El océano al final del camino

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...

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.

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!