I picked up this book after i read and loved Neverwhere. But this was nothing like Neverwhere. It starts pretty good: The kid is faced with the suicide of that man and is suddenly drawn into the adult world, with death, money, evil and everything in it. The worm, the canvas creature, the coins, they are all symbols and metaphoric(in my opinion at least. As was everything in Neverwhere). But as you read further it seems like the symbolism fades away and the book becomes just a regular and quite literal fantasy. The second part of the book is very different from the first part. It's as if Gaiman has run out of brilliant ideas. 
 I expected everything in this book to be a symbol and a metaphor about how our beautiful life as a kid transforms into a dark cruel world of adulthood. But this did not happen. And i think this is what made me so disappointed. I would give this book 2 stars, but I'm afraid that would be too harsh. 
 Other things that bothered me about this book: 
 1- We don't know much about Hempstocks. They always talk in riddles. A little background about why they are in this world would be nice. 
 2- Other reviewers say that this story has been extended too long. I think it's actually too short. As if Gaiman was just lazy to finish it properly. As i said before, the second half of the book was unlike the firs half. 
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 3- The devourers are totally unnecessary. If this book is about good(life) vs. evil(life), then there should not be evils fighting themselves. 
 4- More important than all: The Hempstocks know everything. Not only can they read people's minds, but they also know exactly what is going to happen in the future. As they did in the beginning of the book about the man and the boy's arrival and the police, etc. But in the end all of them fail to foresee what the kid is going to do, and Lettie has to sacrifice herself to save the "idiot". This is another reason that i think the early chapters of the book differ from later chapters. 
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