Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil GaimanSussex, 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.
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Neil Gaiman
Narrator: Neil Gaiman
Published By: William Morrow Books/HarperCollins
Genre: Adult - Horror, Magical Realism
Rating:
✮✮✮
Review:
Ocean at the End of the Lane was a double new experience for me. One because it was the first book by Neil Gaiman that I have read (or technically listened to), and second because it was the first magical realism novel that I have read - and I just don't know how I feel about that genre.
Here's the thing with this book. I thought the writing was fantastic, but I just didn't get into the plot which may not be surprising because I don't typically pick up paranormal books that often, and although they are separate genres - they have their similarities, so it's not unusual that I wouldn't be super interested in a novel like Ocean at the End of the Lane, but I had heard so many great things about this book from other people, so much so that I wanted to give it a shot.
Like I said before, the writing was amazing - I got caught up in the writing style of the novel, but couldn't get to the point of relating to the characters, or even loving them, like I wish I could have. I really enjoyed the concept of the novel, and was glad for the opportunity to have read the book, and to have gotten to know the characters.
I would recommend this novel if you are a fan of magical realism, because I was really impressed with Neil Gaiman's writing style, and had I read it myself instead of listened to it (although that kind of applies to listening), I would have probably found it to be a quick read.
Ocean at the End of the Lane was a double new experience for me. One because it was the first book by Neil Gaiman that I have read (or technically listened to), and second because it was the first magical realism novel that I have read - and I just don't know how I feel about that genre.
Here's the thing with this book. I thought the writing was fantastic, but I just didn't get into the plot which may not be surprising because I don't typically pick up paranormal books that often, and although they are separate genres - they have their similarities, so it's not unusual that I wouldn't be super interested in a novel like Ocean at the End of the Lane, but I had heard so many great things about this book from other people, so much so that I wanted to give it a shot.
Like I said before, the writing was amazing - I got caught up in the writing style of the novel, but couldn't get to the point of relating to the characters, or even loving them, like I wish I could have. I really enjoyed the concept of the novel, and was glad for the opportunity to have read the book, and to have gotten to know the characters.
I would recommend this novel if you are a fan of magical realism, because I was really impressed with Neil Gaiman's writing style, and had I read it myself instead of listened to it (although that kind of applies to listening), I would have probably found it to be a quick read.
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