this book does well at describing what it is to be a young child who's alone and gets a lot of their life from books, it reminded me of being that age, and it really gets the right sort of voice, i think. and this tied in with the fantasy elements well, i liked how that was done. overall i liked the general feel and themes of the book, i thought it read well, and i liked the ideas behind it. ( )

Autographed

A fun little book. My first exposure to Gaiman, although I also picked up American Gods, just waiting for it to come. Very enjoyable, and imaginative. I look forward to reading more. ( )

The Ocean at the End of the Lane starts in a fairly mundane fashion. An unnamed middle-aged man at a family funeral drives away from the wake to visit the scene of his childhood. He goes to the farm at the end of the lane, where there is a pond that he and his childhood friend Lettie referred to as an ocean.

From this unremarkable beginning, Gaiman launches into a wildly imaginative tale where our protagonist starts to recall his childhood with more clarity as he sits by the pond. A terrifying encounter with a malign spirit posing as his nanny, ravening carrion birds feasting on spirits and humans alike, and the true nature of Lettie, her family and the pond at the end of the lane.

Gaiman's brief novel is quite scary and tense at times, but is overall quite sweet and elegiac in tone. A very imaginative and enjoyable read. ( )

I've read a few of Neil Gaiman's other works and enjoyed them immensely, although I'll admit that I haven't gotten around to reading [b:American Gods|4407|American Gods (American Gods, #1)|Neil Gaiman|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1258417001s/4407.jpg|1970226] or [b:Anansi Boys|2744|Anansi Boys (American Gods, #2)|Neil Gaiman|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327870211s/2744.jpg|1007964] at the time of this review. In fact, the only book of his marketed to adults that I've read is [b:Stardust|16793|Stardust|Neil Gaiman|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328433738s/16793.jpg|3166179].

This makes The Ocean at the End of the Lane an odd duck. While it's being marketed as an adult novel, with the exception of a couple of suggestive scenes, it has a very young adult feel to it. Or, if anything, like the kind of young adult novel that gets banned from school libraries in the southern states for those suggestive scenes.

Told through the memories of a middle-aged man remembering the story through the eyes of his 7-year self, The Ocean at the End of the Lane follows him as he befriends Lettie Hempstock and her family, who are...different. Different in that they seem to exist in our world and in others at the same time. When a being from another world/reality begins to meddle in ours, Lettie and the boy set out to stop it, but the adventure leads to worse and even life-threatening problems.

Again, this book is odd in that I'm not sure exactly who Gaiman's target audience really was. Don't get me wrong, it's still a wonderful modern fairytale, but at the same time, there are mixed messages about who this book is for. It feels like a cross between Stardust and [b:The Graveyard Book|2213661|The Graveyard Book|Neil Gaiman|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1303859949s/2213661.jpg|2219449]. Not a bad mix, but still confusing. In that regard, this book has strong literary merit, in potentially reigniting the ongoing debate about what makes a young adult novel different from an adult novel. First, the protagonist is a child, as his is close friend. Secondly, and probably unfairly, it is a sort of fairytale. That, in and of itself, doesn't make a young adult novel, but it does carry a stigma of being for younger readers. However, Gaiman crosses the line to adult novel with sexually suggestive scenes involving the boy's father and the nanny, Ursula Monkton. This is probably a debate that would better be discussed by literary scholars rather just a reviewer, but it is something to consider.

The characters themselves are interesting. While the boy is generally not the most likable of characters and is rather cowardly, he does redeem himself, and more importantly, he's identifiable. His serious flaws actually make him supremely real in a way that most people will likely find themselves identifying with him at some point in their lives. The Hempstocks are a classic mythological archetype, whether you want to consider them the Fates, the Norns, or whatever, but they work well in this way and in their relationship with each other and the world. If I have to fault the characters at all, it's that the parents of the boy come off as supremely unlikable, to put it mildly. The come off as cold and uncaring about the boy. There's not much, if anything, to redeem them, and I would have liked a tad more development on those characters to at least make them less problematic.

It's still a short and charming story, although not as charming as Stardust. It has interesting characters and a wonderful story that's definitely worth taking a look at.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane earns 4 buckets of ocean out of 5. ( )