The Doll’s House by Neil Gaiman: Book Review

Dream’s kingdom is being threatened by a vortex, an entity that can rip apart the Dreaming. He also finds out that a few of his major, and monstrous, subjects, have escaped his kingdom. He must look for them all and save the day before it’s too late.

This was better than Preludes and Nocturnes, but still not quite a four.

The arc of the story flowed much more smoothly. This volume really encompasses one big storyline rather than the three or four rather disjointed ones found in the first volume. This one was definitely creepy–I’m desperately hoping that the Corinthian stays out of my nightmares!–but it wasn’t as over-the-top horrifying as Preludes. All pluses in my book. I also liked the way Gaiman took a storyline from the first collection that I had completely forgotten about and expanded it into something unexpected but fitting.

I liked that we got to see a little more of the family dynamics among Dream’s family, the Endless Ones. They aren’t really gods because gods die; these beings don’t. They have always been around and they always will be. Some of Dream’s past is told, and we’re left with the feeling that his younger siblings aren’t through messing with him and the other two Eldest.

I’m not a big fan of the art of the actual story. The colors are a little too garish. Sandman is still very cool, but the other characters, (well, except for the Corinthian) were just too much. This was written and illustrated in the late ’80’s, early ’90’s though, so that probably has something to do with it. I did, again, find myself poring over Dave McKean’s gorgeous cover illustrations. I really, really like the mixed-media work he did for these.

I’ll try one more.