The Ocean at the End of the Lane

4.5/5. Wow. Just wow.

So many brilliant moments in this book. This was sometimes horror, sometimes fantasy, sometimes children's adventure, sometimes fairytale, sometimes magical realism, sometimes surrealism, sometimes allegory, but all times engaging and beautiful to read.

When he just turns seven, the unnamed narrator meets a strange girl who lives at the farmhouse at the end of the lane, Lettie Hempstock. She is slightly older than him at eleven years old, but already seems to know a lot more things than she should. A dead man turns up in a stolen and abandoned family car, and a magical adventure ensue.

Most of this book reads like a fairytale for adults. Like children's fairytales, it gives you a world want to escape to, where problems could be solved with magic, and where there is a vast unknown magical world and system that you cannot even begin to comprehend. But unlike children's fairytales, Gaiman doesn't shy away from showing you how rough the world can get even for children, so you can appreciate the nice, cosy spot you have in front of your fireplace. That nice, cosy spot, Gaiman seems to argue, is in adults retaining a child-like wonder and curiosity for the world.

“Grown-ups don't look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they're big and thoughtless and they always know what they're doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. The truth is, there aren't any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world.”

some

universe

"And did I pass?"The face of the old woman on my right as unreadable in the gathering dusk. On my left the younger woman said, "You don't pass or fail at being a person, dear."