I read my first Neil Gaiman book! (and it. was. marvellous!)

Title: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Author: Neil Gaiman

Publication date: June 18th 2013

Genre: Fiction/Magic Realism/Adult

Pages: 195

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.

I finished ‘The Ocean At The End Of The Lane’ by Neil Gaiman in May 2018 and it’s definitely a 5 read. It was magical, gripping and totally played to my sensibilities by blending darkness and magic seamlessly. It made me smile without explicit humour and induced tears without dramatic deaths – what a fabulous read. I can’t wait to read more of Gaiman’s wonders.

It was set in my own wonderful Sussex, though the world laced together by Gaiman was wholly unlike any place I’ve ever known (in a good way!) We begin with the narrative voice of a man returning to the town where he grew up; he wanders absentmindedly towards the farm he vaguely remembers and that’s when the first tendrils of magic hint at their unfurling. I won’t give too much away but I will say that what follows is completely engrossing. I didn’t find the pace fast or overwhelming from an events perspective but by using the voice of a child you feel, as a reader, the fear and confusion of the character. Alongside this it is impossible not to factor in your own experiences as an adult and to read into what is written. Gaiman doesn’t explicitly include everything that happens in the story (though hints are abound) and doesn’t provide a definitive reality; this makes the story unique to the reader and open for interpretation – I loved piecing together what may (or may not) have happened to Lettie and our troubled narrator.

Lettie Hempstock is a remarkable character whose significance to our narrator is absolute (though his adult memory gives nothing away). She is symbolic of the transition from childhood into adulthood and is fundamental to a lot of the messages woven into the narrative – she is the glue that holds the nuances together despite, at her core, being just a girl. She’s a great character to read about and her rapport with the main character adds real charm to the story as a whole.

At its core it is a very straightforward, easy-to-read story but beneath that veneer it cleverly examines complex themes on various levels. For me the most powerful message in this book was about the absence of magic in the mundane – as adults we see what we believe and, call me sentimental, but it made me consider how much I miss in life by assuming my reality. Maybe that’s just the effect of magic realism? The way the narrative is framed as a memory only serves to heighten the sense of uncertainty. Of course, there are issues in the book that are definitely more socially significant but I found this less taboo sentiment thoroughly thought-provoking. What’s really great (and something I’ve found from reading other reviews) is not only that everybody loves it, but that we all take something different away with us.

If you do happen to pick it up, let me know what you think!

✩✩✩✩✩

5 out of 5