"Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman (published 2009)
"Neverwhere" is the first book I've read by Neil Gaiman and I thoroughly enjoyed following the main character, Richard Mayhew: a guy down on his luck a billion times over due to his naivety and weirdly optimistic nihilism (perhaps a more sufficient term would be: apathy). Admittedly, Gaiman's style is decidedly not literary (IMHO - at least not here), and I think "Neverwhere" could undoubtedly pass for a teen or YA novel. I couldn't tick off more than one star for that complaint, though. Part of that is because Richard is a genuinely special character. His whole problem within this story - which I found extremely relatable - is that he cannot seem to accept the fact that his old life, his "normal" life, his previous "reality" has been taken from him because of a chance meeting. His choice, to basically help a dying creature on the streets of London (her name is Door, I believe she's an elf), completely changes his entire notio...