartbroken, but must continue on through the market to find Door and the Marquis.

When Richard finds them, they're auditioning bodyguards to protect Door from the two strange guys who are after her.  Hunter tries, wins, and joins the group.  Door also allows Richard to tag along, because she likes him and feels badly for ruining his life above ground.

As the book goes on, Richard discovers an entire world underneath London, inhabited by strange and colorful people.  Door leads the group around, trying to find out why her family was murdered, why she's being chased, and how to get Richard back to his own life.  Lots of adventures and betrayals take place, and eventually the mysteries are all solved.  I'm not going to say anymore about the story, because it would really spoil all of the great plot twists.  I will say, however, that you'll never guess who the true villan is. ^_^;