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The Ocean at the End of the Lane
The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

By
Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
By
Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
2013 • 181 pages

Ratings166

Average rating4

15
Book InfoReviews25Editions31Lists131Feed23

A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. 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.

Tags

Genres

  • Adventure
  • Fantasy
  • Science fiction
  • Young Adult

Moods

  • dark
  • Adventurous
  • mysterious
  • tense

Reviews

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

timnog
Lisa

What a great read. I didn't realize how allegorical this was until I was about half-way through.

Couldn't put it down.

March 8, 2023
lolmori
maryam

neil gaiman is honestly a literary genius and i cannot emphasize it enough. This book is hands down one of my favourite quick reads so far. The allegories are just chef's kiss.

July 17, 2021
Lizfrances
Elizabeth Dean

Perfect little fantasy/fairy tale. It left me wanting more. Oh, and parts were terrifying!

December 22, 2014
jero
Jero

My second Gaiman book. A story I liked, filled with fantasy, mystery and nostalgia; made me think about my childhood years; in a similar way such as the protagonist reflected on half remembered adventures and things that were true back then but aren't anymore. With wonders and fears, amazement and disappointments. I think most of us can relate to some of that.

I enjoyed the narration by Gaiman, personally getting a longing feeling from it that just adds to the mystery of the story.

August 25, 2018

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