Saturday, December 3, 2011

Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett

One day as Johnny and his friends are walking through the cemetery, Wobbler (Johnny’s friend) challenges Johnny to knock on the tomb of Thomas Bowler. As Johnny knocks, Thomas Bowler opens the door casually and says “Yes?”. Johnny and Mr. Bowler start chatting casually, but Johnny’s friends think that Johnny is mental because Johnny is talking to a closed door of a tomb. Then Johnny realizes that he can see the dead! Most people would think that Johnny was mad but not his friends, his friends decided that no matter what they were going to stick with Johnny. One day as Johnny got a newspaper for his fellow dead friends at the cemetery,(the dead were his friends by now, dead people like William Stickers, Thomas Bowler etc) but after reading the newspaper the dead were furious because the cemetery they were living (dying) in was getting broken down by a company to build a boring office. So now the dead were depending on Johnny and his friends, who create the Blackbury volunteers who speak up against the council, hoping to save the cemetery. Whereas the dead think that the cemetery cannot be saved so they go wandering of into the living world despite warnings from Mr. Grimm the head ghost, he who warns: “If you don’t come back on Judgement Day then you will roam around the world endlessly”. To escape the Judgement Day the ghosts jump from one country to another through phone lines and the night before judgement day lasts longest for the ghosts. Johnny saves the cemetery but all the ghosts have left and when they return the judgement day is over and as an extreme punishment the ghosts fade away. My main comment is that if you are looking for a book with a point then don’t buy this because after saving the cemetery the ghosts just fade away and the cemetery is saved for nothing. This book is not a must, but a book you would read to pass the time the story’s fine--but not a must. But it is as hilarious as nothing I can describe in words , reading this book I was laughing so hard that the house shook. So the book is just a kind of book you would read while going for a picnic reading this to escape supreme boredom.