The Ocean At The End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Ocean At The End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis:

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark

My Review:

This story was not what I expected. However, it was a good book. I was frustrated at the end of the story because I felt I had failed to grasp the main characters name, but now I realize it was never mentioned. That was an interesting tactic. Even without a name, I liked him.

As far as supporting characters go, I really liked the Hempstock ladies. I was indifferent to the parents at first, but grew to distrust the father. I never once liked the sister or "Ursula Monkton". I also had a soft spot for the kitten/cat named Ocean.

This story was filled with memories forgotten, mystical planes, deceit, and friendship. I'd recommend this book if interested in a story about growing up, learning some things the hard way, and something supernatural(ish).

Favorite Quotes:

“I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.”

“I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible.”

“Growing up, I took so many cues from books. They taught me most of what I knew about what people did, about how to behave. They were my teachers and my advisers.”

“Monsters come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them are things people are scared of. Some of them are things that look like things people used to be scared of a long time ago. Sometimes monsters are things people should be scared of, but they aren't.”

“Nobody looks like what they really are on the inside. You don’t. I don’t. People are much more complicated than that. It’s true of everybody.”

“You don't pass or fail at being a person, dear.”

“Words save our lives, sometimes.”

Read from January 05 to 15, 2015

Top 5 Genres*: Fantasy, Adult, Fiction, Magical Realism, Adult Fiction
*According to Goodreads
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My ratings system
5 stars - I absolutely loved it
4 stars - Good book and would recommend
3 stars - Decent book, but wasn't spectacular
2 stars - Not good, but was able to finish it
1 stars - Did not finish (DNF) and I don't usually rate a book I haven't finished (just to be fair to the author)

View all my reviews