#Review of The Ocean at the End of the Lane by @neilhimself

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 Laneis 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.

Finished-For Review

About the Author

                                               Twitter | Goodreads | Website

Biography

I make things up and write them down. Which takes us from comics (like SANDMAN) to novels (like ANANSI BOYS and AMERICAN GODS) to short stories (some are collected in SMOKE AND MIRRORS) and to occasionally movies (like Dave McKean's MIRRORMASK or the NEVERWHERE TV series, or my own short film A SHORT FILM ABOUT JOHN BOLTON).

In my spare time I read and sleep and eat and try to keep the blog at www.neilgaiman.com more or less up to date.

My Review

I didn't think I was going to like this one. But, surprisingly it was really good!  This was a very fast light fantasy read that will be living on my shelf for the forceable further. This one was kind of a mash up and it seems via reviews on goodreads that they feel the same.  This one does sound like When a Monster Calls which is middle grade.  But, then there are some parts that are deff for the 17/18+ crowd.  But it was very good!  

Go Into This One Knowing

Parents if you are giving this to your kids to read. Read it first!!

"All opinions are 100% honest and my own."

Buy The Book

An Excerpt Chapters 1-3

Disclaimer: Thanks to Goodreads and Amazon for the book cover, about the book, and author information.

Posted in: 4 Stars, Adult, Neil Gaiman, Review, Young Adult