A review by betweenbookends
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

3.0

The Ocean at the End of the Lane was my first brush with Neil Gaiman’s work and I certainly enjoyed it. It was a moving examination of childhood memories and nostalgia, tinged with the unreal and the lasting effects it has on the adult self. I really liked the style of the prose. There’s a simplicity and inherent beauty to his writing that is a pleasure to read. I, in fact listened to it on audio as it was narrated by Neil Gaiman himself who does a splendid job of the narration.

I went in blind without really knowing what to expect and I think that’s the best way to approach this book so I will not divulge any plot points here. While I certainly liked this book, I found it a little too incredulous and over-the-top towards the end. My other issue was there were certain characters, the Hempstocks in particular, who I found very interesting but weren’t explored to the fullest. Their personalities seemed a little fuzzy, lacking in depth and dimension. I guess that was actually intentional, as the narrator is looking back at what he remembers from a being a child. But still, it was something that I wished Gaiman had explained a bit more.

Throughout this entire novel, there is this underlying thread of doubt. Firstly, our narrator is unreliable, as he is himself recollecting his childhood memories. And obviously, as a child, he had a very active imagination so as a reader you could choose to either trust him completely or try and find that faint thread of reality of what might have happened. I found that element of ambiguity really fascinating.

All in all, it’s an absorbing, interesting and darkly fantastical story well worth a read.

Rating: 3.5/5