The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
I love Neil Gaiman. If you’ve never read him before, he combines mythology with realistic story lines, and his works are usually dark or haunting in some way. This book was a very quick read – less than 200 pages. It is his first adult novel that he has published since Ananasi Boys (which I also highly recommend). The best way to describe this book is to say that when the book ended, I felt like I had woken up from a somewhat somber but fulfilling dream. It was a very emotional ending.
The story is set in England where an old man revisits his childhood neighbor’s farm – The Hempstocks – and sits by the pond. He then begins to remember his past as a child playing on the farm, and his childhood friend Lettie, and what they came across on the farm.
This book includes magic, a bad witch, and good witches, but most of all, it’s a story of survival. Also, there are a few cute kittens that make an appearance in the story. 🙂 Beautifully written, and very haunting. Loved every second of it, and cried at the end.
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