The Ocean at the End of the Lane was the first book of Neil Gaiman's that I have read. I have a few of his books on my "to read" list, but this was the first book I found and bought. Because this was the first book I read of his, I had to adjust to a completely different writing style and it did confuse me a bit so bare with me on this review.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane follows an unnamed male narrator when he comes back to his home town in England to attend a funeral; A funeral in which the reader is never told for who. He decides to get away from the chaos of the funeral and head to an old friends house, a girl named Lettie Hempstock who lived down the lane.
Once he gets to the old farmhouse, he is greeted by an old lady who he automatically assumed was Lettie's mother, Ginnie Hempstock. Or so he thinks. Although he would love to talk to this lovely lady, he immediately asks if he can go down to the pond, or as Lettie called it, the Ocean.
He quickly walked down the path and reminisced about what he saw along the way. Eventually, he reached the pond and sat down. Here is where the story begins. It all started when he was seven and no one showed up to his birthday. How sad! This then turned into meeting the opal miner, who his parents invited to stay with them for a little while as he was traveling through. The boy was not all that happy because the opal miner hit his kitten and showed little to no remorse about it.
One day, the cops showed up at the door after the boy noticed his family's car was not out in the driveway. The cops took his dad and himself down to the end of the lane where they had discovered his car with the body of the opal miner inside. To avoid letting the boy see what was really going on, a little girl of about eleven offered to take him back to her house with her. This was where he met Lettie Hempstock, Ginnie Hempstock, and Old Mrs. Hempstock.
From here, the two went on a grand adventure that ended up being nearly the demise of the boy. Lettie requested that he remain holding her hand throughout the entire scavenger hunt or bad things could occur. Unfortunately, at one point the boy let go for a split second and a shooting pain went through his foot. He thought nothing of it until he got home and noticed a hole in his foot as well as a creature that seemed to retreat into the hole. Carefully, he began pulling the creature out which turned out to be a worm and he washed it down the bathtub drain.
Enter Ursula Monkton, the evil woman whom the boy's mother decided to hire to watch the kids in order for her to get a job to help with bills. There was something about her and the boy immediately hated her while his sister loved her.
From here on out, there are several events. There are almost too many to explain in a review and on top of that, I do not want to ruin the story for those who would like to read the book.
Personally, this book is a hard one to rate. It took me a long time to actually get into the book, but once I got into it, it was hard to put down. It was not at all what I was expecting although I'm really not quite sure what I was expecting. The writing style was very different and I definitely had to get used to that. Had I rated the book in the beginning I would give it 3 notes. As I got farther along, I would rate it 4 notes. So, to accommodate for both, I am giving this book an overall rating of 3.5 notes!
3.5 NOTE RATING
Hookability: 4 notes (towards the middle/end)
Writing Style: 3 notes
Story: 4 notes
Overall: 3.5 notes
Are you planning to read this book any time soon? Let me know in the comments below!
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