Neverwhere

Author: Neil Gaiman

Read if:
1) You feel apart from society.
2) You can successfully cross a bridge.
3) You are a collector of ancient Chinese figurines.

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London Below

Beneath the streets and buildings of London lies another world. A lost underground world composed of everything and everyone forgotten and discarded by the world above. The inhabitants of London below have fallen through the cracks and live in a world of monsters, hired arms, and floating markets.

Doors

Door is running for her life. She is running from the two men/creatures who have just killed her family. She is opening doors. She is opening one after another, not caring where it leads to. Finally, she opens one at random and allows it to take her to London above where she is left unconscious on the street. Everyone is passing her by. She is invisible to them. She is on another plane of existence. Richard Mayhew however, can.

While on his way with to dinner with his over-powering girlfriend, Richard sees Door in the street and experiences an overwhelming urge to help her. He ditches his girlfriend who barely even notices the girls existence, and brings Door back to his apartment to dress her wounds and let her rest. (Don't judge him yet, once you know his girlfriend...he's totally justified.)

Richard is quickly drawn into Door's life on the run and realizes that by his simple act of assisting her, he too is now apart of the underground world. Door hires Hunter, the most deadly killer of London below to serve as her body guard. Together, accompanied by a marquee, they all begin a journey to discover what they are seeking. Door is seeking out the person behind her family's murder, and Richard is looking for a way back to the life he once knew.

Along the way they ask a favor of the Earl of Earl's Court train station (which is naturally located within an abandoned train car), encounter an entrapped angel that they must free, travel to a priory to win a key, encounter a monster, die, and come back later to finish up the quest. Yep, there's just about everything. Oh and magic. Door and her family are "openers". They can create and open doors from anywhere to anywhere. So, there's that too. 

Londony...ness

Underneath all of the magic, slummy urban sprawl, and Londony...ness, is a classic self realization story. Hunter finds her true purpose, Door finds truth, and Richard discovers where he truly belongs in the world.

Neverwhere has also been adapted into a graphic novel which beautifully illustrates the story and tells it in a new and enlightening way.
Written by: Mike Carey
Illustrated by: Glenn Fabry