--- title: Neverwhere: 100 Best Fantasy Books description: Find out why Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman is on TIME's list of the best fantasy books of all time canonical: https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898471/neverwhere/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-10-14T19:20:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:42:38.671Z og:title: 'Neverwhere' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books og:description: Here’s why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898471/neverwhere/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94256dfad5de53c3/698a13218fd2eefaf4361d67/Neverwhere-Neil-Gaiman-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'Neverwhere' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Neverwhere' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books twitter:description: Here’s why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94256dfad5de53c3/698a13218fd2eefaf4361d67/Neverwhere-Neil-Gaiman-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 14, 2020 # Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  In a twist on the customary order of business, [Neil Gaiman](https://entertainment.time.com/2013/04/25/a-beginners-guide-to-neil-gaiman/ "undefined") adapted his first solo novel from his screenplay for a TV miniseries, rather than the other way round. But the quality of _Neverwhere_ doesn’t suffer for its origins. The darkly comical story follows Richard Mayhew, a young London businessman who is ripped from his perfectly average life after he stops to help an injured girl on the sidewalk. Upon realizing that he’s become unrecognizable to everyone he knows in the wake of the girl’s departure, Richard finds his way to London Below, a mysterious netherworld composed of a mass of railway stations and populated by monsters, assassins and angels alike. There, in the menacing and magical city that exists underneath his own, Richard must track down the girl and help her solve the mystery of her family’s murder in order to find a way home—a quest that ultimately leads him to self-discovery. Often seen as an allegory for urban homelessness, _Neverwhere_ shines a light on the plight of those who [“fall through the cracks”](https://www.chipublib.org/letter-from-neil-gaiman/ "undefined") of society. —_Megan McCluskey_ **Buy Now**: _Neverwhere_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9788499189529 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/33FdIQS "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898471/neverwhere/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898471/neverwhere/"},"headline":"'Neverwhere' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books","datePublished":"2020-10-14T19:20:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:42:38.671Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898471/neverwhere/","keywords":["Books","list"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94256dfad5de53c3/698a13218fd2eefaf4361d67/Neverwhere-Neil-Gaiman-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94256dfad5de53c3/698a13218fd2eefaf4361d67/Neverwhere-Neil-Gaiman-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898471/neverwhere/","name":"'Neverwhere' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books"}}]}] ```