The Ocean at the End of the Lane

A Novel

by Neil Gaiman

256 pages

English language

Published Feb. 28, 2013

ISBN:: 978-0-06-225567-9

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(4 reviews)

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.

29 editions

Aaron reviewed The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Review of 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

This was like reading Neverwhere again. Except the main character is a child not 30ish. And I'm 30 odd, not a child.

It pretty much hits all the beats of Gaiman story, but here the structure creaks and groans. He mixes Coraline with Neverwhere, with American Gods, all the elements are there, and none of them feel original, or interesting. The quirky mystery of the Hempstocks was just annoying rather than alluring.

The main character has no agency, he just gets thrown from event to event, and his big heroic moment has him literally sitting still for hours.

No, I didn't like this at all. It's so bad that it may have tainted the earlier, better Gaiman stories, and that makes me kinda sad...

Literally Graphic reviewed The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Review of 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Unfortunately this book reminded me too much of Coraline for me to really enjoy it, although I would venture to say this one is the better of the two. It had a bit more of a grown up feel to it and I liked how the fantastical elements related more closely to traditional myths. I also liked how Gaimen and the main character are almost the same person, but not quite. Overall a good respite from the other book I am currently reading, Crime and Punishment, and an interesting book to compare to another recent read The Princess and the Goblin.

slayra reviewed Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Review of 'Ocean at the End of the Lane' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I don't think you should read anything about this book beforehand, just pick it up and enjoy diving into the magic and get scared - after all, it's a story by Neil Gaiman. If you have the chance, listen to the audio because it is read by Gaiman himself and he did an amazing job. And mind you, I rarely listen to audiobooks because I think they are boring and rather read the books myself.

That being said, this book is about a 7 year old living amongst adults he doesn't understand and how he came to have a hole in his heart. I won't say anything else about this story, except that Gaiman has an incredible affinity with children's way of thinking and that I got more scared reading this than I care to admit. Great book!

Derek Caelin

rated it

July 13, 2019