Reviews

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The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Reviewed: 2013-12-09, 00:00, My Rating: 5.0 out of 5, review contains spoilers: No

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

I thought, from the little I'd seen written about it, that I was about to read a horror fantasy. Lesson to self. Never believe anything someone else writes about a book. Especially never believe the cover blurb.

Oh yes, describing this book you could write of strange creatures from dark places beyond our world. Eldritch folk with weird and powerful knowledge. A slumbering Evil awakened. Death and Loss and Despair. It would all be true. But it wouldn't be _true_.

The book is a fable of Life and Love. Of care for ordinary things that matter. Of Birth and Healing and Hope. Of fresh starts and second chances.

It's about growing up and the journeys of life. It's about wisdom and folly.

What's it like? It's like Tolkien had asked Alan Garner to write the story of Tom Bombadil saving the Hobbits in the Old Forest.

But my advice is based on Mrs Hempstock's "you'll not get any two people to remember anything the same, whether they were there or not." Never believe anything someone else writes about a book. Even me.

Read it for yourself, and decide whether what I've written is true. Or if it's _true_.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane on Amazon


page last updated Sun Jan 25 12:14:37 UTC 2015